Chapter 4
1 Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, " Your servant my husband is dead . You know that your servant feared the LORD . Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves ."
2 Elisha said to her , " What should I do for you ? Tell me , what do you have in the house ?" She said, " Your servant has nothing in the house , except a pot of oil ."
3 Then he said, " Go , borrow empty containers from all your neighbours . Don’t borrow just a few containers .
4 Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons , and pour oil into all those containers ; and set aside those which are full ."
5 So she went from him , and shut the door on herself and on her sons . They brought the containers to her , and she poured oil.
6 When the containers were full , she said to her son , " Bring me another container ." He said to her , " There isn’t another container ." Then the oil stopped flowing .
7 Then she came and told the man of God . He said, " Go , sell the oil , and pay your debt ; and you and your sons live on the rest ."
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem , where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread . So it was , that as often as he passed by , he turned in there to eat bread .
9 She said to her husband, " See now , I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually .
10 Please , let ’s make a little room on the roof . Let ’s set a bed , a table , a chair , and a lamp stand for him there . When he comes to us , he can stay there ."
11 One day he came there , and he went to the room and lay there .
12 He said to Gehazi his servant , " Call this Shunammite ." When he had called her , she stood before him .
13 He said to him , " Say now to her , ‘ Behold , you have cared for us with all this care . What is to be done for you ? Would you like to be spoken for to the king , or to the captain of the army ?’" She answered , " I dwell amongst my own people ."
14 He said, " What then is to be done for her ?" Gehazi answered, "Most certainly she has no son , and her husband is old ."
15 He said , " Call her ." When he had called her , she stood in the door .
16 He said, " At this season next year , you will embrace a son ." She said, "No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant ."
17 The woman conceived , and bore a son at that season when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her .
18 When the child was grown , one day he went out to his father to the reapers .
19 He said to his father, " My head ! My head !" He said to his servant , " Carry him to his mother."
20 When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon , and then died .
21 She went up and laid him on the man of God’s bed , and shut the door on him , and went out .
22 She called to her husband and said , " Please send me one of the servants , and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come again ."
23 He said, " Why would you want to go to him today ? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath ." She said, " It ’s all right."
24 Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant , " Drive , and go forward ! Don’t slow down for me , unless I ask you to ."
25 So she went , and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel . When the man of God saw her afar off , he said to Gehazi his servant , " Behold , there is the Shunammite .
26 Please run now to meet her , and ask her , ‘ Is it well with you ? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child ?’" She answered, " It is well ."
27 When she came to the man of God to the hill , she caught hold of his feet . Gehazi came near to thrust her away ; but the man of God said, " Leave her alone , for her soul is troubled within her ; and the LORD has hidden it from me , and has not told me ."
28 Then she said, " Did I ask you for a son , my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me ’?"
29 Then he said to Gehazi , "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand , and go your way . If you meet any man , don’t greet him ; and if anyone greets you , don’t answer him again . Then lay my staff on the child ’s face ."
30 The child ’s mother said, " As the LORD lives , and as your soul lives , I will not leave you ." So he arose , and followed her .
31 Gehazi went ahead of them , and laid the staff on the child ’s face ; but there was no voice and no hearing . Therefore he returned to meet him , and told him , " The child has not awakened."
32 When Elisha had come into the house , behold , the child was dead , and lying on his bed .
33 He went in therefore , and shut the door on them both , and prayed to the LORD .
34 He went up and lay on the child , and put his mouth on his mouth , and his eyes on his eyes , and his hands on his hands . He stretched himself on him ; and the child ’s flesh grew warm .
35 Then he returned , and walked in the house once back and forth , then went up and stretched himself out on him . Then the child sneezed seven times , and the child opened his eyes .
36 He called Gehazi , and said , " Call this Shunammite !" So he called her . When she had come in to him , he said , " Take up your son ."
37 Then she went in , fell at his feet , and bowed herself to the ground; then she picked up her son , and went out .
38 Elisha came again to Gilgal . There was a famine in the land ; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him ; and he said to his servant , " Get the large pot , and boil stew for the sons of the prophets ."
39 One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine , and gathered a lap full of wild gourds from it , and came and cut them up into the pot of stew ; for they didn’t recognise them .
40 So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew , they cried out and said, "Man of God , there is death in the pot !" And they could not eat it .
41 But he said , " Then bring meal ." He threw it into the pot ; and he said , " Serve it to the people , that they may eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot .
42 A man from Baal Shalishah came , and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits : twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack . Elisha said, " Give to the people , that they may eat ."
43 His servant said, " What , should I set this before a hundred men ?" But he said, " Give it to the people , that they may eat; for the LORD says , ‘ They will eat, and will have some left over .’"
44 So he set it before them and they ate and had some left over , according to the LORD ’s word .