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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Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
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2 Kings 4
4
Elisha Helps a Poor Widow
1One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”
2“What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”
“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.
3And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”
5So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6Soon every container was full to the brim!
“Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons.
“There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.
7When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.”
Elisha and the Woman from Shunem
8One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat.
9She said to her husband, “I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. 10Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.”
11One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to this upper room to rest. 12He said to his servant Gehazi, “Tell the woman from Shunem I want to speak to her.” When she appeared, 13Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tell her, ‘We appreciate the kind concern you have shown us. What can we do for you? Can we put in a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’”
“No,” she replied, “my family takes good care of me.”
14Later Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can we do for her?”
Gehazi replied, “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.”
15“Call her back again,” Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway, 16“Next year at this time you will be holding a son in your arms!”
“No, my lord!” she cried. “O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that.”
17But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.
18One day when her child was older, he went out to help his father, who was working with the harvesters. 19Suddenly he cried out, “My head hurts! My head hurts!”
His father said to one of the servants, “Carry him home to his mother.”
20So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died. 21She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there. 22She sent a message to her husband: “Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back.”
23“Why go today?” he asked. “It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath.”
But she said, “It will be all right.”
24So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, “Hurry! Don’t slow down unless I tell you to.”
25As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, “Look, the woman from Shunem is coming. 26Run out to meet her and ask her, ‘Is everything all right with you, your husband, and your child?’”
“Yes,” the woman told Gehazi, “everything is fine.”
27But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is deeply troubled, but the Lord has not told me what it is.”
28Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? And didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me and get my hopes up’?”
29Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready to travel#4:29 Hebrew Bind up your loins.; take my staff and go! Don’t talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child’s face.”
30But the boy’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I won’t go home unless you go with me.” So Elisha returned with her.
31Gehazi hurried on ahead and laid the staff on the child’s face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, “The child is still dead.”
32When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet’s bed. 33He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord. 34Then he lay down on the child’s body, placing his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the child’s hands. And as he stretched out on him, the child’s body began to grow warm again! 35Elisha got up, walked back and forth across the room once, and then stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
36Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. “Call the child’s mother!” he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, “Here, take your son!” 37She fell at his feet and bowed before him, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she took her son in her arms and carried him downstairs.
Miracles during a Famine
38Elisha now returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. One day as the group of prophets was seated before him, he said to his servant, “Put a large pot on the fire, and make some stew for the rest of the group.”
39One of the young men went out into the field to gather herbs and came back with a pocketful of wild gourds. He shredded them and put them into the pot without realizing they were poisonous. 40Some of the stew was served to the men. But after they had eaten a bite or two they cried out, “Man of God, there’s poison in this stew!” So they would not eat it.
41Elisha said, “Bring me some flour.” Then he threw it into the pot and said, “Now it’s all right; go ahead and eat.” And then it did not harm them.
42One day a man from Baal-shalishah brought the man of God a sack of fresh grain and twenty loaves of barley bread made from the first grain of his harvest. Elisha said, “Give it to the people so they can eat.”
43“What?” his servant exclaimed. “Feed a hundred people with only this?”
But Elisha repeated, “Give it to the people so they can eat, for this is what the Lord says: Everyone will eat, and there will even be some left over!” 44And when they gave it to the people, there was plenty for all and some left over, just as the Lord had promised.
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