When the enemy came down to Elisha, he prayed to the Lord that He would smite them with blindness; and when this took place according to his word, he said to them, This is not the way and this is not the city; follow me, and I will lead you to the man whom ye are seeking; and led them to Samaria, which was about four hours' distance from Dothan, where their eyes were opened at Elisha's prayer, so that they saw where they had been led. אליו ויּרדוּ cannot be understood as referring to Elisha and his servant, who went down to the Syrian army, as J. H. Mich., Budd., F. v. Meyer, and Thenius, who wants to alter אליו into אליהם, suppose, but must refer to the Syrians, who went down to the prophet, as is evident from what followed. For the assumption that the Syrians had stationed themselves below and round the mountain on which Dothan stood, and therefore would have had to come up to Elisha, need not occasion an unnatural interpretation of the words. It is true that Dothan stands upon an isolated hill in the midst of the plain; but on the eastern side it is enclosed by a ranger of hills, which project into the plain (see V. de Velde, R. i. p. 273). The Syrians who had been sent against Elisha had posted themselves on this range of hills, and thence they came down towards the town of Dothan, which stood on the hill, whilst Elisha went out of the town to meet them. It is true that Elisha's going out is not expressly mentioned, but in 2 Kings 6:19 it is clearly presupposed. סנורים is mental blindness here, as in the similar case mentioned in Genesis 19:11, that is to say, a state of blindness in which, though a man has eyes that can see, he does not see correctly. Elisha's untruthful statement, "this is not the way," etc., is to be judged in the same manner as every other ruse de guerre, by which the enemy is deceived.

2 Kings 6:25 Parallel Commentaries

a great famine

2 Kings 6:28,29 And the king said to her, What ails you? And she answered, This woman said to me, Give your son, that we may eat him to day...

2 Kings 7:4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also...

2 Kings 25:3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

1 Kings 18:2 And Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria.

Jeremiah 14:13-15,18 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say to them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine...

Jeremiah 32:24 Behold the mounts, they are come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it...

Jeremiah 52:6 And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city...

an ass's head If the {pieces} of silver were {dracms}, the whole would amount

2l.

9s.; which was a great price for so {mean} a part of this {unclean} animal.

Ezekiel 4:13-16 And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them...

dove's dung This probably denotes, as Bochart, Scheuchzer, and others suppose, a kind of {pulse}, or {vetches}, which the Arabs still call {pigeon's dung}. `They never,' says Dr. Sahw, `constitute a dish by themselves, but are strewed singly as a garnish over {cuscasowe, pillowe}, and other dishes. They are besides in the greatest repute after they are parched in pans and ovens; then assuming the name {leb-lebby;} ' and he thinks they were so called from being pointed at one end, and acquiring an ash colour in parching.