2 Kings 4

4 ¹The 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 revered our Father. Now the creditor comes to take my two children as slaves."

²Elisha asked, "What can I do for you? Tell me, what's in your house?" She said, "Your servant has nothing but a jar of oil."

³Then he said, "Go, borrow vessels outside from all your neighbors—empty vessels, not a few. ⁴Go in, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these jars. As each is filled, set it aside."

⁵So she left him, shut the door behind her and her sons; they kept bringing the vessels, she kept pouring. ⁶When the jars were full, she told her son, "Bring me another." "There are none left," he said. Then the oil stopped.

⁷She came and told the man of our Father, who said, "Go, sell the oil, pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest."

The Father's Promise to the Shunammite

⁸One day Elisha passed through Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived; she urged him to stay and eat. Whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat. ⁹She told her husband, "Look, I know this man who often passes by us is a holy man of our Father. ¹⁰Let's make him a small roof room with a bed, table, chair, and lamp, so he can stay whenever he comes."

¹¹One day Elisha came there, turned into the upper room, and lay down. ¹²He told his servant Gehazi, "Call this Shunammite woman." He called her, and she stood before him. ¹³Elisha said to him, "Tell her: You've gone to all this trouble for us. What can be done for you? Should I speak for you to the king or the army commander?" She answered, "I live among my own people."

¹⁴He asked, "What can be done for her?" Gehazi said, "She has no son, and her husband is old."

¹⁵He said, "Call her." So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶He said, "At this season next year, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my lord, man of our Father, don't lie to your servant."

¹⁷The woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had told her.

¹⁸The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, to the reapers. ¹⁹He told his father, "My head! My head!" His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother."

²⁰He carried him to his mother; the boy sat on her knees until noon, then died. ²¹She went up, laid him on the man of our Father's bed, shut the door behind him, and left. ²²She called her husband: "Send me a servant and a donkey, so I can run to the man of our Father and come back."

²³He asked, "Why go to him today? It's not new moon or Sabbath." She said, "It's fine."

²⁴She saddled the donkey and told her servant, "Drive on; don't slow down for me unless I tell you." ²⁵She set out and came to the man of our Father at Mount Carmel. Seeing her in the distance, the man of our Father told Gehazi his servant, "Look, the Shunammite woman. ²⁶Run now, meet her, and ask, 'Are you well? Is your husband well? Is the child well?'" She answered, "All is well."

²⁷When she reached the man of our Father on the mountain, she grabbed his feet. Gehazi came to push her away, but he said, "Leave her alone—her soul is in bitter distress, and our Father has hidden it from me, not told me."

²⁸She said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn't I say, 'Don't raise my hopes'?"

²⁹Elisha told Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak in your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, don't greet him; if anyone greets you, don't answer him. Lay my staff on the boy's face."

³⁰But the child's mother said, "As our Father lives and you live, I won't leave you." So he got up and followed her.

³¹Gehazi went ahead of them, laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response. He went back to meet Elisha: "The boy has not awakened."

³²When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, dead, lying on his bed. ³³So he went in, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to our Father. ³⁴Then he climbed up and lay on the child—mouth on mouth, eyes on eyes, hands on hands. As he stretched over him, the child's body grew warm. ³⁵He got up, paced the room once, then climbed up and stretched over the boy again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. ³⁶Elisha called Gehazi: "Call this Shunammite woman." He called her; she came to him, and he said, "Take your son."

³⁷She came, fell at his feet, bowed to the ground, then picked up her son and left.

The Father Heals the Deadly Stew

³⁸Elisha returned to Gilgal during a famine. As the prophets' sons sat before him, he told his servant, "Put the large pot on; boil stew for the prophets' sons."

³⁹One went out to the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine. He gathered a lapful of wild gourds from it, came back, and sliced them into the stew pot—no one knew what they were. ⁴⁰They poured it out for the men to eat, but as they ate the stew they cried out, "Man of our Father, there is death in the pot!" They could not eat it.

⁴¹He said, "Bring flour," threw it in the pot, and said, "Pour it out for the people to eat." Nothing harmful remained in the pot.

⁴²A man from Baal-shalishah brought the man of our Father firstfruit bread—twenty barley loaves and fresh grain in his sack. Elisha said, "Give it to the people to eat."

⁴³His servant said, "How do I set this before one hundred men?" He said again, "Give it to the people to eat, for our Father says: They will eat and have leftovers."

⁴⁴He set it before them; they ate and had leftovers, just as our Father said.