Death in the Pot
38 Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Get the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.” 39 One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds from it, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew; for they didn’t recognize them. 40 So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. 41 But he said, “Then bring meal.” He threw it into the pot; and he said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot. 42 A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.” 43 His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for Yahweh says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’” 44 So he set it before them and they ate and had some left over, according to Yahweh’s word.
A famine, a poisoned stew, and twenty loaves for a hundred men — two small miracles about feeding people who have nothing.
Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Get the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”
The setting is a prophetic community in hard times, and the problem is dinner. Somebody is sent to gather herbs, finds a wild vine, and shreds an apron-full of unidentified gourds into the communal pot — for they didn't recognize them 2 Kings 4:39. It is an honest mistake made by a hungry man in a famine, and it nearly poisons the whole company.
So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
The cry is the passage's memorable line, and what it describes is a very ordinary disaster: the one meal available has been ruined, and the people who most needed it are the ones who cannot eat it.
But he said, “Then bring meal.” He threw it into the pot; and he said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
Meal does not neutralize a toxin, and the account does not pretend it does. As with the salt in the spring at Jericho 2 Kings 2:21, an ordinary substance carries a spoken word, and the result is credited to the word. Note also what is not said: nobody is rebuked for the mistake. The man who nearly killed the community is not named, lectured, or punished, and the stew is simply made safe and served.
A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.”
The second episode begins with an act of obedience that costs something. First fruits belonged to the priests Numbers 18:13 — but the official priesthood in the northern kingdom served the calves, so this man carries his offering to a prophet instead. In a famine, he brings the first of his harvest to God's representative rather than eating it.
42 A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.” 43 His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for Yahweh says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”
The servant's objection is arithmetic and it is correct. Twenty small barley loaves — the bread of the poor — will not feed a hundred, and saying so out loud is the reasonable response of anyone who has ever been asked to distribute inadequate supplies.
43 His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for Yahweh says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’” 44 So he set it before them and they ate and had some left over, according to Yahweh’s word.
The promise specifies a surplus, and the surplus is reported. The parallels with a later feeding are close enough that they are worth naming: barley loaves, a crowd, a servant's objection about the numbers, a command to distribute anyway, and food left over afterward John 6:9–13 Mark 6:37–43. Elisha's hundred become five thousand, and the disciples make the same complaint the servant makes here.
Both halves of this short passage do the same thing. The prophetic community has a food problem; the food is dangerous, then the food is insufficient; and in each case the answer is to serve it anyway on the strength of a word, and it turns out to be enough.
settled What this mark means