4 Kings 6:31
And the king said: May God do so and so to me, and may he add more, if the head of Eliseus the son of Saphat shall stand on him this day.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et ait rex : Hæc mihi faciat Deus, et hæc addat, si steterit caput Elisei filii Saphat super ipsum hodie.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν Τάδε ποιήσαι μοι ὁ θεὸς καὶ τάδε προσθείη, εἰ στήσεται ἡ κεφαλὴ Ἐλεισαῖε ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ σήμερον.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֕אמֶר כֹּֽה יַעֲשֶׂה לִּ֥י אֱלֹהִ֖ים וְכֹ֣ה יוֹסִ֑ף אִֽם יַעֲמֹ֞ד רֹ֣אשׁ אֱלִישָׁ֧ע בֶּן שָׁפָ֛ט עָלָ֖יו הַיּֽוֹם
Haydock's commentary
Day. This was said in a fit of sudden passion, which may give us reason to conclude that the repentance was insincere, or of short duration. (Haydock)
The king supposed that Eliseus could remedy the evil: but God was not moved by his prayers to grant such a favour, till all were convinced that human aid was fruitless. (Calmet)
The prophet might have answered Joram in the words of Elias, 3 Kings xviii. 18. (Menochius)
Probably he had dissuaded the king from making peace. (Tirinus)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XX. After the terrible siege of Samaria was ended in accordance with Elisha's prophecy, he relates what regard the four lepers showed for what was virtuous
118. There was a great famine in Samaria, for the army of the Syrians was besieging it. The king in his anxiety was making the round of the guards on the walls when a woman addressed him, saying: This woman persuaded me to give up my son, and I gave him up, and we boiled him and did eat him. And she promised that she would afterwards bring her son and that we should eat his flesh together, but now she hath hidden her son and will not bring him. The king was troubled because these women seemed to have fed not merely on human bodies, but on the bodies of their own children; and being moved by an example of such awful misery, threatened the prophet Elisha with death. For he believed it was in his power to break up the siege and to avert the famine; or else he was angry because the prophet had not allowed the king to smite the Syrians whom he had struck with blindness.