2 Kings 4:1-21 ▼

1 NOW a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant did fear the LORD; and the creditor has come to take my two sons to be his bondmen.

2 And Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what have you in the house? And she said, Your handmaid has nothing in the house except a pot of oil.

3 Then he said to her, Go, borrow for yourself vessels from the houses of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.

4 And then go in, and shut the door upon you and upon your sons, and pour out into all these vessels; and the vessel which is full bring up to me.

5 So she went from him, and entered her house and shut the door upon herself and upon her sons who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.

6 And when the vessels were full, she said to her son, Bring me more vessels. But her son said to her, There are no more vessels. And the oil stopped.

7 Then she came and told the prophet of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt, and live, you and your sons, on what is left over.

8 And it came to pass on the morrow, Elisha went and came to Shiloh, where was a wealthy woman; and she constrained him to eat food. So that whenever he passed by, he turned in there to eat food.

9 And she said to her husband, Behold now, I perceive that the prophet of God is a holy man who passes by us continually.

10 Let us make for him a little upper room, and let us set for him there a bed and a table and a chair and a candlestick, so that when he comes to us, he shall turn in there.

11 And it happened on a certain day, he came there, and he turned in to the upper room and lay there.

12 And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shilomite woman. And when he had called her, she stood before him.

13 And he said to her, Behold, you have shown us all this respect; what is to be done for you? Is there anything to be spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army? And she answered, I dwell among my own people quite well.

14 Then he said, What shall I do for her? And Gehazi said to him, Verily she has no son and her husband is old.

15 And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door.

16 And he said to her, About this season, you will be with child, and shall embrace a son. And she said, No, my lord, O prophet of God, do not lie to your handmaid.

17 And the woman conceived and bore a son; at the season that Elisha had said to her, she was with child.

18 Now when the child had grown, he went out on a certain day to his father who was with the reapers.

19 And he said to his father, Oh, my head, my head! And his father said to a servant, Take him up and carry him to his mother.

20 And when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and then died.

21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the prophet of God, and shut the door upon him and went out.