2 Kings 4

Modern English Version

The Widow’s Olive Oil

4 Now one of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but a creditor has come to take my two sons as slaves.”

² Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.”

³ Then he said, “Go, ask for vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not just a few. ⁴ Then go in, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour the oil into all these vessels. When each is full, set it aside.”

⁵ So she left him and shut the door behind her and her sons, and they kept bringing vessels to her, and she kept pouring. ⁶ When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”

But he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” And the oil ceased.

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

Elisha Raises the Shunammite’s Son

⁸ One day Elisha passed through Shunem, and a noble woman was there who urged him to eat a meal. So whenever he passed through, he stopped there to eat a meal. ⁹ And she said to her husband, “I know that he is a holy man of God regularly passing through near us. ¹⁰ Let us make a little walled upper room and put for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so when he comes to us he can stay there.”

¹¹ One day he came by there, and he turned aside to the upper room and lay down. ¹² He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she stood before him. ¹³ He said to him, “Say to her, Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What may be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king, or to the captain of the army?”

And she answered, “I am living among my people.”

¹⁴ He said, “What may be done for her?”

And Gehazi said, “Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵ He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the entrance. ¹⁶ He said, “At this season, when it is time, you will embrace a son.”

And she said, “No, my lord, man of God, do not lie to your servant.”

¹⁷ But the woman conceived and bore a son at that season, at the time that Elisha had told her.

¹⁸ When the child was older, he went out one day to his father with the reapers. ¹⁹ He said to his father, “My head, my head!”

And he said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰ When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, the boy sat on her knees until noon, and died. ²¹ She went up, and laid him down on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him, and went out.

²² Then she called to her husband, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so that I may run to the man of God and return.”

²³ He said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither New Moon nor Sabbath.”

She said, “It will be all right.”

²⁴ Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on, and do not hold back for me unless I tell you.” ²⁵ So she went and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

And when the man of God saw her far off, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, over there is the Shunammite woman. ²⁶ Now run to meet her, and say to her, Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is the child all right?”

And she said, “It is all right.”

²⁷ When she came to the man of God at the mountain, she grabbed his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.”

²⁸ Then she said, “Did I ask for a son from my lord? Did I not say, Do not give me false hope?”

²⁹ Then he said to Gehazi, “Prepare yourself, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you find anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him, and lay my staff on the face of the boy.”

³⁰ Then the boy’s mother said, “As the Lord lives, and as you live, I will not leave without you.” And he got up and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi passed through ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the boy, but there was no sound or response. So he returned to meet him and told him, “The boy is not awake.”

³² When Elisha came into the house, he saw that the boy was dead, lying on his bed. ³³ So he went in, and shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. ³⁴ He went up and lay on the child, put his face on his face, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. Then he bent over the child, and the child’s flesh warmed. ³⁵ Then he got down, walked once back and forth in the house, and went up, and bent over him; the boy sneezed seven times, and the boy opened his eyes.

³⁶ Then Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her, and she came to him. Then he said, “Pick up your son.” ³⁷ Then she came in, fell at his feet, and bowed down to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

Elisha Purifies the Deadly Stew

³⁸ When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, “Put on the big cooking pot, and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”

³⁹ One went out into the field to gather herbs. He found a wild vine and gathered from it wild gourds, filling his clothes, and came and split them into the pot of stew, but they did not recognize them. ⁴⁰ So they 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.” They could not eat it.

⁴¹ But he said, “Then bring flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it for the people and let them eat.” And there was nothing bad in the pot.

Elisha Feeds One Hundred Men

⁴² A man came from Baal Shalishah, and he brought the man of God food from the first fruits—twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain—in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.”

⁴³ But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?”

He said, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They will eat and have some left.’ ” ⁴⁴ So he set it before them, they ate, and some was left over, according to the word of the Lord.