40 So they poured out for the men to eat. It happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, "Man of God, there is death in the pot!" They could not eat of it.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
There is death in the pot - As if they had said, "We have here a deadly mixture; if we eat of it, we shall all die."
So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O [thou] man of God, [there is] (u) death in the pot. And they could not eat [thereof].
(u) They feared that they were poisoned because of the bitterness.
So they poured out for the men to eat,.... When the pottage was boiled, they poured it out into dishes or basins, for the sons of the prophets to eat:
and it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot; poison, the cause of death; the pottage was so exceeding bitter, that they concluded there must be some poisonous herb in it; and coloquintida is so bitter, that it is called "the gall of the earth":
and they could not eat thereof: they stopped eating, it being so very disagreeable, and, as they supposed, dangerous.
The extremely bitter flavour of the fruit so alarmed the pupils of the prophets when they began to eat of the dish, that they cried out, "Death in the pot," and therefore thought the fruit was poison. If eaten in any large quantity, colocynths might really produce death: vid., Dioscorid. iv. 175 (178).
Death - That is, some deadly thing.
*More commentary available at chapter level.