Charles Spurgeon Commentary 2 Kings 4

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophet to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant feared the LORD: and the creditor has come to take for himself my two sons to be bondmen.

It is sad for anyone to be in debt, and yet there may be circumstances under which even a man who fears the Lord may die in debt, and leave no provision for his wife and children except a large portion of sorrow.

In the case of this poor widow, it was not long before she cried to Elisha, "The creditor has come." He generally does come pretty quickly.

He had come to her to take away her two sons, whom she needed to support her, and to make them bondmen—slaves—to serve him for a certain number of years until their father's debt was worked out. This deeply hurt the poor woman's heart, so she came to see what the Lord's servant could do for her.

She could not bear to see her sons taken away to serve as bondmen to a stranger, through no fault of their own; and, possibly, through no fault on their father's part.

And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee?

Elisha was probably about as poor as she was, so what could he do for her?

Tell me, what hast thou in the house?

"Whatever there is in the house must go towards this debt, so tell me what hast thou in the house?"

And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.

Her husband had been a God-fearing man, a true servant of Jehovah, yet he had died in such dire poverty that his widow had to say to Elisha, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. Those were indeed bad times for the sons of the prophets; for, in those days, men cared more for false prophets and for the priests of Baal than for the servants of the Most High God.

Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.

"Get as many empty oil jars as you possibly can; it does not matter how large or how many they are, but they must be empty."

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant did fear the LORD; and the creditor is come to take to him my two sons to be bondmen.

According to the very cruel custom of those times, if a man was in debt and had no means of payment, his children were sold for slaves. Here was a poor widow whose husband had been one of the sons of the prophets, but he had died in debt. He was evidently one who was known to Elisha as a faithful, God-fearing man, and perhaps that partly accounted for his poverty.

The false priests were fed at Jezebel's table. But because this man worshipped Jehovah, the one living and true God, he had probably been persecuted and hunted down until he had lost what little he once had. Therefore, when he died, he could leave his wife no other legacy than that of debt. And, in consequence, the creditor came to seize her two sons to be slaves.

And Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house? And she said, Your handmaid has nothing in the house, save a pot of oil.

They used oil extensively in the preparation of their food as well as for lighting their dwellings. This woman was so poor that she had no meal in the house, but she had a little oil. When our Lord was about to feed the five thousand, he asked his disciples, How many loaves have you? So here the prophet asked the poor woman, what do you have in the house? and she told him she had only a pot of oil.