2 Kings - Chapter 4

The widow’s oil

^{1 ①} The widow of one of the fellow prophets called Elisha saying, “You know that my husband feared God. But now his creditor has come to collect payment. And as we could not pay, he wanted to take my two sons as slaves.” ²Elisha said, “What can I do for you? Tell me what you have in your house?” She answered, “I have but a little oil for cleaning.” ³Elisha said to her, “Go and ask your neighbors for empty jars. ⁴Get as many as you can; then go into your house with your sons and close the door. Pour oil into the vessels. And when they are filled, set them aside.”

⁵The woman went and locked herself in her house with her sons. They handed her the vessels and she filled them all. ⁶She said to one of her sons, “Bring me another vessel,” and he answered, “There are no more.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷As she went back to tell this to the man of God, he said to her, “Go and sell the oil to pay for your debts; you and your sons can live on the money that is left.”

The resurrection of the Shunamite’s son

^{8 ②} One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a rich woman invited him to eat. Afterwards, whenever he went to that town, he would go to her house to eat.

⁹The woman said to her husband, “See, this man who constantly passes by our house is a holy man of God. ¹⁰If you want, we can make a small upper room for him, and place a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp in it. So when he comes, he may stay and rest.”

¹¹One day when Elisha came, he went to the upper room and lay down. ¹²Then he said to Gehazi, his manservant, “Call this woman.” She came when called and stood before Elisha.

¹³Elisha said to her, “You have taken all this trouble for us. Tell me: what then can we do for you? Would you like me to say something to the king or the commander of the army for you?” But she answered, “I do not need anything in this land.” ¹⁴So Elisha said to Gehazi, “What can we do for her?” The young man answered, “She has no children and her husband is now old.”

¹⁵And so Elisha said to him, “Call her.” The young man called her and as the woman stood by the door, ¹⁶Elisha said, “By this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” She answered, “No, my lord, O man of God, you are deceiving your maidservant.”

¹⁷But the woman gave birth to a son precisely at the time Elisha had told her.

¹⁸The boy grew. One day, when he had gone out to his father among the harvesters, he had a severe headache. ¹⁹So the father ordered his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰The servant brought him to his mother, and the boy sat on her lap till noon, when he died.

²¹Then the mother went up and laid him on Elisha’s bed and she left, closing the door. ²²Then she called her husband, “Send me one of the servants with an ass. I am going to the man of God, and I will come back.” ²³He asked, “Why are you going to him? It is not the new moon yet nor the sabbath.” But she said, “Do not worry.”

²⁴She saddled the ass, and said to her servant, “Lead on, and don’t stop until I tell you.” ²⁵So she set off and arrived at Mount Carmel where the man of God was.
Elisha saw her from afar, so he said to his servant, “Here comes our Shunamite. ²⁶Run to meet her and ask: Are you well? How is your husband? And your son?” She answered, “Everything is all right.” ²⁷She went to the man of God, and embraced his feet. Then Gehazi came to draw her away, but the man of God said to him, “Leave her, for her soul is in bitter distress, and Yahweh has not made known to me nor has he revealed it to me.”

²⁸She said, “Did I ask, my lord, for a son? Why have you deceived me?” ²⁹Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready, take my staff and go. If you meet anyone, do not stop to greet him; and if someone greets you, do not greet him in return. And as soon as you arrive, place my staff on the boy’s face.” ³⁰But the boy’s mother said, “I swear by Yahweh and by your life that I will not leave you.” So Elisha arose and followed her.

³¹Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but the boy did not move or give any sign of life, so Gehazi returned to meet them and said, “The boy has not revived.”

³²Elisha came into the house, and found the dead boy lying on his bed. ³³He entered, closed the door behind him, and prayed to Yahweh. ³⁴Then he lay upon the boy, put his mouth upon the boy’s mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, his hands upon the boy’s hands, and warmth returned to the boy’s body. ³⁵Elisha came down and began walking to and fro. Then he went upstairs to stretch himself upon the boy, and the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

³⁶Elisha then called Gehazi and said, “Call the woman.” And when she came, Elisha told her, “Take your son.” ³⁷She bowed at his feet, then she took her son and went out.

³⁸Elisha returned to Gilgal. There was great scarcity of food in the region, and when the fellow prophets came to sit with Elisha, he said to his servant, “Take the big pot and prepare some broth for the fellow prophets.” ³⁹One of them went out into the field to gather herbs; he found a wild plant, from which he gathered poisonous fruits, enough to fill his cloak. When he came back, he cut them into pieces and put them in the pot where the broth was being prepared, for he did not know what they were. ⁴⁰Then the broth was served to the men to eat. But as soon as they tasted the soup, they cried out, “Man of God, this is pure poison!” So they did not eat any more. ⁴¹Then Elisha said, “Bring me flour.” And he put it into the pot. Then he said, “Serve these men and let them eat.” And there was no longer anything harmful in the pot.

The multiplication of loaves

^{42 ③} A man came from Baal-shalishad bringing bread and wheat to the man of God. These were from the first part of the harvest, twenty loaves of barley and wheat. Elisha told him, “Give the loaves to these men that they may eat.”

⁴³His servant said to him, “How am I to divide these loaves among one hundred men?” Elisha insisted, “Give them to the men that they may eat, for Yahweh says: They shall eat and have some left over.” ⁴⁴So the man set it before them; and they ate and had some left, as Yahweh had said.