2 Kings 4:1-21 ▼

1 And a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets has cried to Elisha, saying, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you have known that your servant was fearing YHWH, and the lender has come to take my two children to himself for servants.”

2 And Elisha says to her, “What do I do for you? Declare to me, what do you have in the house?” And she says, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a pot of oil.”

3 And he says, “Go, ask [for] vessels for yourself from outside, from all your neighbors—empty vessels—let [them] not be few;

4 and you have entered, and have shut the door on you, and on your sons, and have poured it into all these vessels, and the full ones you remove.”

5 And she goes from him, and shuts the door on her, and on her sons; they are bringing [them] near to her, and she is pouring [it] out,

6 and it comes to pass, at the filling of the vessels, that she says to her son, “Bring another vessel near to me,” and he says to her, “There is not another vessel”; and the oil stays.

7 And she comes and declares [it] to the man of God, and he says, “Go, sell the oil, and repay your loan; and you [and] your sons live off the rest.”

8 And the day comes that Elisha passes over to Shunem, and there [is] a great woman, and she lays hold on him to eat bread, and it comes to pass, at the time of his passing over, he turns aside there to eat bread,

9 and she says to her husband, “Now behold, I have known that he is a holy man of God, passing over by us continually;

10 please let us make a little upper chamber of the wall, and we set for him there a bed, and a table, and a high seat, and a lampstand; and it has been, in his coming to us, he turns aside there.”

11 And the day comes that he comes in there, and turns aside to the upper chamber, and lies there,

12 and he says to his young man Gehazi, “Call for this Shunammite”; and he calls for her, and she stands before him.

13 And he says to him, “Now say to her, Behold, you have troubled yourself concerning us with all this trouble; what can [I] do for you? Is it to speak for you to the king, or to the head of the host?” And she says, “I am dwelling in the midst of my people.”

14 And he says, “And what can [I] do for her?” And Gehazi says, “Truly she has no son, and her husband [is] aged.”

15 And he says, “Call for her”; and he calls for her, and she stands at the opening,

16 and he says, “At this season, according to the time of life, you are embracing a son”; and she says, “No, my lord, O man of God, do not lie to your maidservant.”

17 And the woman conceives and bears a son, at this season, according to the time of life that Elisha spoke of to her.

18 And the boy grows, and the day comes that he goes out to his father, to the reapers,

19 and he says to his father, “My head, my head”; and he says to the young man, “Carry him to his mother”;

20 and he carries him, and brings him to his mother, and he sits on her knees until the noon, and dies.

21 And she goes up, and lays him on the bed of the man of God, and shuts [the door] on him, and goes out,