2 Kings 4

4 ¹ The wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know he revered our Father. Now the creditor comes to take my two children as slaves."

² Elisha asked, "What can I do for you? Tell me, what's in your house?" She said, "Your servant has nothing but a jar of oil."

³ Then he said, "Go, borrow vessels outside from all your neighbors — empty vessels, not a few. ⁴ Go in, shut the door behind you and your sons, pour oil into all these jars, setting each full one aside."

⁵ So she left him, shut the door behind her and her sons; they kept bringing the vessels, she kept pouring. ⁶ When the jars were full, she told her son, "Bring me another." "There are none left," he said. Then the oil stopped.

⁷ She came and told the man of our Father, who said, "Go, sell the oil, pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest."

The Father's Promise to the Shunammite

⁸ One day Elisha passed through Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived; she urged him to eat. Whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat. ⁹ She told her husband, "I know this man who often passes by us is a holy man of our Father." ¹⁰ Let's make him a small roof room with a bed, table, chair, and lamp, so he can stay whenever he comes."

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

¹⁴ He asked, "What can be done for her?" Gehazi said, "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 He said, "At this season next year, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my lord, man of our Father, don't lie to your servant."

¹⁷ The woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had told her.

¹⁸ The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, to the reapers. ¹⁹ He told his father, "My head! My head!" His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother."

²⁰ He carried him to his mother; the boy sat on her knees until noon, then died. ²¹ She went up, laid him on the man of our Father's bed, shut the door behind him, and left. ²² She called her husband: "Send me a servant and a donkey, so I can run to the man of our Father and come back."

²³ He asked, "Why go to him today? It's not new moon or Sabbath." She said, "It's fine."

²⁴ She saddled the donkey and told her servant, "Drive on; don't slow down unless I tell you." ²⁵ She set out and came to the man of our Father at Mount Carmel. Seeing her in the distance, the man of our Father told Gehazi his servant, "Look, the Shunammite woman. ²⁶ Run now, meet her, and ask, 'Are you well? Your husband? The child?'" She answered, "Well."

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

²⁸ She said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn't I say, 'Don't raise my hopes'?"

²⁹ Elisha told Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak in your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, don't greet him; if anyone greets you, don't answer him. Lay my staff on the boy's face."

³⁰ But the child's mother said, "As our Father lives and you live, I won't leave you." So he got up and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi went ahead, laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response. He went back to meet Elisha: "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—mouth on mouth, eyes on eyes, hands on hands. As he stretched over him, the child's body grew warm. ³⁵ He got up, paced the room once, then stretched over the boy again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. ³⁶ He called Gehazi: "Call this Shunammite." He called her; she came to him, and he said, "Take your son."

³⁷ She came, fell at his feet, bowed to the ground, then picked up her son and left.

The Father Heals the Deadly Stew

³⁸ Elisha returned to Gilgal during a famine. As the prophets' sons sat before him, he told his servant, "Put the large pot on; boil stew for the prophets' sons."

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

⁴¹ He said, "Bring flour," threw it in the pot, and said, "Pour it out for the people to eat." Nothing harmful remained in the pot.

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

⁴³ His servant said, "How do I set this before a hundred men?" He said, "Give it to the people to eat, for our Father says: They will eat and have leftovers."

⁴⁴ He set it before them; they ate and had leftovers, just as our Father said.