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2 Kings 4:43

in 2 Kings 4

But his servant asked, “How am I to set twenty loaves before a hundred men?” “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha, “for this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And his servant said, What, should I set this before a hundred men? But he said, Give the people, that they may eat; for thus saith Jehovah, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.

KJV

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.

This verse in 2 Kings 4

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
This miracle was a faint foreshadowing of our Lord’s far more marvelous feeding of thousands with even scantier materials. The resemblance is not only in the broad fact, but in various minute particulars, such as the distribution through the hands of others; the material, bread; the surprised question of the servant; and the evidence of superfluity in the fragments that were left (see the marginal references). As Elijah was a type of the Baptist, so Elisha was in many respects a type of our Blessed Lord.

This site's exposition

bread of the firstfruits, twenty

on 2 Kings 4:42-44

The bread is firstfruits, grain due by law to the priesthood (Lev 23:17, Num 18:12-13), rerouted here to feed a hungry company through the man of God, twenty barley loaves against a hundred men. Elisha's word, thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof, is fulfilled to the letter at v44, and the commentators, Farrar among them, have long set this scene beside Jesus feeding the five thousand and the four thousand as a likeness worth drawing, a reading the Gospels themselves never state but the shape invites: scant bread, a doubting servant, and food left over.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Ephrem the Syrian

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:38 · Written before 373.

proposed

Here two miracles are proposed, which Elisha performed while he was among his disciples. He accomplished the first when he caused death to leave the pot, where, as they said, it had hidden. He performed the second when he nourished one hundred prophets with a …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And his servitor said,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Christ's feeding his hearers was a miracle far beyond this; but both teach us that those who wait upon God in the way of duty may hope to be both protected and supplied by a particular care of divine Providence.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

They shall eat, and shall leave thereof--This was not a miracle of Elisha, but only a prediction of one by the word of the Lord. Thus it differed widely from those of Christ (Mt 15:37;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof - It was God, not the prophet, who fed one hundred men with these twenty loaves, etc. This is something like our Lord’s feeding the multitude miraculously. Indeed, there are many things in this chapter similar to facts in our Lord’s history: and this prophet might be more aptly considered a type of our Lord, than most of the other persons in the Scriptures who have been thus honored.

The words behind it

18 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙and he said

    vaiyomerH5595305 times

  • מְשָׁ֣רְת֔וֹservant his

    mesharetoH833497 times

  • מָ֚הwhat?

    mahH4100752 times

  • אֶתֵּ֣ןwill I put

    ʾetenH54142011 times

  • זֶ֔הthis

    zehH20881180 times

  • לִפְנֵ֖י<to> before

    lifneiH64402123 times

  • מֵ֣אָהa hundred

    meahH3967581 times

  • אִ֑ישׁman

    ʾishH3761663 times

  • וַיֹּ֗אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH5595305 times

  • תֵּ֤ןgive [it]

    tenH54142011 times

  • לָעָם֙to the people

    laamH59711873 times

  • וְיֹאכֵ֔לוּso they may eat

    veyokheluH398810 times

  • כִּ֣יfor

    kiH35884482 times

  • כֹ֥הthus

    khohH3541577 times

  • אָמַ֛רhe says

    ʾamarH5595305 times

  • יְהוָ֖הYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • אָכֹ֥לthey will eat

    ʾakholH398810 times

  • וְהוֹתֵֽר׃and they will have more than enough

    vehoterH3498106 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    John 6:9

    “Here is a boy with five barley loaves and two small fish. But what difference will these make among so many?”

    it leads to

    • 2 Kings 4:42–44

      Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.

    • Mark 6:38

      “Go and see how many loaves you have,” He told them. And after checking, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

    • Matthew 14:17

      “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

    • Luke 9:13

      But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered, “unless we go and buy food for all these people.”

    • Psalms 78:19

      They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

  • Through

    Luke 9:13

    But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered, “unless we go and buy food for all these people.”

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 11:24–25

      One gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds what is right, only to become poor.

    • 2 Kings 4:42–43

      Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.

    • John 6:5–9

      When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?”

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Kings

Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:38; F. W. Farrar, The Second Book of Kings (Expositor's Bible); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.