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(^177) Lamentations 4:4: "The tongue of the yonek cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the olalim asks bread."
(^178) The inference does not, indeed, seem absolutely certain, but it appears implied that in the time when this narrative is
laid the interpretation of the fourth commandment was not so rigidly literal as to forbid the use of an ass for such
purposes as that in the text.
(^179) The word is the same as in reference to Jehu: "for he driveth madly" (2 Kings 9:20).
(^180) It seems well nigh the extreme of critical misunderstanding when these words of Elisha are regarded as meaning
that, if Elisha had known it, he would have hastened to Shunem. Comp. The opposite conduct of our Lord in the case of
Lazarus (John 11:6).
(^181) The attempts at natural explanation of this miracle - such as by animal magnetism, by the administration of
something to smell, or of some drug - are so utterly childish as not to deserve discussion.
(^182) From the time of Origen a somewhat fanciful allegorical view of this history has been presented. The dead lad
represented the human race dead in sin; the staff of Gehazi, the law of Moses, which could not set free from sin and
death; while Elisha was the type of the Son of God, Who, by His Incarnation, had entered into fellowship with our
flesh, and imparted a new life to our race.
(^183) This, rather than "herbs." It evidently refers to such "green" stuff as was boiled and eaten.
(^184) The cucumis agrestis or asininus. Others understand by the Hebrew expression the cucumis colocynthi, or colocynth
plant. But, from the Hebrew etymology of the word, the former explanation seems the more likely.
(^185) Suffice it that it would have been impossible for a man to have carried such a load of bread and corn "in a sack"
from Beth-Shalisha to the Gilgal near Jericho.
(^186) So, according to the Rabbis, who regard the expression as referring to green ears of corn, of which, in some parts,
soup is made. Others understand it as meaning fresh and tender ears of corn roasted over the fire. The former
explanation seems the more likely, and in that case the scene would be laid about the end of April.
(^187) So, and not "in the husk," as in the A.V.
(^188) This, with the exception of 2 Kings 6:1-7. But that narrative is altogether so exceptional in several respects, that we
feel as if we were not in possession of all the details of it.
(^189) We have here availed ourselves of the classical work of Professor Schrader (Die Keilinschriften und d. A1te
Testament. Second Edition. Giessen, 1885), and also of that able and most useful tractate by Professor Sayce: Fresh
Light from the Ancient Monuments. (London: Religious Tract Society).
(^190) Full details of this are given in Vol. 5. of this History.
(^191) In one inscription 12, in another 11 of these are specially mentioned. A similar discrepancy also obtains in regard to
the number of troops employed, and in that of the slain in battle. But, as Schrader rightly remarks, the Assyrians, no
doubt, mention only the more important of Ben-hadad's allies - not all of them. (See Keilinschr. u. d. A. Test., p. 204.)
(^192) There is a manifest discrepancy between these two numbers - the one recorded is an inscription of Shalmaneser,
discovered on the banks of the Tigris, the other on an obelisk at Nimrud, in which that monarch describes the acts of his
reign.
(^193) The large number of the slain, and of the forces led on either side to battle, throws light on what are sometimes
described as the "exaggerated" figures introduced in the accounts of wars and battles in the Old Testament.
(^194) This, rather than "the" captain, as in the A.V.
(^)