Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of 2 Kings
Chapter 4: There Shall Not Be Room Enough to Receive It
Chapter 4 gathers a cluster of Elisha's miracles of grace: a widow's little pot of oil that fills every borrowed vessel and pays her debt, a childless woman given a son, that son raised from death, a poisoned pot made wholesome, and a hundred men fed from a few loaves. Each is a window into the God who provides, gives life, and satisfies His people with more than enough.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of 2 Kings chapter 4. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
A Pot of Oil That Would Not Stop (2 Kings 4:1-7)
A destitute widow's last pot of oil fills every borrowed vessel and pays her debt.
What Hast Thou in the House?
"Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest."
Word Study
"what hast thou in the house?" and "the oil stayed," Hebrew amad (עָמַד), to stop, to cease. A widow of the prophetic community faces losing her sons to slavery for debt. Elisha's first question is telling: "What hast thou in the house?" God's provision often begins not with what we lack but with the little we have. She has only "a pot of oil", almost nothing, yet that little, placed in God's hands, becomes the seed of abundance. The command tests her faith: borrow "empty vessels; borrow not a few," for the size of the blessing would match the measure of her expectation. Behind shut doors, away from public show, the oil flowed and kept flowing until "there is not a vessel more," and only then "the oil stayed (amad)." The supply stopped not when God ran short but when the vessels ran out; the limit was her capacity to receive, not His power to give. So it is with grace: "God giveth not the Spirit by measure" (John 3:34); the constraint is always on our side, in the number of empty vessels we bring. The oil paid the debt and left enough to live on, God's provision meets the need and gives margin besides. The lesson: bring your emptiness to God, bring much of it, and He will fill it to the full.
Explanation
A widow of one of the prophets came to Elisha in desperation: her late husband's creditor was about to seize her two sons as slaves for the debt. Elisha asked what she had at home; all she had was a single pot of oil. He told her to borrow as many empty jars as she could from her neighbors, shut herself and her sons inside, and pour her oil into them. As she poured, the oil multiplied, filling jar after jar, until there were no more vessels, and then it stopped. Elisha directed her to sell the oil, pay off the debt, and live on what remained. Out of almost nothing, God supplied enough to free her sons and sustain her family.
Gospel Focus
"What hast thou in the house?" God delights to begin with the little we have and make it much. The widow's single pot of oil, surrendered in faith, became more than enough. Do not despise your small resources or say, "I have nothing"; place your little in God's hands and watch Him multiply it, as the Lord took five loaves and fed thousands. And notice the limit: "the oil stayed" only when the vessels ran out. God's supply is boundless; the only limit is the number of empty vessels we bring. "Ye have not, because ye ask not" (James 4:2); "open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it" (Psalm 81:10). Come to God with many empty vessels, with large expectation, for He is able to do "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). The oil is a fitting picture of the Holy Spirit, freely poured out, filling every vessel yielded to Him. Bring your emptiness, bring much of it, and let the God of overflowing grace pour Himself into your life until there is not a vessel more.
The Shunammite Woman (2 Kings 4:8-17)
A generous woman who made room for the prophet is given the son she never asked for.
Thou Shalt Embrace a Son
"And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there. And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people. And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old. And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life."
Word Study
"a great woman," Hebrew ishah gedolah (אִשָּׁה גְּדוֹלָה), a woman of substance, standing, and greatness of soul. The Shunammite is called "a great woman", great in means, but greater still in the generosity and spiritual perception that mark her. She "perceived that this is an holy man of God" and, at her own initiative, built and furnished a small rooftop chamber so the prophet could rest whenever he passed. Her greatness showed in hospitality that expected nothing in return; when Elisha offered to speak for her to the king, she answered simply, "I dwell among mine own people", content, unassuming, asking no favor. Such selfless kindness to God's servant does not go unnoticed by God: "he that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward" (Matthew 10:41). Discerning her unspoken sorrow, childlessness with an aged husband, Elisha promised the very thing she had never dared to ask: "thou shalt embrace a son." Her response, "do not lie unto thine handmaid," is the guardedness of a heart afraid to hope again. Yet God gave the son, "according to the time of life," at the appointed season, just as He had given Isaac to Sarah and Samuel to Hannah. God gives good gifts, often the deepest desires we have stopped voicing, to those who quietly serve Him.
Explanation
In Shunem lived a wealthy, godly woman who regularly fed Elisha when he passed through and, recognizing him as a holy man of God, persuaded her husband to build and furnish a small guest room for him on their roof. Grateful for her selfless care, Elisha asked through his servant Gehazi what he could do for her, offering to use his influence with the king or army commander; she declined, content among her own people. Gehazi observed that she was childless and her husband old. Elisha then called her and promised that within a year she would hold a son. She, afraid to believe such news, begged him not to deceive her. But she conceived and bore a son at the very time Elisha had said, God's gracious gift to a woman who had asked for nothing.
Gospel Focus
The Shunammite's "greatness" was her open-hearted generosity to God's servant, and God honored it. "He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward." What we do for God's people, God counts as done to Himself; "inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40). Her hospitality, expecting nothing, was repaid with the deepest joy of her life. And see how tenderly God works: He gave her the very desire she had buried too deep to speak, a child. Our God knows the silent longings of the heart and delights to give good gifts; "your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him" (Matthew 6:8). The birth of this son to a barren woman "according to the time of life" joins the great biblical pattern, Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah, and ultimately the miraculous births that lead to Christ, all testifying that God opens the womb and gives life where there was none. Serve Him freely, ask nothing for yourself, and trust the God who sees your hidden desires and gives beyond what you dared to ask.
The Child Raised (2 Kings 4:18-37)
When the promised son dies, the Shunammite clings to the prophet, and God restores the child to life.
It Is Well
"And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee. So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite: Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the LORD hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked. And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the LORD. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out."
Word Study
"It shall be well," Hebrew shalom (שָׁלוֹם), peace, wholeness, well-being. The gift of God becomes the test of faith: the beloved son grows, then suddenly dies of what seems a heatstroke, "My head, my head." The mother's response is astonishing. She lays the dead boy on the prophet's bed, and to every question, from her husband and from Gehazi, she answers with one word: shalom, "It is well." Her son lies dead, yet she says, "It is well." This is not denial but faith; she is resolved that the God who gave the son will not fail her, and she runs straight to the man of God. Her faith is a persevering faith: like Elisha with Elijah in chapter 2, she vows, "As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee," refusing the staff sent by Gehazi and demanding the prophet himself. God honors such faith. Elisha shuts the door, prays, and stretches himself upon the child, identifying wholly with the dead boy, until "the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes." Life returned. The barren woman's miracle-son, given by God and taken by death, is restored by resurrection, a bright Old Testament pledge of the God "which raiseth the dead" (2 Corinthians 1:9). The mother's tested "It is well" is the confession of every believer who trusts the God of resurrection even at the grave.
Explanation
The promised child grew, but one day, in the fields, he collapsed with a sudden pain in his head and died on his mother's lap at noon. She laid him on Elisha's bed, told no one the boy was dead, and set out at once for Mount Carmel to find the prophet, answering all inquiries with "It is well." Reaching Elisha, she grasped his feet in anguish; he sent Gehazi ahead with his staff to lay on the child, but nothing happened. The mother refused to leave without Elisha himself. When Elisha arrived, the boy lay dead. He shut the door, prayed to the LORD, and stretched himself over the child; the body grew warm, and after he prayed again the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha called the mother and told her, "Take up thy son," and she fell at his feet in worship and gratitude, her son restored to life.
Gospel Focus
"It is well." A mother with her dead son on the prophet's bed answers every question with peace, because her faith is anchored in the God who gives and restores life. This is faith at its finest, holding to God in the face of death itself, and it foreshadows the resurrection hope of the gospel. The staff of Gehazi could not raise the child; no substitute, no mere symbol, could do it. Life came only when the prophet himself came, prayed, and gave himself fully to the dead boy, mouth to mouth, hands to hands, a beautiful picture of the incarnation, of God not sending help at a distance but coming Himself, taking on our very form, to give us life. So the Son of God did not raise us by proxy; He came Himself, took our nature, and by His own death and resurrection gives life to the dead. "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:25). When death comes, the believer can still say "It is well," for we trust the God who raises the dead. The Shunammite received her son back from death; we look for a greater resurrection, when the God who raised Jesus will raise us also. Cling, as she did, to the Lord of life, and say even at the grave, "It is well."
Death in the Pot and Bread for a Hundred (2 Kings 4:38-44)
Elisha heals a poisoned pot of stew and feeds a hundred men from a few loaves, with food to spare.
They Shall Eat, and Shall Leave Thereof
"And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. And there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat. And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the LORD."
Word Study
"there is death in the pot," and "They shall eat, and shall leave thereof." Two brief miracles close the chapter, both in a time of "dearth" (famine). First, amid scarcity, someone unknowingly shreds poisonous "wild gourds" into the communal stew, and the men cry, "O thou man of God, there is death in the pot." Elisha casts in "meal" (flour), and "there was no harm in the pot." God, through His prophet, turns poison into wholesome food; what threatened death is made safe. Second, a man brings "twenty loaves of barley" as firstfruits, and Elisha commands they be set before a hundred men. The servant objects at the impossibility, "should I set this before an hundred men?", but Elisha answers with the word of the LORD: "They shall eat, and shall leave thereof." And so it was: all ate and food was left over. This miracle is the clear Old Testament forerunner of Christ feeding the five thousand from five loaves (with baskets left over, John 6:9-13); the very objection of the servant echoes the disciples' "what are they among so many?" God multiplies the little offered to Him until it meets the need and overflows. Both miracles preach the same gospel: the God of Elisha, and the Christ he foreshadows, takes what is deadly and makes it safe, and takes what is scarce and makes it more than enough. "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
Explanation
Back at Gilgal during a famine, Elisha had a large pot of stew prepared for the company of prophets. One of them gathered wild gourds he did not recognize and cut them into the pot; they proved poisonous, and the men cried out that there was "death in the pot." Elisha threw in some flour, and the stew became harmless and edible. Then a man arrived with an offering of firstfruits, twenty barley loaves and fresh grain. Elisha ordered it distributed to the hundred men present. His servant protested that it was far too little, but Elisha repeated the LORD's promise that they would eat and have some left over. And so they did: a hundred men were fed and food remained, exactly as God had said.
Gospel Focus
These two closing miracles show the God who saves from death and satisfies from scarcity. "There is death in the pot", and Elisha's meal made it safe; a picture of the gospel, which takes what is poisoned and deadly, our sin, our very lives, and makes them whole. Christ has cast Himself, the Bread of Life, into the poisoned pot of our fallen world and taken away the death in it. And the feeding of the hundred is a plain preview of Christ feeding the multitudes: the servant's "should I set this before an hundred men?" is answered by "They shall eat, and shall leave thereof." God is never short; He multiplies the little brought to Him until it overflows. When you feel your resources are far too small for the need before you, bring them to the Lord. He who fed a hundred by Elisha and thousands by His own hand can make your little more than enough. "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth" (Proverbs 11:24); give what you have to God, and watch Him feed the many and leave baskets over. The God of overflowing provision is your God in every famine.
Chapter in Review
Second Kings 4 is a chapter of Elisha's miracles of grace, each revealing the God who provides, gives life, and satisfies. A destitute widow's single pot of oil fills every borrowed vessel and frees her sons from slavery, God's supply limited only by the empty vessels she brings. A "great woman" of Shunem, generous to God's servant, receives the son she never dared to ask for; and when that son dies, her tested faith says "It is well," and God, through Elisha who gives himself wholly to the dead child, raises him to life. Then, in famine, Elisha heals a poisoned pot of stew and feeds a hundred men from a few barley loaves with food to spare. Together these miracles preach the God of overflowing provision and resurrection life, and point to Christ, who comes Himself to give life, takes the death out of our pot, and feeds the many from the little.
Key Takeaways
- God begins with the little you have. "What hast thou in the house?" Surrender your small pot of oil and watch Him multiply it.
- The limit is our capacity to receive. The oil stopped only when the vessels ran out; bring many empty vessels to God.
- God honors selfless generosity. The Shunammite asked nothing and received her heart's deepest desire.
- Faith says "It is well" even at the grave. The God who gives life raises the dead; cling to Him and do not let go.
- God turns death to safety and scarcity to plenty. The poisoned pot and the fed hundred foreshadow Christ, the Bread of Life.
Questions for Reflection
- What "little" do you have that God might multiply if you place it in His hands?
- Are you bringing God many empty vessels, with large expectation, or few?
- Do you serve God's people freely, expecting nothing, as the Shunammite did?
- Can you say "It is well" in the face of loss, trusting the God who raises the dead?
- Where do you need to trust that God can take your scarcity and make it more than enough?
References
- Scripture: 2 Kings 4:1-44, King James Version.
- Cross-references: Psalm 81:10; Proverbs 11:24; Matthew 6:8; 10:41; 25:40; John 3:34; 6:9-13; 11:25; 2 Corinthians 1:9; Ephesians 3:20; Philippians 4:19; James 4:2.
- Hebrew word meanings: standard lexical sources (Strong's, BDB) for amad, ishah gedolah, and shalom; historical background of Shunem and the company of the prophets.