Biblion Bible Commentary
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Death in the Pot
2 Kings 4:38-44
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.” · WEB
A famine, a poisoned stew, and twenty loaves for a hundred men — two small miracles about feeding people who have nothing.
There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him 2 Kings 4:38.
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.
"Man of God, there is death in the pot!" 2 Kings 4:40.
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" 2 Kings 4:41.
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 2 Kings 4:42.
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.
"Give to the people, that they may eat." His servant said, "What, should I set this before a hundred men?" 2 Kings 4:42–43.
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.
"Give it to the people, that they may eat; for Yahweh says, 'They will eat, and will have some left over.'" So he set it before them and they ate and had some left over 2 Kings 4:43–44.
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.
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