2 Kings 4:1-44
4 And a certain woman, the widow of a member of the prophets’ fellowship, complained to Elishaʽ “Your servant my husband is dead; and you know your servant was a fearer of Jehovah; and a creditor has come to take my two boys for slaves.”
2 And Elishaʽ said to her “What shall I do for you? Tell me what you have in the house.” And she said “Your servant has nothing at all in the house but a flask of oil.”
3 * And he said “Go borrow jars from outside, from all your neighbors—empty jars; don’t scrimp yourself.
4 And go in and shut the door on yourself and your sons, and pour, oil into those jars, and set aside what gets full.”
5 And she went from him and did so; and she shut the door on herself and her sons, they bringing to her and she pouring;
6 * and when the jars were full she said to her son “Bring me another jar,” and he said to her “There isn’t any,” and the oil stopped.
7 And she came and told the man of God, and he said “Go sell the oil and pay your debt, and maintain your sons on what is left.”
8 * And one day Elishaʽ went over to Shunem; and there was a wealthy woman there, who detained him to take a meal; and it came about that as often as he went past he turned in to take a meal.
9 And she said to her husband “Here, I have found out that he is a holy man of God who is always passing by us:
10 * let us make a little upper room on the wall, and put a bed and a table and a chair and a lamp there for him, and have him turn in there when he comes to us.”
11 * And one day he came there and turned in to the upper room and slept there.
12 And he said to his man Gehazi “Call this Shunammite lady”; and he called her, and she came standing before him,
13 and he said to him “Say to her ‘Here you have taken all this trouble for us—what has to be done for you? have you occasion for my speaking to the king or the general?’”—and she said “I live among my own people.”
14 And he said “Well, what is there to do for her?” and Gehazi said “Why, she has no son, and her husband is old.”
15 And he said “Call her”; and he called her, and she came standing in the doorway,
16 * and he said “At this season next year you shall be embracing a son”; and she said “Don’t, sir, don’t lie to your servant.”
17 And the woman conceived, and had a son at the season Elishaʽ had promised her.
18 And the child grew; and one day he went out to his father where the reapers were.
19 And he said to his father “My head, my head!” and he said to a man “Carry him to his mother.”
20 And he took him up and brought him to his mother; and he sat in her lap till noon, and then died.
21 And she went up and laid him on the man of God’s bed, and shut the door on him,
22 and went out and called to her husband “Send me one of the boys and one of the donkeys, to make a quick run to the man of God and back.”
23 And he said “How is it you are going to him? it is neither new moon nor sabbath today”; but she said “It is all right.”
24 And she saddled the donkey and said to her boy “Drive ahead; do not slow down the pace unless I tell you to”;
25 and off she went, and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. And when the man of God saw her in the distance he said to his man Gehazi “Here is yonder Shunammite lady:
26 now run to meet her, and ask her ‘Are you all right? is your husband all right? is the child all right?’” And she said “Yes,”
27 and came to the mountain to the man of God and took hold of his feet. And Gehazi approached to push her away; but the man of God said “Let her alone, because she has an aching heart and Jehovah has left me in the dark and not told me.”
28 And she said “Did I ask you for a son, sir? didn’t I say ‘don’t delude me’?”
29 And he said to Gehazi “Belt yourself up and take my staff in your hand, and go: when you find a man do not bless him, and when a man blesses you do not answer him; and lay my staff on the boy’s face.”
30 And the boy’s mother said “By Jehovah and by your life, I will not leave you”; and he rose and followed her.
31 And Gehazi went over before them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but he made no sound and took no notice; and he came back to meet him and told him the boy had not waked up.
32 And Elishaʽ came to the house and found the boy dead, lying on his bed.
33 And he went in and shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to Jehovah;
34 and he got up on the bed and lay down on the child, and laid his mouth on his, and his eyes on his, and his hands on his, and crouched over him; and the child’s flesh grew warm.
35 * And he walked again the length of the house and back, and got up and crouched over him; and the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
36 And he called Gehazi and said “Call this Shunammite lady”; and he called her, and she came to him, and he said “Take up your son.”
37 And she went in and threw herself down at his feet and put her head to the ground in reverence, and took up her son and went out.
38 And Elishaʽ went back to the Gilgal, and the famine was in the country. And the members of the prophets’ fellowship were sitting before him; and he said to his man “Put the great pot on and stew a mess for the fellowship.”
39 *** And one went out on the range to gather greens, and found a vine and gathered his cloak full of gourds from it, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, because they did not know them.
40 And they poured it out for the men; and when they ate some of the stew they cried out “There is death in the pot, man of God,” and could not eat it.
41 And he said “Then get meal”; and he threw it into the pot and said “Pour out for the people and let them eat”; and there was no harm in the pot.
42 * And a man came from Baal-Shalishah and brought the man of God firstfruit-bread, twenty barley cakes and green ears of grain, in his sack; and he said “Give it to the people to eat.”
43 And his attendant said “What, set this before a hundred men?” but he said “Give it to the people and let them eat, for Jehovah says it will be a case of eating and leaving.”
44 And he set it before them, and they ate and left, in accordance with Jehovah’s promise.
Footnotes
^ 4:3 The Hebrew word translated jars means any utensil whatever
^ 4:6 Var. sons . . . and one said
^ 4:8 Conj. was passing by Shunem
^ 4:10 Or a little walled upper room
^ 4:11 Or took a nap Or lay down (which is the literal translation)
^ 4:16 Var. Don’t, Mr. Man of God
^ 4:35 (sneezed) Unc.; var. crouched over the boy seven times, and the boy opened his eyes
^ 4:39 Var. of wild gourds
^ 4:39 Var. from it, and sliced
^ 4:39 Var. he did not know them
^ 4:42 (garden vegetables in his sack) Unc.
