2 Kings 4

¹ Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the creditor has come to take my two children as his slaves."

² Elisha said to her, "What shall 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 He said, "Go, borrow vessels from outside, from all your neighbors—empty vessels. Do not get too few."

⁴ "Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour into all those vessels. Set aside each one when it is full."

⁵ So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They kept bringing vessels to her, and she kept pouring.

⁶ When the vessels were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." He said to her, "There is not another vessel." Then the oil stopped.

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 remains."

⁸ One day Elisha passed through Shunem, where a prominent woman lived, and she urged him to eat food. So whenever he passed through, he would turn aside there to eat food.

⁹ She said to her husband, "Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually."

¹⁰ "Let us make a small upper room on the wall and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lampstand there for him, so that whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there."

¹¹ One day he came there and turned into the upper room and lay down there.

¹² He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite woman." When he called her, she stood before him.

¹³ He said to him, "Say to her now, 'Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What can be done for you? Should I speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?'" She answered, "I live among my own people."

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

¹⁵ He said, "Call her." When he called her, she stood in the doorway.

¹⁶ He said, "At this season, about this time next year, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my lord, man of God, do not deceive your servant."

¹⁷ But the woman conceived and bore a son at that season, about the time Elisha had told her.

¹⁸ The child grew. One day he went out to his father among the reapers.

¹⁹ He said to his father, "My head! My head!" He said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."

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

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

²² 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 God and come back."

²³ He said, "Why are you going to him today? It is not the new moon or the Sabbath." She said, "All is well."

²⁴ She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, "Drive and go forward. Do not slow the pace for me unless I tell you."

²⁵ So she went and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, "Look, there is the Shunammite woman."

²⁶ "Run now to meet her and say to her, 'Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?'" She answered, "It is well."

²⁷ When she came to the man of God at the mountain, she grabbed his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone, for her soul is bitter within her, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me."

²⁸ She said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, 'Do not deceive me'?"

²⁹ He 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. Lay my staff on the face of the boy."

³⁰ The mother of the boy said, "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So he arose and followed her.

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

³² When Elisha came into the house, there was the boy, dead, laid on his bed.

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

³⁴ Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself out on him, and the flesh of the child became warm.

³⁵ He got up, walked back and forth in the house once, then went up and stretched himself out on him again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

³⁶ He called Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite woman." So he called her, and she came to him. He said, "Pick up your son."

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

³⁸ Elisha returned to Gilgal during a famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, "Set on the large pot and cook stew for the sons of the prophets."

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

⁴⁰ They poured it out for the men to eat. As they were eating the stew, they cried out, "Death is in the pot, man of God!" And they could not eat it.

⁴¹ He said, "Bring 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.

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

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

⁴⁴ So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.