2 Kings 4:26
in 2 Kings 4Please run out now to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’” And she answered, “Everything is all right.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
run, I pray thee, now 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.
KJV
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.
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This verse in 2 Kings 4
Commentary
9 notes on this verseIt is well - How strong was her faith in God and submission to his authority! Though the heaviest family affliction that could befall her and her husband had now taken place; yet, believing that it was a dispensation of Providence which was in itself neither unwise nor unkind, she said, It is well with me, with my husband, and with my child. We may farther remark that, in her days, the doctrine of reprobate infants had not disgraced the pure religion of the God of endless compassion.
This site's exposition
Drive, and go forward; slack
on 2 Kings 4:24-26
Carmel lies some fifteen to twenty miles from Shunem by the commentators' reckoning, a hard ride the woman drives without slackening. Gehazi's threefold question, is it well, is it well, is it well, receives one answer, it is well, the same word she gave her husband, now spoken over a dead child with the same settled confidence rather than as evasion. Elisha sees her while she is yet afar off, seeing her before he can yet see what has happened.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"The woman conceived and bore a son at that season, in due time, as Elisha had declared to her," but after a few years, the child died. His mother placed the corpse on the bed of the prophet in the high room of her house …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
The answer was general It is well. Gehazi was not the man that she came to complain to, and therefore she put him off with this; she said little, and little said is soon amended ( Ps. xxxix. 1, 2 ), but what she did say was very patient: "It is well with me, with my husband, with the child"--all well, and yet the child dead in the house.
It is - So it was in some respects, because it was the will of a wise and good God, and therefore best for her. When God calls away our dearest relations by death, it becomes us to say, it is well both with us and them.
Run now, I pray thee, to meet her,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The violent paroxysm of grief into which she fell on approaching him, appeared to Gehazi an act of disrespect to his master; he was preparing to remove her when the prophet's observant eye perceived that she was overwhelmed with some unknown cause of distress. How great is a mother's love! how wondrous are the works of Providence!
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
THE SUBJECT of this morning’s discourse will be “Infant Salvation.” It may not possibly be interesting to all present, but I do not remember to have preached upon this subject to this congregation, and I am anxious moreover that the printed series should contain sermons upon the whole range of theology. I think there is no one point which ought to be left out in our ministry, even though it may only yield comfort to a class.
THE SUBJECT of this morning’s discourse will be “Infant Salvation.” It may not possibly be interesting to all present, but I do not remember to have preached upon this subject to this congregation, and I am anxious moreover that the printed series should contain sermons upon the whole range of theology. I think there is no one point which ought to be left out in our ministry, even though it may only yield comfort to a class. Perhaps the larger proportion of this audience have at some time or other had to shed the briny tear over the child’s little coffin;—it may be that through this subject consolation may be afforded to them. This good Shunammite was asked by Gehazi, whether it was well with herself. She was mourning over a lost chid, and yet she said, “It is well;” she felt that the trial would surely be blessed. “Is it well with thy husband?” He was old and stricken in years, and was ripening for death, yet she said, “Yes, it is well.” Then came the question about her child, it was dead at home, and the enquiry would renew her griefs, “Is it well with the child?” Yet she said, “It is well,” perhaps so answering because she had a faith that soon it should be restored to her, and that its temporary absence was well; or I think rather because she was persuaded that whatever might have become of its spirit, it was safe in the keeping of God, happy beneath the shadow of his wings. Therefore, not fearing that it was lost, having no suspicion whatever that it was cast away from the place of bliss—for that suspicion would have quite prevented her giving such answer—she said “Yes, the child is dead, but ‘it is well.’” Now, let every mother and father here present know assuredly that it is well with the child, if God hath taken it away from you in its infant days.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עַתָּה֮ | ʾatah | now | H6258 → | 433 times |
| רֽוּץ־ | rutz- | run | H7323 → | 103 times |
| נָ֣א | na' | please | H4994 → | 404 times |
| לִקְרָאתָהּ֒ | likratah | to meet her | H7122 → | 139 times |
| וֶאֱמָר־ | veemor- | and say | H559 → | 5305 times |
| לָ֗הּ | lah | to her | ||
| הֲשָׁל֥וֹם | hashalom | ¿ [does] peace | H7965 → | 236 times |
| לָ֛ךְ | lakh | [belong] to you | ||
| הֲשָׁל֥וֹם | hashalom | ¿ [does] peace | H7965 → | 236 times |
| לְאִישֵׁ֖ךְ | leishekh | [belong] to husband your | H376 → | 1663 times |
| הֲשָׁל֣וֹם | hashalom | ¿ [does] peace | H7965 → | 236 times |
| לַיָּ֑לֶד | laiyaled | [belong] to the child | H3206 → | 89 times |
| וַתֹּ֖אמֶר | vatomer | and she said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| שָׁלֽוֹם׃ | shalom | peace | H7965 → | 236 times |
עַתָּה֮now
ʾatahH6258 →433 times
רֽוּץ־run
rutz-H7323 →103 times
נָ֣אplease
na'H4994 →404 times
לִקְרָאתָהּ֒to meet her
likratahH7122 →139 times
וֶאֱמָר־and say
veemor-H559 →5305 times
לָ֗הּto her
lah
הֲשָׁל֥וֹם¿ [does] peace
hashalomH7965 →236 times
לָ֛ךְ[belong] to you
lakh
הֲשָׁל֥וֹם¿ [does] peace
hashalomH7965 →236 times
לְאִישֵׁ֖ךְ[belong] to husband your
leishekhH376 →1663 times
הֲשָׁל֣וֹם¿ [does] peace
hashalomH7965 →236 times
לַיָּ֑לֶד[belong] to the child
laiyaledH3206 →89 times
וַתֹּ֖אמֶרand she said
vatomerH559 →5305 times
שָׁלֽוֹם׃peace
shalomH7965 →236 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Acts 15:36Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.”
it leads to
- Acts 14:6
they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding region,
- Acts 13:4
So Barnabas and Saul, sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.
- Acts 14:24–25
After passing through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia.
- Acts 13:13–14
After setting sail from Paphos, Paul and his companions came to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem.
- Acts 13:51
So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.
- Acts 14:6
Through
1 Samuel 17:18Take also these ten portions of cheese to the commander of their unit. Check on the welfare of your brothers and bring back an assurance from them.
it leads to
- Genesis 37:14
Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. And when…
- Genesis 37:14
Through
Genesis 37:14Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. And when…
it leads to
- Genesis 35:27
Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.
- Genesis 35:27
Through
2 Kings 4:23“Why would you go to him today?” he replied. “It is not a New Moon or a Sabbath.” “Everything is all right,” she said.
it leads to
- Numbers 10:10
And on your joyous occasions, your appointed feasts, and the beginning of each month, you are to blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to serve as a reminder for you…
- Numbers 10:10
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About 2 Kings
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 411: “Infant Salvation” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Ephrem the Syrian, ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:17; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.