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.
Currently Selected:
2 Kings 4: NIrV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
II Kings 4
4
Elisha and the Widow’s Oil
1A certain woman of the wives of #1 Kin. 20:35; 2 Kin. 2:3the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming #(Lev. 25:39–41, 48); 1 Sam. 22:2; Neh. 5:2–5; Matt. 18:25to take my two sons to be his slaves.”
2So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
3Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; #2 Kin. 3:16do not gather just a few. 4And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”
5So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. 6Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”
And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. 7Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
Elisha Raises the Shunammite’s Son
8Now it happened one day that Elisha went to #Josh. 19:18Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food. 9And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly. 10Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.”
11And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned in to the upper room and lay down there. 12Then he said to #2 Kin. 4:29–31; 5:20–27; 8:4, 5Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite woman.” When he had called her, she stood before him. 13And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Look, you have been concerned for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’ ”
She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”
14So he said, “What then is to be done for her?”
And Gehazi answered, “Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old.”
15So he said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. 16Then he said, “About this time next year you shall embrace a son.”
And she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, #2 Kin. 4:28do not lie to your maidservant!”
17But the woman conceived, and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her.
18And the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. 19And he said to his father, “My head, my head!”
So he said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. 21And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out. 22Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come back.”
23So he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the #Num. 10:10; 28:11; 1 Chr. 23:31New Moon nor the Sabbath.”
And she said, “It is well.” 24Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.” 25And so she departed, and went to the man of God #2 Kin. 2:25at Mount Carmel.
So it was, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, the Shunammite woman! 26Please 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?’ ”
And she answered, “It is well.” 27Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone; for her soul is in deep distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
28So she said, “Did I ask a son of my lord? #2 Kin. 4:16Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”
29Then he said to Gehazi, #1 Kin. 18:46; 2 Kin. 9:1“Get yourself ready, and take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, #Luke 10:4do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him; but #Ex. 7:19; 14:16; 2 Kin. 2:8, 14; Acts 19:12lay my staff on the face of the child.”
30And the mother of the child said, #2 Kin. 2:2“As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, #2 Kin. 2:4I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her. 31Now Gehazi went on ahead of them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore he went back to meet him, and told him, saying, “The child has #John 11:11not awakened.”
32When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, lying dead on his bed. 33He #2 Kin. 4:4; (Matt. 6:6); Luke 8:51went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, #1 Kin. 17:20and prayed to the Lord. 34And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and #1 Kin. 17:21–23; Acts 20:10he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm. 35He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up #1 Kin. 17:21and stretched himself out on him; then #2 Kin. 8:1, 5the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36And he called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” 37So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; then she #1 Kin. 17:23; (Heb. 11:35)picked up her son and went out.
Elisha Purifies the Pot of Stew
38And Elisha returned to #2 Kin. 2:1Gilgal, and there was a #2 Kin. 8:1famine in the land. Now the sons of the prophets were #Luke 10:39; Acts 22:3sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.” 39So one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were. 40Then they served it to the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is #Ex. 10:17death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
41So he said, “Then bring some flour.” And #Ex. 15:25; 2 Kin. 2:21he put it into the pot, and said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
Elisha Feeds One Hundred Men
42Then a man came from #1 Sam. 9:4Baal Shalisha, #1 Sam. 9:7; (1 Cor. 9:11; Gal. 6:6)and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley bread, and newly ripened grain in his knapsack. And he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat.”
43But his servant said, #Luke 9:13; John 6:9“What? Shall I set this before one hundred men?”
He said again, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for thus says the Lord: #Luke 9:17; John 6:11‘They shall eat and have some left over.’ ” 44So he set it before them; and they ate #Matt. 14:20; 15:37; John 6:13and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.