2 Kings 4:1-21 ▼

1 Now a woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”

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

3 Then he said, “Go, borrow containers elsewhere for yourself, empty containers from all your neighbors—do not get too few.

4 Then you shall come in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour into all these containers; and you shall set aside what is full.”

5 So she left him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they began bringing the containers to her, and she poured the oil.

6 When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” But he said to her, “There are no more containers.” Then the oil stopped.

7 So she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

8 Now a day came when Elisha went over to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman, and she urged him to eat food. And so it was, as often as he passed by, that he turned in there to eat food.

9 And she said to her husband, “Behold now, I am aware that this is a holy man of God passing by us repeatedly.

10 Please, let’s make a little walled upper room, and let’s set up a bed for him there, and a table, a chair, and a lampstand; then it shall be, when he comes to us, that he can turn in there.”

11 Now one day he came there, and turned in to the upper room and rested.

12 Then he said to his servant Gehazi, “Call this Shunammite.” And when he had called her, she stood before him.

13 And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have taken trouble for us with all this care; what can I do for you? Would you like me to speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’” But she answered, “I live among my own people.”

14 So he said, “What then is to be done for her?” And Gehazi answered, “It is a fact that she has no son, and her husband is old.”

15 He then said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.

16 Then he said, “At this season next year, you are going to embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.”

17 Now the woman conceived and gave birth to a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had told her.

18 When the child was grown, the day came that he went out to his father, to the reapers.

19 And he said to his father, “My head, my head!” And his father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

20 When he had carried him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door behind him and left.