2 Kings 4:44

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

So he set it before them, and they ate, and left of it, according to the word of Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs shorter here — compare

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וַיּוֹתִ֖רוּ

yâthar

H3498

“and · to remain”

Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural

Appears 107× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 30:36

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 936

to be left over, remain, remain over, leave - (Qal) remainder (participle) - (Niphal) to be left over, remain over, be left behind - (Hiphil) - to leave over, leave - to save over, preserve alive - to excel, show pre-eminence - to show excess, have more than enough, have an excess

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6: words
6: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
3 nouns

Verb forms

וַיִּתֵּ֧ן Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיֹּאכְל֥וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיּוֹתִ֖רוּ Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 19 words from the Hebrew and 12 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably shorter here. See the side-by-side →

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 6 Hebrew tokens and 8 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably shorter than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 12 words vs World English Bible 19. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew 2 Kings 4:44 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיִּתֵּ֧ן לִפְנֵיהֶ֛ם וַיֹּאכְל֥וּ וַיּוֹתִ֖רוּ כִּדְבַ֥ר יְהוָֽה

So he set it before them, and they ate, and left of it, according to the word of Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Kings 4:44 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἐσθίω καί καταλείπω κατά ὁ ῥῆμα κύριος

And they ate and left, according to the word of the Lord.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וִיהַב קֳדָמֵיהוֹן וַאֲכַלוּ וְאוֹתִירוּ כְּפִתְגָמָא דַיָי:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on 2 Kings 4:44 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

2Ki 4:44 So he set [it] before them, and they did eat, and left [thereof], according to the word of the LORD.

Ver. 44. And they did eat, and left.] It grew in their hands, as Mat 14:20 Joh 6:12-13.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(44) And they did eat, and left thereof.—Comp. our Lord’s miracles, already referred to. Bähr denies any miraculous increase of the food. He makes the miracle consist in the fact that the one hundred men were satisfied with the little they received, and even had some to spare. Similarly, Thenius thinks that the provisions were not inconsiderable for a hundred men (?), and that the emphasis of the narrative lies rather on Elisha’s absolute confidence in God than on His wonder-working powers; but this is certainly opposed to the sacred writer’s intention. Keil rightly calls attention to the fact that Elisha does not perform, but only predicts, this miracle.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

42–44. Elisha feeds one hundred men with twenty loaves (Not in Chronicles)

44. from Baal-shalisha] R.V. Baal-shalishah. The name is found only here, and the LXX. writes it Βαιθαρισὰ or Βαθσαρισά, as though in this instance Baal had been interchangeable with the more common Hebrew prefix, in geographical names, Beth. The place cannot have been remote from Gilgal. The ‘land of Shalishah’ was close to mount Ephraim, as we see in the account of Saul’s search for the asses (1Sa_9:4). Probably Baal-shalishah was one village or town of this district.

bread of the firstfruits] On the custom of bringing an offering to the prophets, cf. 1Sa_9:7. In that case the present was spoken of in connexion with some enquiry to be made from him. And it may have been so here, though as the offering was from the first fruits, it may have been brought as a religious duty (cf. Lev_23:14) and presented to Elisha, as the representative of God, in this time when there was no place to which such offerings could be brought. If this be so, it is another token, among many, that the law of Jehovah was not forgotten by some among the people in the northern kingdom.

full [R.V. fresh] ears of corn] This is the rendering of one word in the Hebrew, which from its use elsewhere seems to mean the first gathered and best of the corn. The interpreters explain it, some of the grain itself, some of the flour made from it. But the leading idea is its newness, hence the change to ‘fresh’ instead of ‘full’. The passages for comparison are Lev_2:14; Lev_23:14, in each of which the change has been made to ‘fresh’ in R.V.

in the husk thereof] R.V. in his sack. The word is only found here. It is agreed however that it signifies some sort of bag. The A.V. took it of the covering of the grain, but the Vulgate gives pera, i.e., a scrip or wallet. The Complutensian text of the LXX. supports this rendering, the Alexandrine version attempts a transliteration of the unusual word.

44. they did eat, and left thereof] Compare with this the miracles of our Lord (Mat_14:15-21; Mat_15:32-38; Joh_6:5-14). In this account of Elisha there is however not much dwelling on the increase of the bread by a miracle, and we are left to accept the result as either brought about in that way, or by the appetites of the men being satisfied with a small quantity.

The LXX. omits ‘so he set it before them’ at the commencement of this verse.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

So he set it before them,.... The twenty barley loaves, and the full ears of corn:

and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord; as the disciples did at the miracle of the loaves and fishes; though that must be allowed to be a greater miracle than this, Mat 14:17.

Next: 2 Kings Chapter 5

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Pulpit Commentary

So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord. We are not expressly told how the miracle was wrought, whether by an augmentation of the quantity of the food supernaturally produced, or by a lessening of the appetites of the men, as Bahr supposes. But the analogy of our Lord"s miracles of feeding the multitudes, whereof this is a manifest type, makes it probable that in this case also there was a miraculous increase of the food. The object of the writer in communicating the account is certainly not merely to show how the Lord cared for his servants, but to relate another miracle wrought by Elisha, of a different kind from those previously related. He is occupied with Elisha"s miracles through this entire chanter and through the three next.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

2 Kings, in the Historical, opens this verse with 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is yâthar (“to remain”). The Greek Septuagint runs shorter here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to remain” (yâthar) shape what this verse is saying?
Compared with the Hebrew, the Septuagint runs shorter here. What questions does that raise?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «וַיִּתֵּ֧ן» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 8 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.