2 Kings
Chapter 4
1 A woman whose husband had died, who was one of the prophets’ sons, called out to Elisha, “My husband, your servant, is dead. You know he respected God. Now a creditor is here to take my two sons as slaves.”
2 Elisha asked her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have at home?” She replied, “Your servant has nothing at home except a jar of oil.”
3 He said, “Go, ask your neighbors for empty jars. Get a lot of them.”
4 When you enter, close the door behind you and your sons, pour oil into all the jars, and put aside the ones that are full.
5 She left him, closed the door behind her and her sons, they brought the containers to her, and she filled them up.
6 When the jars were all full, she told her son, “Bring me another jar.” But he replied, “There are no more jars.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She went to the man of God and told him. He said, “Go, sell the oil, pay what you owe, and use the rest to live on with your children.”
8 One day, Elisha went to Shunem, where a notable woman lived; she urged him to have some bread. From then on, whenever he came by, he would stop there to eat bread.
9 She told her husband, “Look, I think this is a holy man of God who keeps passing by us.”
10 Let’s build a small room on the wall. We’ll put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it for him. So when he visits, he can stay there.
11 One day he went there, entered the room, and rested.
12 He told his servant Gehazi, “Call this woman from Shunem.” When Gehazi called her, she came and stood before him.
13 He told him, “Tell her, ‘Look, you have done so much for us; what can we do for you? Do you want us to speak to the king or the army commander on your behalf?’” And she replied, “I live among my own people.”
14 He asked, “So what can be done for her?” Gehazi replied, “Truly, she has no child, and her husband is old.”
15 He said, “Call her.” When he called her, she stood at the door.
16 He said, “By this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” But she replied, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not deceive your servant.”
17 The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son at the time Elisha had told her, when it was due.
18 When the child grew up, one day he went to his father with the harvesters.
19 He told his father, “My head hurts.” His father said to a boy, “Take him to his mother.”
20 After he took him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.
21 She went up, put him on the man of God’s bed, closed the door, and left.
22 She asked her husband, “Please send one of the young men and a donkey with me so I can go to the man of God and return.”
23 He asked, “Why do you want to go to him today? It’s not the new moon or the Sabbath.” She answered, “It will be okay.”
24 She put a saddle on a donkey, and told her servant, “Go ahead; don’t slow down the ride for me unless I tell you to.”
25 She went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her from a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there is the woman from Shunem.”
26 Please go now and meet her. Ask her if she is okay, if her husband is okay, and if her child is okay. She replied, “All is well.”
27 When she arrived at the hill where the man of God was, she grabbed his feet. Gehazi tried to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her be; she is deeply troubled, and God has kept the reason hidden from me and hasn’t told me.”
28 Then she said, “Did I ask for a son from you, God? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t trick me’?”
29 He told Gehazi, “Tie your clothes tight, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, don’t say hello; if they greet you, don’t reply. Put my staff on the child’s face.”
30 The child’s mother said, “As long as God lives and you are alive, I won’t leave you.” So he got up and went with her.
31 Gehazi went ahead of them and put the staff on the child’s face; but there was no sound or response. So he returned to meet him and told him, “The child has not woken up.”
32 When Elisha entered the house, he saw the child was dead and lying on his bed.
33 He went in, closed the door behind them both, and prayed to God.
34 He went up, lay on the child, put his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, his hands on the child’s hands, extended himself on the child, and the child’s body became warm.
35 He went back and forth inside the house, then went up and lay on top of the boy. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
36 He called Gehazi and said, “Call this woman from Shunem.” So he called her. When she came to him, he said, “Pick up your son.”
37 She went in, knelt at his feet, bowed down, picked up her son, and left.
38 Elisha went back to Gilgal where there was a famine. The prophets’ sons were with him. He told his helper, “Put on the big pot and cook some stew for the prophets’ sons.”
39 Someone went to the field to pick herbs, found a wild vine, collected a bunch of wild gourds, and came back to cut them up into the pot of soup, because they didn’t know what they were.
40 They served the food to the men to eat. But while they were eating the stew, they shouted, “Man of God, there is poison in this stew!” So they could not eat it.
41 But he said, “Then bring flour.” And he threw it into the pot; and he said, “Serve it to the people, so they can eat.” And there was nothing bad in the pot.
42 A man from Baalshalisha came and brought the man of God twenty barley loaves and fresh ears of corn. He said, “Give it to the people to eat.”
43 His servant asked, “How can I feed a hundred men with this?” He answered, “Give it to the people to eat, because God says they will eat and have some left over.”
44 He placed the food before them, and they ate and left some, as God had said.