Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 8:1

"Now Elisha had spoken unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thy household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for Jehovah hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years." — 2 Kings 8:1 (ASV)

How the kindness of the Shunammite woman to Elisha was further rewarded through the prophet’s influence with the king.

Then spoke Elisha. —Rather, Now Elisha had spoken. The time is not defined by the phrase. It was after the raising of the Shunammite’s son (2 Kings 8:1), and before the healing of Naaman the Syrian, since the king still talks with Gehazi (2 Kings 8:5).

Go you. —The peculiar form of the pronoun points to the identity of the original author of this account with the writer of 2 Kings 4:0. Moreover, the famine here foretold appears to be that of 2 Kings 4:38 and following, so that the present section must in the original document have preceded 2 Kings 5:0. Thenius thinks the compiler transferred the present account to this place because he wished to proceed chronologically, and supposed that the seven years’ famine came to an end with the raising of the siege of Samaria.

For a famine. — To the famine. The sword, the famine, the noisome beasts, and the pestilence were Jehovah’s four sore judgments, as we find in Ezekiel 14:21.

And it shall also come upon. — And, moreover, it comes into.

Seven Years. —Perhaps not to be understood literally, any more than Dante’s

“O caro Duca mio che più di sette
Volte m’hai sicurtà renduta.”—Inferno 8:97.