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2Ki_4:1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.
Ver. 1. Now there cried a certain woman.] Here we have miraculorum congeriem. In this fourth chapter four signal miracles are set forth done by Elisha, worthily called Thaumaturgus, or, the wonder worker.
Unto Elisha.] Who had so lately relieved the three kings in their necessity, and therefore she believed that he both could and would help her, a distressed prophet’s widow.
Thy servant my husband is dead.] And died in debt; which he needed not to have done, if he would have complied with Jezebel, and fed on her trough, as others did; but he chose rather to keep faith and a good conscience, as Luther did, who refused a cardinalship when it was offered him; and when he lay a-dying, made his will for his wife and children on this manner, Domine Deus, gratias ago tibi quid volueris me esse pauperem super terrain et mendicum, &c. Lord God, I thank thee for my present poverty, and now, I pray thee, take care of my poor wife and children, to whom I cannot bequeath house, lands, possessions, moneys. But I humbly beseech thee to feed them, breed them, teach them, keep them, as thou hitherto hast done me, O Father of the fatherless, and Judge of the widows.
Thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord.] The Rabbis and some others have thought that this was good Obadiah’s widow, and that he, by feeding the Lord’s prophets in those perilous times, had spent his estate, and died indebted to the king, to whose father he had been steward. But this is not very likely.