2 Kings 4

Chapter 4.

4 ¹ Now a certain woman, the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant revered our Father. But now the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves."

² Elisha said to her, "What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil."

³ Then he said, "Go, borrow vessels from outside, from all your neighbors — empty vessels, and not just a few. ⁴ Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these vessels. As each is filled, set it aside."

⁵ So she left him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. They kept bringing the vessels to her, and she kept pouring. ⁶ When the vessels were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." But he said to her, "There is not one left." Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷ She came and told the man of our Father, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; then you and your sons can live on what is left."

The Father's Promise to the Shunammite

⁸ One day Elisha traveled on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, and she urged him to stay and eat. So whenever he passed by, he would turn in there to eat. ⁹ She said to her husband, "Look, I know that this man who regularly passes our way is a holy man of our Father. ¹⁰ Let us make a small room on the roof and set there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can stay there."

¹¹ One day Elisha came there, turned into the upper room, and lay down. ¹² He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite woman." So he called her, and she stood before him. ¹³ Elisha said to him, "Say to her now: 'You have gone to all this trouble for us. What can be done for you? Shall I speak a word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?'" She answered, "I live among my own people."

¹⁴ Then he said, "What can be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is old."

¹⁵ He said, "Call her." So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶ And he said, "At this season, about this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms." But she said, "No, my lord, man of our Father, do not deceive your servant."

¹⁷ But the woman conceived and bore a son at that season the following year, just as Elisha had told her.

Our Father Restores the Boy to Life

¹⁸ When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father, who was with the reapers. ¹⁹ He said to his father, "My head! My head!" The father said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."

²⁰ He carried him and brought him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. ²¹ So she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of our Father, shut the door behind him, and went out. ²² Then she called to her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can hurry to the man of our Father and come back."

²³ He said, "Why go to him today? It is not the new moon or the Sabbath." But she said, "It is well."

²⁴ Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, "Drive on; do not slow down for me unless I tell you." ²⁵ So she set out and came to the man of our Father at Mount Carmel. When the man of our Father saw her in the distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, "Look, there is the Shunammite woman. ²⁶ Run now to meet her and ask, 'Are you well? Is your husband well? Is the child well?'" And she answered, "All is well."

²⁷ When she reached the man of our Father at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but he said, "Leave her alone, for her soul is in bitter distress, and our Father has hidden it from me and has not told me."

²⁸ Then she said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, 'Do not raise my hopes'?"

²⁹ Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him. Then lay my staff on the boy's face."

³⁰ But the mother of the child said, "As surely as our Father lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi went ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound and no response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened."

³² When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, dead, lying on his bed. ³³ So he went in, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to our Father. ³⁴ Then he climbed up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on his eyes, his hands on his hands. As he stretched himself out over him, the child's body grew warm. ³⁵ Then he got up, walked back and forth once across the room, and climbed up and stretched himself out over him again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. ³⁶ Elisha called Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite woman." So he called her, and when she came to him he said, "Pick up your son."

³⁷ She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

The Father Heals the Deadly Stew

³⁸ Elisha returned to Gilgal while there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, "Put the large pot on the fire and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."

³⁹ One of them went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine. He gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds, came back, and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. ⁴⁰ They poured it out for the men to eat, but as they began to eat the stew, they cried out, "Man of our Father, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it.

⁴¹ He said, "Then bring some flour." He threw it into the pot and said, "Pour it out for the people to eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

The Father Feeds a Hundred Men

⁴² A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of our Father bread of the firstfruits — twenty loaves of barley and fresh grain in his sack. And Elisha said, "Give it to the people to eat."

⁴³ But his servant said, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" He said again, "Give it to the people to eat, for this is what our Father says: 'They will eat and have some left over.'"

⁴⁴ So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, just as our Father had said.