Elisha Feeds a Hundred Men
Twenty barley loaves, a hundred hungry men, a protesting servant - and leftovers. The feeding of the five thousand had a rehearsal.
During a famine, a man from Baal-shalisha brought Elisha firstfruits: twenty loaves of barley and full ears of corn in his sack. Elisha ordered it given to the hundred men with him, and his servant protested the obvious arithmetic - 'What, should I set this before an hundred men?' Elisha simply repeated the command with a promise: 'Thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.' They ate, and food was left over, according to the word of the LORD. The miracle is a small-scale prototype of Jesus feeding the five thousand with five barley loaves eight centuries later - same insufficient bread, same protesting servant's question, same command to distribute anyway, and same impossible leftovers.
Details
- Category
- Provision
- Testament
- Old Testament
- Performed by
- God through Elisha
Key Chapters
Key Passages
Twenty Loaves for a Hundred Men
2 Kings 4:42-44
42nd there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
Did You Know?
The parallels to the feeding of the five thousand are exact: barley loaves, a protesting servant, the command to distribute anyway, and leftovers - eight hundred years apart.
The bread was 'of the firstfruits' - offerings that belonged to God's priests by law - given instead to feed hungry men, mercy taking precedence over ritual.
This is the only Old Testament food-multiplication miracle involving bread alone - Elijah's meal and oil, and the widow's oil, multiplied ingredients; this multiplied the finished loaves.