2 Kings 4

¹ A woman from the wives of the prophets’ disciples cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the creditor has come to take my two sons as slaves.”

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

³ He said, “Go and borrow empty jars from outside, from all your neighbors. Don’t ask for just a few.

⁴ Then go inside, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these jars. Set each full one aside.”

⁵ She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought her the jars, and she kept pouring.

⁶ When the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another jar.” He replied, “There are no more jars.” And the oil stopped flowing.

⁷ She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

⁸ One day Elisha passed through Shunem. A prominent woman who lived there urged him to eat. Whenever he passed by, he would stop there to eat.

⁹ She said to her husband, “Look, I know that this man who often passes by our home is a holy man of God.

¹⁰ Let’s build a small room upstairs with walls, and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp there for him. Then whenever he comes to us, he can stay there.”

¹¹ One day he came there, went up to the upstairs room, and lay down.

¹² He said to Gehazi, his servant, “Call that Shunammite woman.” He called her, and she stood before him.

¹³ Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tell her, ‘Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What can be done for you? Is there something I can say on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’” She replied, “I live among my own people.”

¹⁴ He asked, “Then what can be done for her?” Gehazi replied, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵ He said, “Call her.” He called her, and she stood in the doorway.

¹⁶ Elisha said, “At this time next year, you will be holding a son in your arms.” She replied, “No, my lord, man of God, don’t deceive your servant.”

¹⁷ The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son at that same time the following year, just as Elisha had told her.

¹⁸ The boy grew up. One day he went out to his father, who was with the harvesters.

¹⁹ He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father said to the servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

²⁰ He carried him and brought him to his mother. The boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

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

²² Then she called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can hurry to the man of God and come back.”

²³ He asked, “Why are you going to him today? It’s neither the new moon nor the Sabbath.” She replied, “Everything is all right.”

²⁴ She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on, and don’t slow down for me unless I tell you to.”

²⁵ She set out and came 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 that Shunammite woman.

²⁶ Run to meet her now and ask her, ‘Are you well? Is your husband well? Is the boy well?’” She replied, “Everything is all right.”

²⁷ When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she grabbed his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is deeply distressed, and the LORD has hidden this from me and not told me.”

²⁸ She said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t mislead me’?”

²⁹ He said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, don’t greet them, and if anyone greets you, don’t answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”

³⁰ The boy’s mother said, “As surely as the LORD lives, and as you 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 or response. He went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not woken up.”

³² When Elisha entered the house, the boy was dead, lying on his bed.

³³ He went in, shut the door behind them both, and prayed to the LORD.

³⁴ Then he went up and lay on the boy. He put his mouth on the boy’s mouth, his eyes on the boy’s eyes, and his hands on the boy’s hands. As he stretched himself over him, the boy’s body grew warm.

³⁵ Elisha got up and walked back and forth through the house. Then he went up again and stretched himself over the boy. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

³⁶ Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call that Shunammite woman.” He called her, and she came to him. Elisha 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.

³⁸ Elisha returned to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land, and the prophets’ disciples were sitting before him. He said to his servant, “Put the large pot on the fire and cook some stew for the prophets’ disciples.”

³⁹ One of them went out into the field to gather herbs. He found a wild vine and gathered wild gourds from it, filling his garment. He came back and cut them into the pot of stew, though they didn’t know what they were.

⁴⁰ They served the men their food. But when they began eating the stew, they cried out, “There is death in the pot, man of God!” And they could not eat it.

⁴¹ He said, “Bring some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people so they can eat.” And there was nothing harmful left in the pot.

⁴² A man came from Baal-shalishah and brought the man of God bread from the firstfruits: twenty barley loaves and fresh grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat.”

⁴³ His servant asked, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” Elisha repeated, “Give it to the people to eat, for this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat, and there will be some left over.’”

⁴⁴ He set it before them, and they ate, with some left over, just as the LORD had said.

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