And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.

And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither, and made the iron to swim.

And the man of God said: Where did it fall? and he shewed him the place. Then he cut off a piece of wood, and cast it in thither: and the iron swam.

And the man of God said, Where did it fall? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither, and made the iron to swim.

And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron floated.

And the man of God saith, 'Whither hath it fallen?' and he sheweth him the place, and he cutteth a stick, and casteth thither, and causeth the iron to swim,

And the man of God said, Where did it go in? and when he saw the place where it had gone into the water, cutting a stick, he put it into the water, and the iron came up to the top of the water.

Then the man of God said, "Where did it fall?" And he indicated to him the place. Then he cut off a piece of wood, and he threw it in. And the iron floated up.

No doubt there is something startling in the trivial character of this miracle, and of the few others which resemble it. But, inasmuch as we know very little as to the laws which govern the exercise of miraculous powers, it is possible that they may be so much under their possessor's control that he can exercise them, or not exercise them, at pleasure. And it may depend on his discretion whether they are exercised in important cases only, or in trivial cases also. Elisha had evidently great kindness of heart. He could not see a grief without wishing to remedy it. And it seems as if he had sometimes used his miraculous power in pure good nature, when no natural way of remedying an evil presented itself.

He cut down a stick - This had no natural tendency to raise the iron; it was only a sign or ceremony which the prophet chose to use on the occasion.
The iron did swim - This was a real miracle; for the gravity of the metal must have for ever kept it at the bottom of the water.

And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast [it] in thither; and the iron did (b) swim.
(b) God wrought this miraculously to confirm the authority of Elisha, to whom he had given such abundance of his Spirit.

And the man of God said, where fell it?.... For though endowed with a spirit of prophecy, he did not know all things, and at all times; and if he did know where it fell, he might ask this question to lead on to the performance of the miracle:
and he showed him the place; the exact place in the river into which it fell:
and he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; he did not take the old helve and throw in, but a new stick he cut off of a tree; some think he made of this another helve or handle, of the same size and measure with the other, and that this being cast in was miraculously directed and fixed in the hole of the iron at the bottom of the water, and brought it up with it; but, as Abarbinel observes, there is no need to suppose this; the wood was cast into the precise place where the iron fell, and was sent as it were to call it up to it:
and the iron did swim; it came up and appeared, and was bore on the surface of the waters; or, "and made the iron to swim" (e); which some understand of the wood cast in, as if it had some peculiar virtue in it to draw up the iron; but it was not any particular chosen wood, but what first occurred to the prophet (f); and the meaning is, that Elisha caused it to float, contrary to the nature of iron.
(e) "fecit supernatare", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (f) Vid. Friese, Dissert. de Ferro Natante, sect. 7.

cut down a stick, and cast it in thither--Although this means was used, it had no natural adaptation to make the iron swim. Besides, the Jordan is at Jericho so deep and rapid that there were one thousand chances to one against the stick falling into the hole of the axe-head. All attempts to account for the recovery of the lost implement on such a theory must be rejected.
the iron did swim--only by the miraculous exertion of Elisha's power.

When he showed Elisha, in answer to his inquiry, the place where it had fallen, the latter cut off a stick and threw it thither (into the water) and made the iron flow, i.e., float (יצף from צוּף, to flow, as in Deuteronomy 11:4); whereupon the prophets' pupil picked the axe out of the water with his hand. The object of the miracle was similar to that of the stater in the fish's mouth (Matthew 17:27), or of the miraculous feeding, namely, to show how the Lord could relieve earthly want through the medium of His prophet. The natural interpretation of the miracle, which is repeated by Thenius, namely, that "Elisha struck the eye of the axe with the long stick which he thrust into the river, so that the iron was lifted by the wood," needs no refutation, since the raising of an iron axe by a long stick, so as to make it float in the water, is impossible according to the laws of gravitation.