2 Kings 8:1

The Shunammite's Land Restored

1 Elisha said to the woman whose son he had restored to life,^[a] "Get ready, you and your household, and go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the Lord has announced a seven-year famine, and it has already come to the land."

2 Kings 8:1 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 8:1

Then spoke Elisha unto the woman (whose son he had restored
to life)
His hostess at Shunem, ( 2 Kings 4:8-17 ) 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.

2 Kings 8:1 In-Context

1 Elisha said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, "Get ready, you and your household, and go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the Lord has announced a seven-year famine, and it has already come to the land."

2 So the woman got ready and did what the man of God said. She and her household lived as foreigners in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

3 When the woman returned from the land of the Philistines at the end of seven years, she went to appeal to the king for her house and field.

4 The king had been speaking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, "Tell me all the great things Elisha has done."

5 While he was telling the king how Elisha restored the dead [son] to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life came to appeal to the king for her house and field. So Gehazi said, "My lord the king, this is the woman and this is the son Elisha restored to life."

Footnotes

• [a]. 2 Kg 4:8-37