2 Kings 4

The Widow’s Jar of Oil

1A certain woman, the 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 feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take my two children as his slaves.” 2Elisha said to her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing at all in the house except a jar of oil.” 3He said, “Go and borrow empty jars from all your neighbors — as many as you can get. 4Then go in, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour the oil into all these jars, setting each one aside as it is filled.” 5So she left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They kept bringing the jars to her, and she kept pouring. 6When the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another jar.” But he said to her, “There are no more jars.” And the oil stopped flowing. 7She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

The Shunammite’s Son

8One day Elisha was passing through Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, and she urged him to stay for a meal. After that, whenever he passed by, he would stop there to eat. 9She said to her husband, “I am certain that this man who passes by regularly is a holy man of God. 10Let us make a small room on the roof and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp there for him, so that whenever he comes to us, he can stay there.” 11One day he came there, went up to the room, and lay down. 12He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her, and she stood before him. 13Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tell her: You have gone to all this trouble for us — what can be done for you? Should we speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?” She answered, “I live among my own people.” 14Elisha said, “Then what can be done for her?” Gehazi said, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” 15Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16Elisha said, “At this time next year, you will be holding a son in your arms.” She said, “No, my lord, man of God — do not deceive your servant.” 17But the woman conceived, and the following year, at that same time, she bore a son, just as Elisha had told her. 18The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 19He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20The servant picked him up and brought him to his mother, and the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21She went up, laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door, and went out. 22She called to her husband and said, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can hurry to the man of God and come back.” 23He asked, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the new moon nor the Sabbath.” She said, “It’s all right.” 24She saddled the donkey and told her servant, “Lead on — don’t slow down for me unless I tell you to.” 25So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman. 26Run now to meet her and ask her: Are you well? Is your husband well? Is the child well?” She answered, “We are well.” 27But when she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone — she is in bitter distress, and Yahweh has hidden it from me and has not told me.” 28She said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not mislead me’?” 29Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tie up your garment, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.” 30But the boy’s mother said, “As Yahweh lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her. 31Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound and no response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not woken up.” 32When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy, lying dead on his bed. 33He went in, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to Yahweh. 34Then he got up on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out over him, the boy’s flesh grew warm. 35Elisha got up and paced back and forth in the house once, then went up again and stretched himself out over the boy. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. 36Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” He called her, and when she came to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” 37She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

Miracles of Bread

38Elisha returned to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land, and as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Put the large pot on and cook some stew for the sons of the prophets.” 39One of them went out to the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine. He picked from it wild gourds, filling the fold of his garment, and came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were. 40They poured it out for the men to eat, but as they were eating the stew, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. 41Elisha said, “Bring some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot. 42A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread from the firstfruits — twenty loaves of barley bread — along with fresh grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat.” 43His servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” But Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat, for this is what Yahweh says: They will eat and have some left over.” 44So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, just as Yahweh had said.