M'lakhim Bet (2 Ki) 4
4
1The wife of one of the guild prophets complained to Elisha. “Your servant my husband died,” she said, “and you know that he feared Adonai. Now a creditor has come to take my two children as his slaves.” 2Elisha asked her, “What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house but a flask of oil.” 3Then he said, “Go, and borrow containers from all your neighbors, empty containers; and don’t borrow just a few! 4Then go in; shut the door, with you and your sons inside; and pour oil into all those containers; and as they are filled, put them aside.” 5So she left him and shut the door on herself and her sons. They brought her the containers while she poured. 6When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container”; but he answered, “There isn’t another container.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7She came and told the man of God; and he said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; then you and your sons can live on what’s left.”
8One day Elisha visited Shunem, and a well-to-do woman living there pressed him to stay and eat a meal. After this, whenever he came through, he stopped there for a meal. 9She said to her husband, “I can see that this is a holy man of God who keeps stopping at our place. 10Please, let’s build him a little room on the roof. We’ll put a bed and a table in it for him, and a stool and a candlestick. Then, whenever he comes to visit us, he can stay there.”
11One day Elisha came to visit there, and he went into the upper room to lie down. 12He said to Geichazi his servant, “Call this Shunamit.” He called her; and when she arrived, 13he said to him, “Tell her this: ‘You have shown us so much hospitality! What can I do to show my appreciation? Do you want me to say anything to the king for you? or to the commander of the army?” She answered, “I’m happy living as I do, among my own people.” 14He said, “What, then, is to be done for her?” Geichazi answered, “There’s one thing — she doesn’t have a son; and her husband is old. 15Elisha said, “Call her.” After he called her, she stood in the doorway. 16He said, “Next year, when the season comes around, you will be holding a son.” “No, my lord,” she answered. “Man of God, don’t lie to your servant!” 17But the woman conceived and gave birth to a son the following year when the season came around, just as Elisha had said to her.
18When the child was old enough, he went out one day to be with his father, who was with the reapers. 19Suddenly he cried out to his father, “My head! My head hurts!” He said to his servant, “Carry him back to his mother.” 20When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he lay on her lap until noon; and then he died. 21She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him and went out. 22She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants with a donkey. I must get to the man of God as fast as I can; I’ll come straight back.” 23He asked, “Why are you going to him today? It isn’t Rosh-Hodesh and it isn’t Shabbat.” She said, “It’s all right.” 24Then she saddled the donkey and ordered her servant, “Drive as fast as you can; don’t slow down for me unless I say so.”
25She set out and came to the man of God on Mount Karmel. When the man of God saw her in the distance, he said to Geichazi his servant, “Look, here comes that Shunamit. 26Run now to meet her, and ask her, “Is everything all right with you? with your husband? with the child?” She answered, “Everything is all right.” 27But when she reached the man of God on the hill, she grabbed his feet. Geichazi came up to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is in great distress, but Adonai has hidden from me what it is, he hasn’t told me.” 28Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say not to deceive me?” 29Then Elisha said to Geichazi, “Get dressed for action, take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, don’t greet him; if anyone greets you, don’t answer; and lay my staff on the child’s face.” 30The mother of the child said, “As Adonai lives, and as you live, I will not leave you. He got up and followed her. 31Geichazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the child’s face, but there was no sound or sign of life. So he went back to Elisha and told him, “The child didn’t wake up.”
32When Elisha reached the house, there the child was, dead and laid on the bed. 33He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to Adonai. 34Then he got up on the bed and lay on top of the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands. As he stretched himself out on the child, its flesh began to grow warm. 35Then he went down, walked around in the house awhile, went back up and stretched himself out on the child again. The child sneezed seven times, then opened his eyes. 36Elisha called Geichazi and said, “Call this Shunamit.” So he called her; and when she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” 37She entered, fell at his feet and prostrated herself on the floor. Then she picked up her son and went out.
38Elisha went back to Gilgal. At the time, there was a famine in the land. The guild prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, “Put the big pot on the fire, and boil some soup for the prophets.” 39One of them went out to the field to gather vegetables and came upon a wild vine, from which he filled the front of his cloak with wild squash. On returning he cut them up and put them into the stew; they didn’t know what they were. 40Then they poured it out for the men to eat; but on tasting it, they cried, “Man of God! There’s death in that pot!” And they couldn’t eat it. 41But he said, “Bring some flour.” He threw it in the pot, then said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” This time there was nothing harmful in the pot.
42A man came from Ba‘al-Shalishah bringing the man of God twenty loaves of bread made from the barley firstfruits and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give this to the people to eat.” 43His servant said, “How am I to serve this to a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people to eat; for Adonai says that they will eat and have some left over.” 44So he served them, and they ate and had some left over, as Adonai had said.
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M'lakhim Bet (2 Ki) 4: CJB
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Learn More About Complete Jewish Bible2 Kings 4
4
Elisha Helps a Poor Widow
1The widow of a member of a group of prophets went to Elisha and said, “Sir, my husband has died! As you know, he was a God-fearing man, but now a man he owed money to has come to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband's debt.”
2“What shall I do for you?” he asked. “Tell me, what have you got at home?”
“Nothing at all, except a small jar of olive oil,” she answered.
3“Go to your neighbours and borrow as many empty jars as you can,” Elisha told her. 4“Then you and your sons go into the house, close the door, and start pouring oil into the jars. Set each one aside as soon as it is full.”
5So the woman went into her house with her sons, closed the door, took the small jar of olive oil, and poured oil into the jars as her sons brought them to her. 6When they had filled all the jars, she asked if there were any more. “That was the last one,” one of her sons answered. And the olive oil stopped flowing. 7She went back to Elisha, the prophet, who said to her, “Sell the olive oil and pay all your debts, and there will be enough money left over for you and your sons to live on.”
Elisha and the Rich Woman from Shunem
8One day Elisha went to Shunem, where a rich woman lived. She invited him to a meal, and from then on every time he went to Shunem he would have his meals at her house. 9She said to her husband, “I am sure that this man who comes here so often is a holy man. 10Let's build a small room on the roof, put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it, and he can stay there whenever he visits us.”
11One day Elisha returned to Shunem and went up to his room to rest. 12He told his servant Gehazi to go and call the woman. When she came, 13he said to Gehazi, “Ask her what I can do for her in return for all the trouble she has had in providing for our needs. Maybe she would like me to go to the king or the army commander and put in a good word for her.”
“I have all I need here among my own people,” she answered.
14Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can I do for her then?”
He answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man.”
15“Tell her to come here,” Elisha ordered. She came and stood in the doorway, 16#Gen 18.14and Elisha said to her, “By this time next year you will be holding a son in your arms.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Please, sir, don't lie to me. You are a man of God!”
17But, as Elisha had said, at about that time the following year she gave birth to a son.
18Some years later, at harvest time, the boy went out one morning to join his father, who was in the field with the harvest workers. 19Suddenly he cried out to his father, “My head hurts! My head hurts!”
“Carry the boy to his mother,” the father said to a servant. 20The servant carried the boy back to his mother, who held him in her lap until noon, at which time he died. 21She carried him up to Elisha's room, put him on the bed and left, closing the door behind her. 22Then she called her husband and said to him, “Send a servant here with a donkey. I need to go to the prophet Elisha. I'll be back as soon as I can.”
23“Why do you have to go today?” her husband asked. “It's neither a Sabbath nor a New Moon Festival.”#4.23 Sabbath… New Moon Festival: Such holy days were thought to be the best time to consult a prophet.
“Never mind,” she answered. 24Then she had the donkey saddled, and ordered the servant, “Make the donkey go as fast as it can, and don't slow down, unless I tell you to.” 25So she set out, and went to Mount Carmel, where Elisha was.
Elisha saw her coming while she was still some distance away, and said to his servant Gehazi, “Look — there comes the woman from Shunem! 26Hurry to her and find out if everything is all right with her, her husband, and her son.”
She told Gehazi that everything was all right, 27but when she came to Elisha she bowed down before him and took hold of his feet. Gehazi was about to push her away, but Elisha said, “Leave her alone. Can't you see she's deeply distressed? And the LORD has not told me a thing about it.”
28The woman said to him, “Sir, did I ask you for a son? Didn't I tell you not to raise my hopes?”
29Elisha turned to Gehazi and said, “Hurry! Take my stick and go. Don't stop to greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, don't take time to answer. Go straight to the house and hold my stick over the boy.”
30The woman said to Elisha, “I swear by my loyalty to the living LORD and to you that I will not leave you!” So the two of them started back together. 31Gehazi went on ahead and held Elisha's stick over the child, but there was no sound or any other sign of life. So he went back to meet Elisha and said, “The boy didn't wake up.”
32When Elisha arrived, he went alone into the room and saw the boy lying dead on the bed. 33He closed the door and prayed to the LORD. 34#1 Kgs 17.21Then he lay down on the boy, placing his mouth, eyes, and hands on the boy's mouth, eyes, and hands. As he lay stretched out over the boy, the boy's body started to get warm. 35Elisha got up, walked about the room, and then went back and again stretched himself over the boy. The boy sneezed seven times, and then opened his eyes. 36Elisha called Gehazi and told him to call the boy's mother. When she came in, he said to her, “Here's your son.” 37She fell at Elisha's feet, with her face touching the ground; then she took her son and left.
Two More Miracles
38Once, when there was a famine throughout the land, Elisha returned to Gilgal. While he was teaching a group of prophets, he told his servant to put a big pot on the fire and make some stew for them. 39One of them went out in the fields to get some herbs. He found a wild vine, and picked as many gourds as he could carry. He brought them back and sliced them up into the stew, not knowing what they were. 40The stew was poured out for the men to eat, but as soon as they tasted it they exclaimed to Elisha, “It's poisoned!” — and wouldn't eat it. 41Elisha asked for some meal, threw it into the pot, and said, “Pour out some more stew for them.” And then there was nothing wrong with it.
42Another time, a man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing Elisha twenty loaves of bread made from the first barley harvested that year, and some freshly-cut ears of corn. Elisha told his servant to feed the group of prophets with this, 43but he answered, “Do you think this is enough for a hundred men?”
Elisha replied, “Give it to them to eat, because the LORD says that they will eat and still have some left over.” 44So the servant set the food before them, and, as the LORD had said, they all ate and there was still some left over.
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.