Verse Lens · Expanded explanation

2 Kings 8:6 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 6. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

This verse closes the thought unit with its stated result or transition: “And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “The Shunammite returns and receives restored property.”

Read It With

  • 2 Kings 8:1–6

Read 2 Kings 8:6 with 8:1–6. The selected wording supplies one closing in the thought unit with its stated result or transition; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: Elisha warns the woman of famine; after seven years she appeals to the king while Gehazi recounts her son's revival, and the king restores her land and produce.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Within “The Shunammite returns and receives restored property,” 2 Kings 8:6 closes the thought unit with its stated result or transition through the wording “And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain….” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: 2 Kings 7:17–20 establishes this prior movement: The officer manages the gate, the crowd tramples him, and the narrator twice connects his death to Elisha's word. 2 Kings 8:1–6 responds to the pressure, need, word, or action already established; that evidenced relationship, rather than database adjacency alone, explains its placement.

Read 2 Kings 8:1–6 together

Why these verses belong together: 2 Kings 8:1–6 forms one scene or regnal notice: Elisha warns the woman of famine; after seven years she appeals to the king while Gehazi recounts her son's revival, and the king restores her land and produce.

Verse 1. Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the LORD hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years.

Verse 2. And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.

Verse 3. And it came to pass at the seven years’ end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land.

Verse 4. And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done.

Verse 5. And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.

Verse 6. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.

Follow the Context

  1. Elisha warns the woman of famine; after seven years she appeals to the king while Gehazi recounts her son's revival, and the king restores her land and produce.
  2. The unit closes by establishing the result or tension named in “The Shunammite returns and receives restored property” before the next narrated movement.

What This Verse Is Not Saying

2 Kings 8:6 does not permit the wording “And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain…” to be read apart from the selected verse's context. Restitution here does not make royal access dependable, erase displaced people's losses, or promise miraculous timing in property claims.

What Remains True

Faithful interpretation protects the dignity, agency, safety, grief, and material needs of people whom leadership-centered readings can overlook. This unit tests that truth through the narrated movement: Elisha warns the woman of famine; after seven years she appeals to the king while Gehazi recounts her son's revival, and the king restores her land and produce. In 2 Kings 8:6, the concrete line “And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain…” keeps that truth accountable to narrated evidence.

How It Can Shape Life

  • The evidence to keep visible in this verse is “And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain….” Identify the person whose body, household, labor, grief, or testimony could disappear from the retelling; protect that person's agency and safety before drawing a leadership lesson. This response follows from the unit's own sequence: Elisha warns the woman of famine; after seven years she appeals to the king while Gehazi recounts her son's revival, and the king restores her land and produce.

Teach It Back

In 70–220 words, explain 2 Kings 8:6's role in 8:1–6. Paraphrase “And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain…,” identify one agent or affected person, state one material source or historical limit, and name one conclusion the context does not authorize.

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Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read 2 Kings 8:1–6 — The Shunammite returns and receives restored property
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? probable

Where care is needed

The chronology relative to Gehazi's condition and the political identity of the king are uncertain; narrative arrangement may be thematic rather than strictly sequential.

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Exact location: 2 Kings 8:1–6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Kings

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 8:1–6

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: 2 Kings with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.

Exact location: NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 638–640, translation and translator notes for 8:1–6

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