2 Kings 8:1
INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 8
This chapter gives an account of some advice Elisha had formerly given to the Shunammite woman, and of the success of it, 2Ki 8:1 and of the sickness of the king of Syria, who sent to Elisha, then being at Damascus, by Hazael, to know whether he should recover; by whom a message was returned, and Hazael was told by the prophet he should be king of Syria, and exercise great cruelty in Israel, 2Ki 8:7 and of the bad reign of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, over Judah, 2Ki 8:16 and of the reign of his son Ahaziah, 2Ki 8:25.
Ver. 1. Then spoke Elisha unto the woman (whose son he had restored to life),.... His hostess at Shunem, 2Ki 4:8 the following he said to her, not after the famine in Samaria, but before it, as some circumstances show:
saying, arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn; with the greatest safety to her person and property, and with the least danger to her moral and religious character:
for the Lord hath called for a famine, and it shall also come upon the land seven years: which Jarchi says was the famine that was in the days of Joel; it was, undoubtedly, on account of the idolatry of Israel, and was double the time of that in the days of Elijah.