Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor has come to take unto him my two sons to be slaves.
All Commentaries on 2 Kings 4:1 Go To 2 Kings 4
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Prophets. Josephus ( ix. 4.) intimates that this man was Abdias; (3 Kings xviii. 13.) and the Rabbins pretend that Joram was the creditor. But these traditions are destitute of proof; and we know not that Abdias was a prophet. (Calmet)
Serve him, not as slaves, for the Hebrews were not thus to be sold, except they had commited some crime. (Salien, the year before Christ 913.) See Leviticus xxv. 39.
But the condition of mercenaries was perhaps little different; (Haydock) and we find that people were sold for debt, Exodus xxi. 7., and Isaias l. 1. The same practice seems to have continued till our Saviour's time, Matthew xviii. 25. Children were regarded as part of a person's property. The Romans, Athenians, and other nations, claimed the same right over them. (Hali car. ii. p. 96.; Plutarch, in Solon et Lucullus.) The custom of selling children continued for a long time in our islands.
