2 Reyes 4

The widow’s oil

¹The wife of a man from the company of prophets cried out to Elisha, “My husband, your servant, has died, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the man he owed money to has come to take my two children as his slaves.” ²Elisha said to her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what is there in your house?” She replied, “Your servant has nothing at all in the house, except a small jar of oil.” ³He said, “Go around and borrow containers from all your neighbors, empty ones, and not just a few. ⁴Then go inside with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour oil into all these containers, and as each one is filled, set it aside.” ⁵So she left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They kept bringing the containers to her, and she kept pouring. ⁶When the containers were all full, she told her son, “Bring me another one.” But he told her, “There are no more.” Then the oil stopped flowing. ⁷She came and told the man of God. He said, “Go and sell the oil, and pay off your debt. You and your sons can live on the rest.”

The woman of Shunem and her son

⁸One day Elisha went on to Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she pressed him to stay for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there to eat. ⁹She said to her husband, “Listen, I am sure that this man who keeps coming our way is a holy man of God. ¹⁰Let us build a small room with walls on the roof and put a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp in it for him. Then whenever he comes to us, he can stay there.” ¹¹One day Elisha came there, went into the upstairs room and lay down there. ¹²He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her, and she came and stood before him. ¹³Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. What can be done for you? Can we speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’” She answered, “I live among my own people.” ¹⁴Elisha asked, “What then can be done for her?” 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, “About this time next year you will be holding a son in your arms.” She said, “No, my lord, man of God! Do not deceive your servant.” ¹⁷But the woman conceived, and at that same season the following year she gave birth to a son, as Elisha had told her. ¹⁸The child grew. And one day he went out to join his father among the reapers. ¹⁹He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰The servant picked him up and took him to his mother. He sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. ²¹She went upstairs and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him, and went out. ²²She called her husband and said, “Please send me a servant and one of the donkeys. I want to hurry to the man of God and come straight back.” ²³He asked, “Why go to him today? It is neither a new moon nor a Sabbath.” “It is all right,” she said.^{a 24}She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Drive on and go! Do not slow down for my sake unless I tell you.” ²⁵So she set off and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. As soon as the man of God saw her in the distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman. ²⁶Run now to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is the child all right?’” She answered, “It is all right.” ²⁷When she reached the man of God on the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came up to push her away, but the man of God said, “Let her be! She is in deep distress. the LORD has hidden it from me and not told me.” ²⁸She said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not mislead me’?” ²⁹Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your robe into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet them, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.” ³⁰But the boy’s mother said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as surely as you live, I will not leave 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 and no response. So he came back to meet Elisha and reported, “The boy has not woken up.” ³²When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy, dead, lying on his bed. ³³He went in, shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to the LORD. ³⁴Then he got up on the bed and lay on the child, putting his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. As he stretched himself out over him, the boy’s body grew warm. ³⁵Elisha got down and walked back and forth in the house, then went up and stretched himself out over him again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. ³⁶Elisha called Gehazi and told him, “Call the Shunammite woman.” Gehazi called her, and when she came in, Elisha said, “Pick up your son.” ³⁷She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed low to the ground. Then she lifted up her son and went out.

Death in the pot

³⁸Elisha went back to Gilgal while there was a famine in the land. When the company of prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Put the large pot on the fire and cook some stew for the company of prophets.” ³⁹One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs. He found a wild vine and picked enough wild gourds from it to fill his cloak. He came back and sliced them into the pot of stew, though none of them knew what they were.^{b 40}They served it out for the men to eat. But as they were eating the stew, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” They were not able to eat it. ⁴¹Elisha said, “Then bring some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people, and let them eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

Bread for a hundred men

⁴²A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread from the firstfruits: twenty loaves of barley bread, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat.” ⁴³His attendant said, “How can I set this in front of a hundred men?” But Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat, for the LORD says this: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” ⁴⁴So he set it before them. They ate, and there was some left over, as the LORD had said.