Bible Strands
2 Kings 7:2
But the officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” replied Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The royal officer leaning on the king’s arm questions Elisha’s prophecy at the gate of Samaria when the prophet declares sudden abundance. Elisha answers the officer that he will witness the fulfillment but will not partake in the provision.
The words — הַ/שָּׁלִ֡ישׁ (ha./sha.Lish) identifies the officer or military commander serving in the king’s immediate retinue. נִשְׁעָ֨ן (nish.'An) describes the officer’s posture of leaning, indicating physical proximity and reliance on the monarch.
The thread — The motif of divine provision meeting human doubt runs through Genesis 18:12, where Sarah questions a promised birth, and Genesis 7:11, where the LORD opens the windows of heaven. The theme of stored food and covenant testing also appears in Malachi 3:10.
Why it lands — The text records a direct confrontation between calculated impossibility and spoken divine promise. It requires the reader to acknowledge that God’s word operates independently of visible circumstances and that unbelief does not nullify fulfillment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
Cross-references
- Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
- Genesis 18:12 So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
- Malachi 3:10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.
- Psalms 78:41 Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
- Romans 3:3 What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?
- 2 Timothy 2:13 if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
- Numbers 11:21 But Moses replied, “Here I am among 600,000 men on foot, yet You say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’
- 2 Kings 5:18 Yet may the LORD forgive your servant this one thing: When my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my arm, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant in this matter.”
- 2 Chronicles 20:20 Early in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be upheld; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”
- Psalms 78:19 They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?