2 Kings

¹The wife of a man from the group of prophets came crying to Elisha and said, 'Your servant my husband is dead. You know that he feared the LORD. Now a creditor is coming to take my two boys as slaves in payment for the debt.'

²Elisha asked her, 'What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?' She said, 'Your servant has nothing at all except a small jar of olive oil.'

³Elisha said, 'Go around and borrow empty jars from all your neighbors — get as many as you can.'

⁴Then go inside with your sons, shut the door, and pour oil into all the jars. As each one is filled, set it aside.

⁵She left him and went inside with her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.

⁶When all the jars were full, she said to her son, 'Bring me another jar.' He replied, '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 over.'

⁸One day Elisha went to Shunem, where a prominent woman lived. She persuaded him to stay for a meal. After that, whenever he passed through, he would stop there to eat.

⁹The woman said to her husband, 'I can tell that this man who often passes by is a holy man of God.'

¹⁰Let's make a small room on the roof for him and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it. Then whenever he comes to us, he can stay there.

¹¹One day Elisha came there and went up to his room to rest.

¹²He said to his servant Gehazi, 'Call the Shunammite woman.' Gehazi called her, and she came and stood before him.

¹³Elisha said to Gehazi, 'Ask her: You have gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak to the king or the army commander on your behalf?' She replied, 'I am content living among my own people.'

¹⁴Elisha asked, 'What then can be done for her?' Gehazi answered, 'Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.'

¹⁵Elisha said, 'Call her back.' So Gehazi called her and she stood in the doorway.

¹⁶Elisha told her, 'About this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.' The woman said, 'No, my lord! Man of God, please do not mislead your servant.'

¹⁷But the woman became pregnant, and the following year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

¹⁸The child grew up. One day he went out to his father among the harvesters.

¹⁹He said to his father, 'My head! My head!' His father told a servant, 'Carry him to his mother.'

²⁰The servant carried him to his mother, and the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

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

²²She called her husband and said, 'Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go quickly to the man of God and come back.'

²³He asked, 'Why go to him today? It is not a new moon or the Sabbath.' She said, 'It will be all right.'

²⁴She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, 'Lead on and don't slow down for me unless I tell you to.'

²⁵She set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her coming in the distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, 'Look — there is the Shunammite woman!'

²⁶Run to meet her and ask her: Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?' She answered, 'Everything is fine.'

²⁷When she reached the man of God on the mountain, she grabbed 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. The LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why.'

²⁸She said, 'Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn't I say, do not mislead me?'

²⁹Elisha said to Gehazi, 'Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet them, and if anyone greets you, do not respond. Lay my staff on the boy's face.'

³⁰But the child's mother said, 'As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.' So Elisha got up and followed her.

³¹Gehazi went ahead and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no response — no sound, no movement. Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, 'The boy has not awakened.'

³²When Elisha arrived at the house, the boy was lying dead on his bed.

³³He went in, shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.

³⁴Then he stretched himself out on the child — his mouth on the boy's mouth, his eyes on the boy's eyes, his hands on the boy's hands. As Elisha lay on him, the boy's body grew warm.

³⁵Elisha got up, walked around the room, then stretched himself on the boy once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

³⁶Elisha called Gehazi and said, 'Bring the Shunammite woman.' Gehazi called her, and she came. Elisha said, 'Pick up your son.'

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

³⁸Elisha returned to Gilgal during a famine in the land. While the group of prophets was sitting before him, he said to his servant, 'Put on the large pot and make some stew for the prophets.'

³⁹One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine. He picked its gourds and filled his garment with them, then brought them back and sliced them into the pot of stew, though none of them knew what it was.

⁴⁰They served the stew to the men, but when they started eating it, they cried out, 'Man of God, there is death in this pot!' They could not eat it.

⁴¹Elisha said, 'Get some flour.' He threw it into the pot and said, 'Serve it to the people to eat.' And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

⁴²A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing Elisha twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first grain of the harvest, along with some heads of new grain. Elisha said, 'Give it to the people to eat.'

⁴³His servant said, 'How can I set this before a hundred men?' But Elisha replied, 'Give it to the people to eat. For the LORD says: They will eat and have some left over.'

⁴⁴He set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, just as the LORD had said.