2 Kings 4
4
Elisha Provides Olive Oil for a Widow
1The wife of a man from the group of the prophets cried out to Elisha. She said, “My husband is dead. You know how much respect he had for the Lord. But he owed money to someone. And now that person is coming to take my two boys away. They will become his slaves.”
2Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me. What do you have in your house?”
“I don’t have anything there at all,” she said. “All I have is a small jar of olive oil.”
3Elisha said, “Go around to all your neighbors. Ask them for empty jars. Get as many as you can. 4Then go inside your house. Shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars. As each jar is filled, put it over to one side.”
5The woman left him. Then she shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her. And she kept pouring. 6When all the jars were full, she spoke to one of her sons. She said, “Bring me another jar.”
But he replied, “There aren’t any more left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7She went and told the man of God about it. He said, “Go and sell the oil. Pay what you owe. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
The Son of a Woman From Shunem Is Brought Back to Life
8One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A rich woman lived there. She begged him to stay and have a meal. So every time he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9The woman said to her husband, “That man often comes by here. I know that he is a holy man of God. 10Let’s make a small room for him on the roof. We’ll put a bed and a table in it. We’ll also put a chair and a lamp in it. Then he can stay there when he comes to visit us.”
11One day Elisha came. He went up to his room and lay down there. 12He said to his servant Gehazi, “Go and get the woman from Shunem.” So he did. She stood in front of Elisha. 13He said to Gehazi, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to a lot of trouble for us. Now what can we do for you? Can we speak to the king for you? Or can we speak to the commander of the army for you?’ ”
She replied, “I live among my own people. I have everything I need here.”
14After she left, Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can we do for her?”
Gehazi said, “She doesn’t have a son. And her husband is old.”
15Then Elisha said, “Bring her here again.” So he did. She stood in the doorway. 16“You will hold a son in your arms,” Elisha said. “It will be about this time next year.”
“No, my master!” she objected. “You are a man of God. So please don’t lie to me!”
17But the woman became pregnant. She had a baby boy. It happened the next year about that same time. That’s exactly what Elisha had told her would happen.
18The child grew. One day he went out to get his father. His father was with the people who were gathering the crops. 19The boy said to his father, “My head hurts! It really hurts!”
His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20The servant lifted up the boy. He carried him to his mother. The boy sat on her lap until noon. Then he died. 21She went up to the room on the roof. There she laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out.
22She sent for her husband. She said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey. Then I can go quickly to the man of God and return.”
23“Why do you want to go to him today?” he asked. “It isn’t the time for the New Moon feast. It isn’t the Sabbath day.”
“Don’t let that bother you,” she said.
24She put a saddle on her donkey. She said to her servant, “Let’s go. Don’t slow down for me unless I tell you to.” 25So she started out. She came to Mount Carmel. That’s where the man of God was.
When she was still a long way off, he saw her coming. He said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the woman from Shunem! 26Run out there to meet her. Ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’ ”
“Everything is all right,” she said.
27She came to the man of God at the mountain. Then she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away. But the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is suffering terribly. But the Lord hasn’t told me the reason for it. He has hidden it from me.”
28“My master, did I ask you for a son?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t make me hope for something that won’t happen’?”
29Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your coat into your belt. Take my walking stick and run to Shunem. Don’t say hello to anyone you see. If anyone says hello to you, don’t answer. Lay my walking stick on the boy’s face.”
30But the child’s mother said, “I won’t leave you. And that’s just as sure as the Lord and you are alive.” So Elisha got up and followed her.
31Gehazi went on ahead. He laid Elisha’s walking stick on the boy’s face. But there wasn’t any sound. The boy didn’t move at all. So Gehazi went back to Elisha. He told him, “The boy hasn’t awakened.”
32Elisha arrived at the house. The boy was dead. He was lying on Elisha’s bed. 33Elisha went into the room. He shut the door. He was alone with the boy. He prayed to the Lord. 34Then Elisha got on the bed. He lay down on the boy. His mouth touched the boy’s mouth. His eyes touched the boy’s eyes. And his hands touched the boy’s hands. As Elisha lay on the boy, the boy’s body grew warm. 35Elisha turned away. He walked back and forth in the room. Then he got on the bed again. He lay down on the boy once more. The boy sneezed seven times. After that, he opened his eyes.
36Elisha sent for Gehazi. He said to him, “Go and get the woman from Shunem.” So he did. When she came, Elisha said, “Take your son.” 37She came in and fell at Elisha’s feet. She bowed down with her face toward the ground. Then she took her son and went out.
Deadly Food in a Pot
38Elisha returned to Gilgal. There wasn’t enough food to eat in that area. The group of the prophets was meeting with Elisha. So he said to his servant, “Put the large pot over the fire. Cook some stew for these prophets.”
39One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs. He found a wild vine and picked some of its gourds. He picked as many as he could fit in his coat. Then he cut them up and put them into the pot of stew. But no one knew what they were. 40The stew was poured out for the men. They began to eat it. But then they cried out, “Man of God, the food in that pot will kill us!” They couldn’t eat it.
41Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it in the pot. He said, “Serve it to the men to eat.” Then there wasn’t anything in the pot that could harm them.
Elisha Feeds 100 People
42A man came from Baal Shalishah. He brought the man of God 20 loaves of barley bread. They had been baked from the first grain that had ripened. The man also brought some heads of new grain. “Give this food to the people to eat,” Elisha said.
43“How can I put this in front of 100 men?” his servant asked.
But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. Do it because the Lord says, ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ ” 44Then the servant put the food in front of them. They ate it and had some left over. It happened just as the Lord had said it would.
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2 Kings 4: NIrV
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2 Kings 4
4
The Widow’s Oil Multiplied
1One of the wives of the sons of the prophets#2Kg 2:3,15 cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, has died. You know that your servant feared the Lord.#Pr 1:7; 9:10 Now the creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves.”#Lv 25:39–41
2Elisha asked her, “What can 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.”#1Kg 17:12
3Then he said, “Go out and borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few.#2Kg 3:16 4Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these containers. Set the full ones to one side.” 5So she left.
After she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring.#Mt 14:17–21 6When they were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.”
But he replied, “There aren’t any more.” Then the oil stopped.
7She went and told the man of God,#1Kg 12:22 and he said, “Go sell the oil and pay your debt; you and your sons can live on the rest.”#1Kg 17:16
The Shunammite Woman’s Hospitality
8One day Elisha went to Shunem.#Jos 19:18 A prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to eat some food. So whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat.#Mt 10:40–42; 3Jn 5–8 9Then she said to her husband, “I know that the one who often passes by here is a holy man of God, 10so let’s make a small, walled-in upper room and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp there for him. Whenever he comes, he can stay there.”#1Kg 17:19
The Shunammite Woman’s Son
11One day he came there and stopped at the upstairs room to lie down. 12He ordered his attendant Gehazi,#2Kg 4:29–31; 5:20–27 “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she stood before him.
13Then he said to Gehazi, “Say to her, ‘Look, you’ve gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you?#2Kg 4:2 Can we speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army? ’”
She answered, “I am living among my own people.”
14So he asked, “Then what should 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, “At this time next year you will have a son in your arms.”#Gn 18:9–14; Lk 1:7–13
Then she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your servant.”#2Kg 4:28
17The woman conceived and gave birth to a son at the same time the following year, as Elisha had promised her.
The Shunammite’s Son Raised
18The child grew and one day went out to his father and the harvesters.#Ru 2:3 19Suddenly he complained to his father, “My head! My head!”
His father told his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20So he picked him up and took him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon and then died. 21She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut him in, and left.
22She summoned 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 again.”
23But he said, “Why go to him today? It’s not a New Moon or a Sabbath.”#Nm 10:10; 28:11
She replied, “It’s all right.”#2Sm 18:28; 2Kg 4:26
24Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Go fast; don’t slow the pace for me unless I tell you.” 25So she came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.#1Kg 18:19–20
When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his attendant Gehazi,#2Kg 4:12 “Look, there’s the Shunammite woman.#2Kg 4:8,12 26Run out to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your son all right? ’”
And she answered, “It’s all right.”
27When she came up to the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet.#Mt 28:9 Gehazi came to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone — she is in severe anguish,#Ru 1:19–21; 1Sm 1:15; Zch 12:10 and the Lord has hidden it from me. He hasn’t told me.”
28Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not lie to me?’” #2Kg 4:16
29So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your mantle#1Kg 18:46; 2Kg 9:1 under your belt, take my staff with you, and go. If you meet anyone, don’t stop to greet him, and if a man greets you, don’t answer him.#Lk 10:4 Then place my staff on the boy’s face.”
30The boy’s mother said to Elisha, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”#2Kg 2:2,4,6 So he got up and followed her.
31Gehazi went ahead of them and placed the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or sign of life, so he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy didn’t wake up.”#Jn 11:11
32When Elisha got to the house, he discovered the boy lying dead on his bed.#2Kg 4:21 33So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.#Mt 6:6 34Then he went up and lay on the boy:#1Kg 17:21–23 he put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand. While he bent down over him, the boy’s flesh became warm.#Ac 20:10 35Elisha got up, went into the house, and paced back and forth. Then he went up and bent down over him again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.#2Kg 8:5
36Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” He called her and she came. Then Elisha said, “Pick up your son.” 37She came, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; she picked up her son and left.#Heb 11:35
The Deadly Stew
38When Elisha returned to Gilgal,#2Kg 2:1 there was a famine#Lv 26:26; 2Kg 8:1 in the land. The sons of the prophets#2Kg 2:3,5,7 were sitting before him.#Lk 10:39; Ac 22:3 He said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and make stew for the sons of the prophets.”
39One went out to the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment would hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, but they were unaware of what they were.#4:39 of what they were added for clarity
40They served some for the men to eat, but when they ate the stew they cried out, “There’s death in the pot,#Ex 10:17 man of God!” And they were unable to eat it.
41Then Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Serve it for the people to eat.” And there was nothing bad in the pot.#Ex 15:25; 2Kg 2:21
The Multiplied Bread
42A man from Baal-shalishah#1Sm 9:4 came to the man of God with his sack full of#4:42 Or with some heads of fresh grain and twenty loaves of barley bread from the first bread of the harvest. Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat.”#Mt 14:17
43But Elisha’s attendant asked, “What? Am I to set this before a hundred men?” #Lk 9:13; Jn 6:9
“Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said, “for this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat, and they will have some left over.’” 44So he set it before them, and as the Lord had promised, they ate and had some left over.#Mt 14:20
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