Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 4:28

"Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?" — 2 Kings 4:28 (ASV)

Then. — And; so in 2 Kings 4:29; 2 Kings 4:35.

Did I desire (ask) a son of my lord? — Only the conclusion of her appeal is given.

She says, Better to have had no son, than to have had one and lost him — the opposite of our poet’s sentiment.

“It is better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all.”

But this last is the fruit of reflection; her words are the spontaneous outflow of a mother’s poignant sorrow.

Or, perhaps, we should understand that grief does not allow her to specify the cause directly; she leaves the prophet to infer that from her questions.