2 Kings 4:38-5:8

English Standard Version

Elisha Purifies the Deadly Stew

³⁸ And Elisha came again to ^(A)Gilgal when ^(B)there was a famine in the land. And as ^(C)the sons of the prophets ^(D)were sitting before him, he said to his servant, ^(E)“Set on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.” ³⁹ One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were. ⁴⁰ And they poured out some for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. ⁴¹ He said, “Then bring flour.” ^(F)And he threw it into the pot and said, “Pour some out for the men, that they may eat.” And there was no harm in the pot.

⁴² A man came from ^(G)Baal-shalishah, ^(H)bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, ^(I)“Give to the men, that they may eat.” ⁴³ But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” ⁴⁴ So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

Naaman Healed of Leprosy

5 ^(J)Naaman, ^(K)commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.^{[a] 2} Now the Syrians on ^(L)one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. ³ She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” ⁴ So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” ⁵ And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”

So he went, ^(M)taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels^[b] of gold, and ten ^(N)changes of clothing. ⁶ And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” ⁷ And when the king of Israel read the letter, ^(O)he tore his clothes and said, ^(P)“Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only ^(Q)consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.”

⁸ But when Elisha the ^(R)man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.”