CHAPTER 4
Now the wife
of one
of the sons
of the prophets
cried out
to
Elisha,
“Your servant,
my husband,
is dead,
and you
know
that
your servant
feared
the LORD.
And now his creditor
is coming
to take
my two
children
as his slaves!"
“How
can I
help you?”
asked
Elisha.
“Tell me,
what
do you have
in the house?”
She answered,
“Your servant
has nothing
in the house
but
a jar
of oil.”
Then go inside,
shut
the door
behind you
and
your sons,
and pour
oil into
all
these
jars,
setting the full ones
aside.”
So she left
him,
and after she had shut
the door
behind her
and
her sons,
they
kept bringing jars
to her,
and she
kept pouring.
When
all the jars
were full,
she said
to
her son,
“Bring
me another.”
But he replied,
“There are no
more
jars.”
Then the oil
stopped flowing.
She went
and told
the man
of God,
and he said,
“Go,
sell
the oil
and pay
your debt,
and you
and your sons
can live
on the remainder.”
One day
Elisha
went
to
Shunem,
and a prominent
woman
who lived there
persuaded
him
to have a meal.
So whenever
he would pass by,
he would stop
there
to eat.
Then the woman said
to
her husband,
“Behold,
now
I know
that
the one
who often
comes our way
is a holy
man
of God.
Please
let us make
a small
room upstairs
and put
in it
a bed,
a table,
a chair,
and a lamp
for him.
Then when he comes
to us,
he can stay
there.”
And he said
to
Gehazi
his servant,
“Call
the
Shunammite woman.”
And when he had called
her,
she stood
before him,
and Elisha said
to Gehazi,
“Now
tell
her,
‘Look,
you have gone to all
this
trouble
for us.
What
can we do for you?
Can we speak
on your behalf to
the king
or
the commander
of the army?’”
“I
have a home
among
my own people,”
she replied.
So he asked,
“Then what
should be done
for her?”
“Well,
she has
no
son,”
Gehazi
replied,
“and her husband
is old.”
And Elisha declared,
“At this
time
next year,
you
will hold
a son in your arms.”
“No,
my lord,”
she said.
“Do not
lie
to your maidservant,
O man
of God.”
But the woman
did conceive,
and at that
time
the next year
she gave birth to
a son,
just as
Elisha
had told
her.
“My head!
My head!”
he complained
to
his father.
So his father told
a servant,
“Carry him
to
his mother.”
After the servant had picked him up
and carried him
to
his mother,
the boy sat
on
her lap
until
noon,
and then he died.
And the woman called
her husband
and said,
“Please
send
me
one
of
the servants
and one
of the donkeys,
that I may go quickly
to
the man
of God
and return.”
“Why
would you
go
to him
today?”
he replied.
“It is not
a New Moon
or a Sabbath.”
“Everything is all right,”
she said.
Then she saddled
the donkey
and told
her servant,
“Drive
onward;
do not
slow
the pace
for me
unless
I tell
you.”
So she set out
and went
to
the man
of God
at
Mount
Carmel.
When the man
of God
saw
her
at a distance,
he said
to
his servant
Gehazi,
“Look,
there is
the Shunammite woman.
Please
run out
now
to meet her
and ask,
‘Are you all right?
Is your husband
all right?
Is your child
all right?’”
And she answered,
“Everything is all right.”
When she reached
the man
of God
at
the mountain,
she clung
to his feet.
Gehazi
came over
to push her away,
but the man
of God
said,
“Leave her alone,
for
her soul
is in deep distress,
and the LORD
has hidden
it from me
and has not
told
me."
So Elisha said
to Gehazi,
“Tie up
your garment,
take
my staff
in your hand,
and go!
If
you meet
anyone,
do not
greet him,
and if
anyone
greets you,
do not
answer him.
Then lay
my staff
on
the boy's
face."
And the mother
of the boy
said,
“As surely as the LORD
lives
and as you yourself
live,
I will not
leave you.”
So he got up
and followed
her.
Gehazi
went on
ahead of them
and laid
the staff
on
the boy’s
face,
but there was no
sound
or
response.
So he went back
to meet Elisha
and told him,
“The boy
has not
awakened.”
Then Elisha got on the bed
and lay
on
the boy,
mouth
to
mouth,
eye
to
eye,
and hands
to
hands.
As he stretched himself out
over him,
the boy’s
body
became warm.
Elisha turned away
and paced
back and forth
across the room.
Then he got on the bed
and stretched himself out
over the boy again,
and the boy
sneezed
seven
times
and opened
his eyes.
Elisha summoned
Gehazi
and said,
“Call
the
Shunammite woman.”
So he called
her and she came.
Then Elisha said,
“Pick up
your son.”
When Elisha
returned
to Gilgal,
there was a famine
in the land.
As the sons
of the prophets
were sitting
at his feet,
he said
to his attendant,
“Put on
the large
pot
and boil
some stew
for the sons
of the prophets.”
One of them
went out
to
the field
to gather
herbs,
and he found
a wild
vine
from
which he gathered
as many wild
gourds
as his garment [could hold.
Then he came back
and cut them up
into
the pot
of stew,
though
no one
knew what they were.
And they poured it out
for the men
to eat,
but when they tasted
the stew
they
cried out,
“There is death
in the pot,
O man
of God!”
And they could not
eat it.
Then Elisha said,
“Get
some flour.”
He threw
it into
the pot
and said,
“Pour it out
for the people
to eat.”
And there was
nothing
harmful
in the pot.
Now a man
from
Baal-shalishah
came
to the man
of God
with a sack
of twenty
loaves
of barley
bread
from the first
ripe grain.
“Give
it to the people
to eat,”
said Elisha.
But his servant
asked,
“How
am I to set
twenty loaves
before
a hundred
men?”
“Give
it to the people
to eat,”
said Elisha,
“for
this is what
the LORD
says:
‘They will eat
and have some left over.’”
So he set it
before them,
and they ate
and had some left over,
according to the word
of the LORD.