2 Kings 6:27

And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) If the Lord do not help thee.—This is right. The marginal rendering, “Let not the Lord help thee!”—i.e., “May the Lord destroy thee!” would be possible in another context. Another rendering is, “Nay (i.e., do not supplicate me), let the Lord help thee!”

Out of the barnfloor.—Comp. Hosea ix 2.: “The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.” Jehoram, in the irony of despair, reminds the woman of what she well knows—viz., that the corn and wine, the staple foods of the time, are long since exhausted. The words, “If the Lord do not help thee,” may be compared with 2Kings 3:10, “Alas! that the Lord hath called,” &c. The character of Jehoram is consistently drawn. But perhaps the point is: “Jehovah alone is the giver of corn and wine (Hosea 2:8-9). Appeal not to me for these.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:24-33 Learn to value plenty, and to be thankful for it; see how contemptible money is, when in time of famine it is so freely parted with for any thing that is eatable! The language of Jehoram to the woman may be the language of despair. See the word of God fulfilled; among the threatenings of God's judgments upon Israel for their sins, this was one, that they should eat the flesh of their own children, De 28:53-57. The truth and the awful justice of God were displayed in this horrible transaction. Alas! what miseries sin has brought upon the world! But the foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord. The king swears the death of Elisha. Wicked men will blame any one as the cause of their troubles, rather than themselves, and will not leave their sins. If rending the clothes, without a broken and contrite heart, would avail, if wearing sackcloth, without being renewed in the spirit of their mind, would serve, they would not stand out against the Lord. May the whole word of God increase in us reverent fear and holy hope, that we may be stedfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If the Lord do not help - The translation in the text is decidedly better than the marginal rendering. Some prefer to render - "Nay ... let Jehovah help thee. Whence, shall I help thee?"

Out of the barnfloor ... - The king means that both were empty - that he had no longer any food in store; and therefore could not help the woman. Compare Hosea 9:2.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26. as the king was passing—to look at the defenses, or to give some necessary orders for manning the walls.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

If the Lord do not help thee, or, let not God help thee, as some both ancient and late interpreters render the words. So they are words of impatience, and rage, and a formal curse, wishing that God would not help her, as he could not, as Josephus, amongst others, understand it; which agrees too well with the character of the man, an infidel, and an idolater, and a wicked man, and at this time in a great rage, as appears from 2 Kings 6:31. Or they may be rendered thus, No; (as this Hebrew particle is sometimes used, as Job 20:17 Psalm 24:5 Psalm 41:2 50:3 Proverbs 3:3,5 31:4) let the Lord help thee. So it may be taken, either, first, As a direction: No; do not cry to me, but to God, for help: God help thee, for I cannot. Or rather, secondly, As a profane scoff: No; come not to me, but go to him to whom Elisha directs you; pray to the Lord: you see how ready he is to help you, by his suffering you to come to this extremity; wait upon God for relief, as Elisha adviseth me; but I will wait no longer for him, 2 Kings 6:33, and I will take a course with Elisha for thus abusing both me and my people with vain hopes. Or thus, The Lord (on whom forsooth thou and I are commanded to wait for help) will not help thee, as he could easily do, and would do, if he were so good as Elisha pretends; whence then shall I help thee?

Out of the barn-floor, or out of the winepress? Dost thou ask of me corn or wine, which I want for myself?

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he said, if the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?.... Mistaking her meaning, as if she prayed him to relieve her hunger; the margin of our Bible is, "let not the Lord save thee"; and so some understand it as a wish that she might perish; and so Josephus (o), that being wroth, he cursed her in the name of God:

out of the barn floor, or out of the winepress? when neither of them afforded anything; no corn was to be had from the one, nor wine from the other, no, not for his own use, and therefore how could he help her out of either?

(o) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4. sect. 4.)

Geneva Study Bible

And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the {o} barnfloor, or out of the winepress?

(o) Meaning, any kind of food as corn and wine.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. If the Lord do not help thee] There is some difficulty here. The word rendered ‘if … not’ is that which in Hebrew is generally put with an imperative = ‘Let not’. So that the sense would be ‘May the Lord not help thee’. So the LXX. But such a wish could hardly have come at such a time into the king’s mind. The R.V. (marg.) attempts to keep the imperative force thus, ‘Nay, let the Lord help thee’. This comes a little nearer the sense of the English versions. But there is no warrant for separating the negative particle in this way from its verb. Perhaps it is best to explain the negative particle, as if the verb belonging to it were suppressed. Thus ‘Do not (cry to me); the Lord must help thee; for I cannot’. In this way the sense given in the English versions would be the correct force of the words.

out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?] i.e. with anything to eat or to drink. The supply of both was utterly spent, as the whole city knew. For the expression cf. Hosea 9:2.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - And he said, If the Lord do not help thee. This is probably the true mean-tug. The king is not so brutal as to "curse" the woman (ἐπηράσατο αὐτή τὸν Θεόν, Josephus, ' Ant. Jud.,' 9:4. § 4); neither does he take upon himself to tell her that God will not save her (Maurer). He merely refers her to God, as alone competent to do what she asks. Whence shall I help thee? Whence, i.e., dost thou suppose that I can save thee? Out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? Dost thou suppose that I have stores of food at my disposal? An overflowing barnfloor, where abundant corn is garnered, or a winepress full of the juice of the grape? I have nothing of the kind; my stores are as much exhausted as those of the meanest of my subjects. I cannot save thee. 2 Kings 6:27

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

As the king was passing by upon the wall to conduct the defence, a woman cried to him for help; whereupon he replied: אל־יושׁעך יי, "should Jehovah not help thee, whence shall I help thee? from the threshing-floor or from the wine-press?" It is difficult to explain the אל which Ewald (355, b.) supposes to stand for אם לא. Thenius gives a simpler explanation, namely, that it is a subjective negation and the sentence hypothetical, so that the condition would be only expressed by the close connection of the two clauses (according to Ewald, 357). "From the threshing-floor or from the wine-press?" i.e., I can neither help thee with corn nor with wine, cannot procure thee either food or drink. He then asked her what her trouble was; upon which she related to him the horrible account of the slaying of her own child to appease her hunger, etc.