Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 4:41
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.
41. bring meal ] He employs something which is wholesome and nourishing as a sign of the change that was to be wrought in the pottage. But we are not to attribute healing virtue to the meal that was used, any more than we should think that the salt (2Ki 2:21) was the means of healing the waters at Jericho.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then bring meal – The natural properties of meal would but slightly diminish either the bitterness or the unwholesomeness of a drink containing colocynth. It is evident, therefore, that the conversion of the food from a pernicious and unsavory mess into palatable and wholesome nourishment was by miracle.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 41. Bring meal.] Though this might, in some measure, correct the strong acrid and purgative quality; yet it was only a miracle which could make a lapful of this fruit shred into pottage salutary.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He cast it into the pot, together with the pottage which they had taken out of it. There was no harm in the pot: the meal took away that hurtful quality, not by its natural power, which could do little in so short a time, but by the supernatural blessing of God upon it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
But he said, then bring meal: and he cast it into the pot,…. And stirred it about in it:
and he said, pour out for the people, that they may eat; as they now might freely, and without any danger, as he intimated:
and there was no harm in the pot; or anything that could do any harm or mischief to the health of men: this was not owing to the natural virtue of meal, but to a miraculous power attending it, whereby the pottage was cured of its malignity, as the bad waters of Jericho were by salt, in a preceding miracle.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(41) Then bring meal.Keil says, the meal was only the material basis for the spiritual activity which went out from Elisha, and made the poisonous food wholesome. Thenius, however, supposes that the meal softened the bitterness, and obviated the drastic effect. But Reuss appears to be right in saying, by mistake a poisonous (not merely a bitter) plant had been put into the pot, and the prophet neutralises the poison by means of an antidote whose natural properties could never have had that effect. The meal here, therefore, corresponds to the salt in 2Ki. 2:21.
And he said, Pour out.The LXX. adds, to Gehazi, his servant; probably a gloss.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
41. Then bring meal What was there in the meal to counteract the bad properties of the gourds? Nothing, necessarily. The meal, like the salt cast into the foul waters of Jericho, (2Ki 2:21,) and the tree at Marah, (Exo 15:25,) was merely the suggestive symbol of the Divine powers of nourishment and healing which subsisted in Elisha’s God. It bore a similar relation to this miracle that Elisha’s stretching himself upon the body of the dead child did to the Divine power that raised the child to life.
It was the earthly medium through which the Spirit worked.
No harm in the pot All the bad properties of the pottage were miraculously taken away. So, say some of the older divines, the healthsome meal of sound Christian doctrine, entering into the mind and heart of the Church, shall counteract and take away the poison of ill-born heresy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 4:41 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.
Ver. 41. Then bring meal. ] Which yet could not have made the pottage wholesome and savoury, but by a miracle.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
no harm = no evil thing. Elisha’s eighth miracle Compare 2Ki 2:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
he cast: 2Ki 2:21, 2Ki 5:10, 2Ki 6:6, Exo 15:25, Joh 9:6, 1Co 1:25
there: Act 28:5
harm: Heb. evil thing
Reciprocal: 2Ki 20:7 – Take a lump Hos 9:8 – with