And it happened, as one was felling some timber, that the head of the axe fell into the water: and he cried out, and said: Alas, alas, alas, my lord, for this same was borrowed.

And it came to pass as one was felling a beam, that the iron fell into the water; and he cried and said, Alas, master, and it was borrowed!

But as one was felling a beam, the ax head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed.

and it cometh to pass, the one is felling the beam, and the iron hath fallen into the water, and he crieth and saith, 'Alas! my lord, and it asked!'

But one of them, while cutting a board, let the head of his axe go into the water; and he gave a cry, and said, This is a bad business, my master, for it is another's.

Then it happened that, while someone was cutting timber, the iron of the ax fell into the water. And he cried out and said: "Alas, alas, alas, my lord! For this thing was borrowed."

The ax head - literally, as in the margin. The Jews used iron for the heads of axes at a very early date (see Deuteronomy 19:5). They probably acquired a knowledge of the smelting process in Egypt, where iron was employed at least from the time of the third Rameses.

Alas, master! for it was borrowed - אהה אדני והוא שאול ahah adonia, vehu shaul! Ah! ah, my master; and it has been sought. It has fallen in, and I have sought it in vain. Or, it was borrowed, and therefore I am the more afflicted for its loss; and Jarchi adds, I have nothing wherewith to repay it.

But as one was felling a beam,.... Cutting down a tree, or a branch of it:
the axe head fell into the water: into the waters of Jordan; or "the iron" (d), the iron part of it, with which the wood was cut; that flew off from the helve into the water:
and he cried, and said, alas, master! for it was borrowed: it grieved him to lose his axe, because he could do no more work, and the more because it was not his own, but he had borrowed it of his neighbour; and still more, because, as it seems, he was poor, and not able to pay for it, which, being of an honest disposition, gave him distress.
(d) "ferrum", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

it was borrowed--literally, "begged." The scholar's distress arose from the consideration that it had been presented to him; and that, owing to his poverty, he could not procure another.

In the felling of the beams, the iron, i.e., the axe, of one of the pupils of the prophets fell into the water, at which he exclaimed with lamentation: "Alas, my lord (i.e., Elisha), and it was begged!" The sorrowful exclamation implied a petition for help. ואת־הבּרזל: "and as for the iron, it fell into the water;" so that even here את does not stand before the nominative, but serves to place the noun in subjection to the clause (cf. Ewald, 277, a.). שׁאוּל does not mean borrowed, but begged. The meaning to borrow is attributed to שׁאל from a misinterpretation of particular passages (see the Comm. on Exodus 3:22). The prophets' pupil had begged the axe, because from his poverty he was unable to buy one, and hence the loss was so painful to him.