Food is provided during a famine
Divided Kingdom · Draft · BSB
Content revision: a14531f06d324628 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Elisha’s ministry · Famine accounts without a named king
During a famine at Gilgal, a pot of stew proves dangerous until Elisha intervenes. In a second scene, a gift of twenty barley loaves feeds a hundred men, with some left over as the LORD had said.
These are two food accounts, not one continuous meal. The flour in the first story is not presented as a general remedy for poisoning. The second turns attention from an inadequate-looking gift to the promised provision.
Primary Scripture
4:38 When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”
4:39 One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.
4:40 And they poured it out for the men to eat, but when they tasted the stew they cried out, “There is death in the pot, O man of God!” And they could not eat it.
4:41 Then Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
4:42 Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.
4:43 But his servant asked, “How am I to set twenty loaves before a hundred men?” “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha, “for this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’”
4:44 So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.
Related Scripture
John’s account of barley loaves and food left over invites comparison with Elisha’s provision.
Location evidence
The identification of Elisha’s Gilgal is uncertain and need not be Joshua’s camp. Neither the shared pot nor the later meal receives a speculative pin.
No event map marker is assigned. Do not infer an exact venue from related places.
For the class
How do scarcity and the response to it shape these two scenes?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/divided-kingdom.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm