2 Kings 4
4
Elisha and the Widow’s Olive Oil
1One of the wives of a disciple of the prophets called to Elisha, “Sir, my husband is dead! You know how he feared the Lord. Now a creditor has come to take my two children as slaves.”
2Elisha asked her, “What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
She answered, “I have nothing in the house except a jar of olive oil.”
3Elisha said, “Borrow many empty containers from all your neighbors. 4Then close the door behind you and your children, and pour oil into all those containers. When one is full, set it aside.”
5So she left him and closed the door behind her and her children. The children kept bringing containers to her, and she kept pouring. 6When the containers were full, she told her son, “Bring me another container.”
He told her, “There are no more containers.” So the olive oil stopped flowing. 7She went and told the man of God.
He said, “Sell the oil, and pay your debt. The rest is for you and your children.”
Elisha Brings a Shunem Woman’s Son Back to Life
8One day Elisha was traveling through Shunem, where a rich woman lived. She had invited him to eat ⌞with her⌟. So whenever he was in the area, he stopped in to eat.
9She told her husband, “I know he’s a holy man of God. And he regularly travels past our house. 10Let’s make a small room on the roof and put a bed, table, chair, and lamp stand there for him. He can stay there whenever he comes to visit us.”
11One day he came ⌞to their house⌟, went into the upstairs room, and rested there. 12He told his servant Gehazi, “Call this Shunem woman.”
Gehazi called her, and she stood in front of him. 13Elisha said to Gehazi, “Ask her what we can do for her, since she has gone to a lot of trouble for us. Maybe she would like us to speak to the king or the commander of the army for her.”
She answered, “I’m already living among my own people.”
14“What should we do for her?” Elisha asked.
Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.”
15Elisha said, “Call her.” So Gehazi called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16Elisha said, “At this time next spring, you will hold a baby boy in your arms.”
She answered, “Don’t say that, sir. Don’t lie to me. You’re a man of God.”
17But the woman became pregnant and had a son at that time next year, as Elisha had told her.
18Several years later the boy went to his father, who was with the harvest workers. 19⌞Suddenly,⌟ he said to his father, “My head! My head!”
The father told his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
20The servant picked him up and brought him to his mother. The boy sat on her lap until noon, when he died. 21She took him upstairs and laid him on the bed of the man of God, left ⌞the room⌟, and shut the door behind her. 22She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys. I will go quickly to the man of God and come back again.”
23Her husband asked, “Why are you going to him today? It isn’t a New Moon Festival or a day of rest—a holy day.”
But she said goodbye to him.
24She saddled the donkey. Then she told her servant, “Lead on. Don’t slow down unless I tell you.” 25So she came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When he saw her coming at a distance, he told his servant Gehazi, “There is the woman from Shunem. 26Run to meet her and ask her how she, her husband, and the boy are doing.”
“Everyone’s fine,” she answered.
27When she came to the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi went to push her away. But the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is bitter. The Lord has hidden the reason from me. He hasn’t told me.”
28The woman said, “I didn’t ask you for a son. I said, ‘Don’t raise my hopes.’ ”
29The man of God told Gehazi, “Put on a belt, take my shepherd’s staff in your hand, and go. Whenever you meet anyone, don’t stop to greet him. If he greets you, don’t stop to answer him. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”
30The boy’s mother said, “I solemnly swear, as the Lord and you live, I will not leave without you.” So Elisha got up and followed her.
31Gehazi went ahead of them and put the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or sign of life. So Gehazi came back to meet the man of God. Gehazi told him, “The boy didn’t wake up.”
32When Elisha came to the house, the dead boy was lying on Elisha’s bed. 33He went into the room, closed the door, and prayed to the Lord. 34Then he lay on the boy, putting his mouth on the boy’s mouth, his eyes on the boy’s eyes, his hands on the boy’s hands. He crouched over the boy’s body, and it became warm. 35Elisha got up, walked across the room and came back, and then got back on the bed and crouched over him. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. 36Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunem woman.” Gehazi called her. When she came to him, he said, “Take your son.”
37Then she immediately bowed at his feet. She took her son and left.
Elisha and the Poisoned Food
38When Elisha went back to Gilgal, there was a famine in the country. ⌞One day,⌟ while the disciples of the prophets were meeting with him, he told his servant, “Put a large pot on the fire, and cook some stew for the disciples of the prophets.”
39One of them went into the field to gather vegetables and found a wild vine. He filled his clothes with wild gourds. Then he cut them into the pot of stew without knowing what they were. 40They dished out the food for the men to eat. As they were eating the stew, they cried out, “There’s death in the pot, man of God!” So they couldn’t eat it.
41Elisha said, “Bring some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Dish it out for the people to eat.” Then there was nothing harmful in the pot.
Elisha Feeds a Hundred People
42A man from Baal Shalisha brought bread made from the first harvested grain, 20 barley loaves, and fresh grain to the man of God. The man of God said, “Give it to the people to eat.”
43But his servant asked, “How can I set this in front of a hundred people?”
“Give it to the people to eat,” the man of God said. “This is what the Lord says: They will eat and even have some left over.”
44The servant set it in front of them. They ate and had some left over, as the Lord had predicted.
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2 Kings 4: GW
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
2 Kings 4
4
1Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead: and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two children to be bondmen. 2And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me; what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. 3Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. 4And thou shalt go in, and shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and pour out into all those vessels; and thou shalt set aside that which is full. 5So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons; they brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. 6And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. 7Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons of the rest.
8And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. 9And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. 10Let us make, I pray thee, a little chamber on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. 11And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber and lay there. 12And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. 13And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people. 14And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no son, and her husband is old. 15And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. 16And he said, At this season, when the time cometh round, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. 17And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season, when the time came round, as Elisha had said unto her.
18And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. 19And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to his servant, Carry him to his mother. 20And when 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, and shut the door upon him, and went out. 22And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the servants, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again. 23And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him today? it is neither new moon nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. 24Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slacken me not the riding, except I bid thee. 25So she went, and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is the Shunammite: 26run, I pray thee, now to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. 27And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, Let her alone: for her soul is vexed within her; and the LORD hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. 28Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me? 29Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. 30And the mother of the child said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her. 31And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked. 32And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. 33He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the LORD. 34And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon him; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. 35Then he returned, and walked in the house once to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in onto him, he said, Take up thy son. 37Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out.
38And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. 39And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. 40So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. 41But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. 42And there came a man from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of corn in his sack. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat. 43And his servant said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? But he said, Give the people, that they may eat; for thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. 44So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the LORD.
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historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society