2 KingsChapter 4

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¹The wife of a man from the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha. She said, "My husband, your servant, is dead. You know that he feared the LORD. Now the man he owed money to is coming. He wants to take my two children as his slaves!" ²"How can I help you?" Elisha asked. "Tell me, what do you have in your house?" She answered, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil." ³"Go," Elisha said. "Borrow empty jars from all your neighbors. Don't get just a few. ⁴Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all these jars. Set each full one aside." ⁵So she left him. She shut the door behind her and her sons. They kept bringing jars to her, and she kept pouring. ⁶When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one." But he answered, "There aren't any more jars." Then the oil stopped flowing. ⁷She went and told the man of God. He said, "Go sell the oil and pay what you owe. Then you and your sons can live on what is left." ⁸One day Elisha went to Shunem. An important woman lived there. She talked him into staying for a meal. After that, whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat. ⁹The woman said to her husband, "Listen, now I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. ¹⁰Please let's make a small room for him upstairs. Let's put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it for him. Then he can stay there when he comes to us." ¹¹One day Elisha came by. He went up to his upstairs room to lie down. ¹²He said to his servant Gehazi, "Call the Shunammite woman." Gehazi called her, and she stood in front of him. ¹³Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tell her, 'Look, you've gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak to the king for you? Or to the commander of the army?'" She answered, "I have a home among my own people." ¹⁴So Elisha asked, "Then what can be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Well, she has no son. And her husband is old." ¹⁵"Call her," Elisha said. So Gehazi called her, and she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶Elisha said, "About this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms." "No, my lord!" she said. "Man of God, don't lie to me, your servant." ¹⁷But the woman did become pregnant. About that time the next year, she had a son, just as Elisha had told her. ¹⁸The child grew. One day he went out to his father, who was with the workers cutting the grain. ¹⁹"My head! My head!" he cried to his father. So his father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother." ²⁰The servant picked him up and carried him to his mother. The boy sat on her lap until noon. Then he died. ²¹She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out. ²²She called her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys. I need to hurry to the man of God and come back." ²³"Why go to him today?" he asked. "It isn't a New Moon or a Sabbath." "It's all right," she said. ²⁴Then she saddled the donkey. She told her servant, "Lead on. Don't slow down for me unless I tell you." ²⁵So she set out and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. The man of God saw her far away. He said to his servant Gehazi, "Look, there's the Shunammite woman. ²⁶Please run out now to meet her. Ask her, 'Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?'" She answered, "Everything is all right." ²⁷She reached the man of God on the mountain and held on to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away. But the man of God said, "Leave her alone! She is in deep pain. And the LORD has hidden it from me. He hasn't told me." ²⁸Then she said, "My lord, did I ask you for a son? Didn't I tell you, 'Don't fool me'?" ²⁹So Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your robe into 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. Then lay my staff on the boy's face." ³⁰But the boy's mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives, and as surely as you live, I will not leave you." So Elisha got up and followed her. ³¹Gehazi went on ahead of them. He laid the staff on the boy's face. But there was no sound and no sign of life. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha. He told him, "The boy hasn't woken up." ³²When Elisha reached the house, he saw the boy lying dead on his bed. ³³So he went in and shut the door on the two of them. Then he prayed to the LORD. ³⁴Then Elisha got on the bed and lay on the boy. He put his mouth on the boy's mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. As he stretched out over him, the boy's body grew warm. ³⁵Elisha got up and walked back and forth across the room. Then he got on the bed and stretched out over the boy again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. ³⁶Elisha called Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite woman." So Gehazi called her, and she came. Elisha said, "Pick up your son." ³⁷She came in and fell at his feet. She bowed down to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out. ³⁸Elisha went back to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet. He said to his helper, "Put the big pot on the fire. Cook some stew for the sons of the prophets." ³⁹One of them went out to the field to gather plants. He found a wild vine. He picked as many wild gourds from it as his robe could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew. But no one knew what they were. ⁴⁰They poured out the stew for the men to eat. But when they tasted it, they cried out, "Man of God, there's death in the pot!" And they couldn't eat it. ⁴¹Then Elisha said, "Bring some flour." He threw it into the pot. Then he said, "Pour it out for the people to eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot. ⁴²A man came from Baal-shalishah to the man of God. He brought a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread made from the first grain of the harvest. "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said. ⁴³But his servant asked, "How can I set twenty loaves in front of a hundred men?" Elisha said, "Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the LORD says: 'They will eat and have some left over.'" ⁴⁴So he set it in front of them. They ate and had some left over, just as the LORD had said.