2 Kings 6:3

Be consent. That is, “be pleased,” or, “kindly consent,” to go with us. They had first asked for permission to go and do the work themselves, and now the invitation was extended to Elisha to accompany them.

I will go. Elisha was a man of the people. He was equally at home with kings and generals and with the workers at their daily toil. Never did he hold himself aloof. Wherever there was the opportunity to serve, wherever his presence was welcome, there he desired to be. The greater the leader, the greater the willingness to serve.

The axe head. The Jews used iron for axheads at a very early date. An axhead in those days was no more secure than it is in modern times, for the legislation of Moses deals with cases in which an axhead slips from the wood while a man is felling a tree (Deut. 19:5).

It was borrowed. This was a spontaneous cry from the lad who was cutting the wood. There was probably no intention of appealing to the prophet for divine aid in recovering the ax. It was an outcry from a conscientious young man who had had the misfortune of losing something that had been borrowed and who in all probability was too poor to make good the loss.