2 Kings 4

¹ The wife of a member of the prophetic brotherhood appealed to Elisha. 'Your servant my husband isdead,' she said, 'and you know how your servant revered Yahweh. A creditor has now come to take my twochildren and make them his slaves.'

² Elisha said, 'What can I do for you? Tel me, what have you got in the house?' 'Your servant has nothingin the house,' she replied, 'except a flask of oil.'

³ Then he said, 'Go outside and borrow jars from al your neighbours, empty jars and not too few.

⁴ When you come back, shut the door on yourself and your sons, and pour the oil into all these jars,putting each aside when it is ful .'

⁵ So she left him; and she shut the door on herself and her sons; they passed her the jars and she wenton pouring.

⁶ When the jars were full, she said to her son, 'Pass me another jar.' 'There are no more,' he replied. Thenthe oil stopped flowing.

⁷ She went and told the man of God, who said, 'Go and sel the oil and redeem your pledge; you and yourchildren can live on the remainder.'

⁸ One day as Elisha was on his way to Shunem, a woman of rank who lived there pressed him to stay andeat there. After this he always broke his journey for a meal when he passed that way.

⁹ She said to her husband, 'Look, I am sure the man who is constantly passing our way must be a holyman of God.

¹⁰ Let us build him a smal wal ed room, and put him a bed in it, and a table and chair and lamp;whenever he comes to us he can rest there.'

¹¹ One day when he came, he retired to the upper room and lay down.

¹² He said to his servant Gehazi, 'Cal our Shunammite.' He cal ed her and when she appeared, Elishasaid,

¹³ 'Tell her this: "Look, you have gone to al this trouble for us, what can we do for you? Is there anythingyou would like said for you to the king or to the commander of the army?" ' But she replied, 'I live with my ownpeople about me.'

¹⁴ 'What can I do for you then?' he asked. Gehazi replied, 'Wel , she has no son and her husband is old.'

¹⁵ Elisha said, 'Call her.' The servant cal ed her and she stood at the door.

¹⁶ 'This time next year', he said, 'you wil hold a son in your arms.' But she said, 'No, my lord, do not deceive your servant.'

¹⁷ But the woman did conceive, and she gave birth to a son at the time that Elisha had said she would.

¹⁸ The child grew up; one day he went to his father who was with the reapers,

¹⁹ and exclaimed to his father, 'Oh, my head! My head!' The father told a servant to carry him to hismother.

²⁰ He lifted him up and took him to his mother, and the boy lay on her lap until midday, when he died.

²¹ She went upstairs, laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him and went out.

²² She cal ed her husband and said, 'Send me one of the servants with a donkey. I must hurry to the manof God and back.'

²³ 'Why go to him today?' he asked. 'It is not New Moon or Sabbath.' But she replied, 'Never mind.'

²⁴ She had the donkey saddled and said to her servant, 'Lead on, go! Do not draw rein until I give theorder.'

²⁵ She set off and made her way to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her inthe distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, 'Look, here comes our Shunammite!

²⁶ Now run and meet her and ask her, "Are you wel ? Is your husband well? Your child well?" ' 'Yes,' shereplied.

²⁷ When she came to the man of God there on the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi steppedforward to push her away, but the man of God said, 'Leave her; there is bitterness in her soul and Yahweh hashidden it from me, he has not told me.'

²⁸ She said, 'Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say: Don't deceive me?'

²⁹ Elisha said to Gehazi, 'Hitch up your clothes, take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, donot greet him; if anyone greets you, do not answer him. You are to stretch out my staff over the child.'

³⁰ But the child's mother said, 'As Yahweh lives and as you yourself live, I wil not leave you.' Then hestood up and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi had gone ahead of them and had stretched out the staff over the child, but there was no soundor response. He went back to meet Elisha and told him. 'The child has not woken up,' he said.

³² Elisha then went to the house, and there on his bed lay the child, dead.

³³ He went in and shut the door on the two of them and prayed to Yahweh.

³⁴ Then he climbed on to the bed and stretched himself on top of the child, putting his mouth on hismouth, his eyes to his eyes, and his hands on his hands, and as he lowered himself on to him, the child's fleshgrew warm.

³⁵ Then he got up and walked to and fro inside the house, and then climbed on to the bed again andlowered himself on to the child seven times in al ; then the child sneezed and opened his eyes.

³⁶ He then summoned Gehazi. 'Cal our Shunammite,' he said. He cal ed her. When she came to him, hesaid, 'Pick up your son.'

³⁷ She went in and, fal ing at his feet, prostrated herself on the floor and then picked up her son and wentout.

³⁸ Elisha went back to Gilgal while there was famine in the country. As the brotherhood of prophets weresitting with him, he said to his servant, 'Put the large pot on the fire and cook some soup for the brotherhood.'

³⁹ One of them went into the fields to gather herbs and came on some wild vine, off which he gatheredenough gourds to fil his lap. On his return, he cut them up into the pot of soup; they did not know what theywere.

⁴⁰ They then poured the soup out for the men to eat, but they had no sooner tasted the soup than theycried, 'Man of God, there is death in the pot!' And they could not eat it.

⁴¹ 'Bring some meal then,' Elisha said. This he threw into the pot, and said, 'Pour out, for the company toeat!' And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

⁴² A man came from Baal-Shalishah, bringing the man of God bread from the first-fruits, twenty barleyloaves and fresh grain stil in the husk. 'Give it to the company to eat,' Elisha said.

⁴³ But his servant replied, 'How can I serve this to a hundred men?' 'Give it to the company to eat,' heinsisted, 'for Yahweh says this, "They wil eat and have some left over." '

⁴⁴ He served them; they ate and had some left over, as Yahweh had said.