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.
4 Kings 4
4
1Now a certain woman of the wives of the prophets cried to Eliseus, saying: Thy servant my husband is dead. And thou knowest that thy servant was one that feared God: and, behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him.
2And Eliseus said to her: What wilt thou have me to do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? And she answered: I thy handmaid have nothing in my house but a little oil, to anoint me.
3And he said to her: Go, borrow of all thy neighbours empty vessels not a few.
4And go in, and shut thy door, when thou art within, and thy sons: and pour out thereof into all those vessels: and when they are full take them away.
5So the woman went, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons. They brought her the vessels, and she poured in.
6And when the vessels were full, she said to her son: Bring me yet a vessel. And he answered: I have no more. And the oil stood.
7And she came, and told the man of God. And he said: Go, sell the oil, and pay thy creditor; and thou and thy sons live of the rest.
8And there was a day when Eliseus passed by Sunam. Now there was a great woman there, who detained him to eat bread; and as he passed often that way, he turned into her house to eat bread.
9And she said to her husband: I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who often passeth by us.
10Let us therefore make him a little chamber, and put a little bed in it for him, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick, that when he cometh to us, he may abide there.
11Now there was a certain day when he came and turned in to the chamber, and rested there.
12And he said to Giezi his servant: Call this Sunamitess. And when he had called her, and she stood before him,
13He said to his servant: Say to her: Behold, thou hast diligently served us in all things, what wilt thou have me to do for thee? Hast thou any business, and wilt thou that I speak to the king, or to the general of the army? And she answered: I dwell in the midst of my own people.
14And he said: What will she then that I do for her? And Giezi said: Do not ask; for she hath no son, and her husband is old.
15Then he bid him call her: And when she was called, and stood before the door.
16He said to her: At this time, and this same hour, if life accompany, thou shalt have a son in thy womb. But she answered: Do not, I beseech thee, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie to thy handmaid.
17And the woman conceived, and brought forth a son in the time, and at the same hour, that Eliseus had said.
18And the child grew. And on a certain day, when he went out to his father to the reapers,
19He said to his father: My head acheth, my head acheth. But he said to his servant: Take him, and carry him to his mother.
20And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, she set him on her knees until noon: and then he died.
21And she went up and laid him upon the bed of the man of God, and shut the door. And going out,
22She called her husband, and said: Send with me, I beseech thee, one of thy servants, and an ass that I may run to the man of God, and come again.
23And he said to her: Why dost thou go to him? to-day is neither new moon nor sabbath. She answered: I will go.
24And she saddled an ass, and commanded her servant: Drive, and make haste. Make no stay in going. And do that which I bid thee.
25So she went forward, and came to the man of God to mount Carmel. And when the man of God saw her coming towards, he said to Giezi his servant: Behold that Sunamitess.
26Go therefore to meet her, and say to her: Is all well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son? And she answered: Well.
27And when she came to the man of God to the mount, she caught hold on his feet. And Giezi came to remove her. And the man of God said: Let her alone for her soul is in anguish, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.
28And she said to him: Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say to thee: Do not deceive me?
29Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him not: and if any man salute thee, answer him not: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.
30But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose, therefore, and followed her.
31But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child: and there was no voice nor sense. And he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: The child is not risen.
32Eliseus therefore went into the house: and behold, the child lay dead on his bed.
33And going in he shut the door upon him, and upon the child, and prayed to the Lord.
34And he went up, and lay upon the child: and he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he bowed himself upon him. And the child's flesh grew warm.
35Then he returned and walked in the house, once to and fro. And he went up, and lay upon him: and the child gaped seven times, and opened his eyes.
36And he called Giezi, and said to him: Call this Sunamitess. And she being called went in to him. And he said: Take up thy son.
37She came and fell at his feet, and worshipped upon the ground: and took up her son, and went out.
38And Eliseus returned to Galgal. And there was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets dwelt before him. And he said to one of his servants: Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.
39And one went out into the field to gather wild herbs: and he found something like a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds of the field, and filled his mantle. And coming back he shred them into the pot of pottage, for he knew not what it was.
40And they poured it out for their companions to eat: and when they had tasted of the pottage, they cried out saying: Death is in the pot, O man of God. And they could not eat thereof.
41But he said: Bring some meal. And when they had brought it, he cast it into the pot, and said: Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was now no bitterness in the pot.
42And a certain man came from Baalsalisa bringing to the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and new corn in his scrip. And he said: Give to the people, that they may eat.
43And his servant answered him: How much is this, that I should set it before a hundred men? He said again: Give to the people, that they may eat. For thus saith the Lord: They shall eat, and there shall be left.
44So he set it before them: and they ate. And there was left according to the word of the Lord.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.