2 Reis 4

¹ The widow of a member of a group of prophets said to Elisha: »My husband has died! As you know, he was a man who respected God. A man to whom he owed money came to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband's debt.«

² Elisha said: »Tell me what shall I do for you? What do you have at home?« She answered: »Except for a small jar of olive oil, I have nothing.«

³ »Ask your neighbors for empty jars. Borrow as many as you can,« Elisha told her.

⁴ »You and your sons go into the house and shut the door behind you. Pour oil into the jars. Set each one aside as soon as it is full.«

⁵ The woman went into her house with her sons. They closed the door and took the small jar of olive oil, and poured oil into the jars as her sons brought them to her.

⁶ When the jars were full she asked if there were any more. »That was the last one,« one of her sons told her. So the olive oil stopped flowing.

⁷ She returned to Elisha, the prophet. He said: »Sell the olive oil and pay all your debts. There will be enough money left over for you and your sons to pay your living expenses.«

⁸ Elisha went to Shunem, where a rich woman lived. She invited him to a meal. From that time on every time he went to Shunem he would have his meals at her house.

⁹ She said to her husband: »I know that this man who comes here often is a holy man.

¹⁰ »Let us build a small room on the roof, and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it. He can stay there when he visits us.«

¹¹ One day Elisha returned to Shunem and went to his room to rest.

¹² He told his servant Gehazi to call the woman. When she came,

¹³ he said to Gehazi: »Ask her what I can do for her in return for all the trouble she has had in providing for our needs. Maybe she would like me to go to the king or the army commander and put in a good word for her.« »I have all I need here among my own people,« she answered.

¹⁴ Elisha asked Gehazi: »What can I do for her?« He answered: »She has no son, and her husband is an old man.«

¹⁵ »Tell her to come here,« Elisha ordered. She came and stood in the doorway.

¹⁶ Elisha said to her: »By this time next year you will hold a son in your arms.« »Please do not lie to me. You are a man of God!« She said.

¹⁷ Just as Elisha said, about that time the following year she gave birth to a son.

ELISHA BRINGS BOY BACK TO LIFE

¹⁸ Years later at harvest time, the boy went out one morning to join his father, who was in the field with the harvest workers.

¹⁹ Suddenly he cried out to his father: »My head hurts! My head hurts!« »Carry the boy to his mother,« the father said to a servant.

²⁰ The servant carried the boy back to his mother. She held him in her lap until noon. Then the boy died.

²¹ She carried him up to Elisha's room and put him on the bed. She closed the door behind her and left.

²² She called her husband and said to him: »Send a servant here with a donkey. I need to go to the prophet Elisha. I will be back as soon as I can.«

²³ »Why must you go today?« Her husband asked. »It is neither a Sabbath nor a New Moon Festival.« She replied: »Never mind.«

²⁴ She had the donkey saddled, and ordered the servant: »Make the donkey go as fast as it can. Do not slow down unless I tell you.«

²⁵ She left for Mount Carmel, where Elisha was. Elisha saw her coming while she was still far off. He said to his servant Gehazi: »Look, there comes the woman from Shunem!

²⁶ »Hurry to her and find out if everything is all right with her and her family.« She told Gehazi that everything was all right,

²⁷ but when she came to Elisha, she bowed down before him and took hold of his feet. Gehazi was about to push her away. Elisha said: »Do not bother her. You can see she is deeply distressed. Jehovah has not told me a thing about it.«

²⁸ The woman said to him: »Did I ask you for a son? Did I not tell you not to get my hopes up?«

²⁹ Elisha told Gehazi:« Hurry! Take my walking stick. Do not stop to talk to anyone. If anyone speaks to you do not respond. Go straight to the house and hold my stick over the boy.«

³⁰ The woman said to Elisha:« I swear by my loyalty to the living God Jehovah and to you that I will not leave you! So the two of them started back together. »

³¹ Gehazi went ahead and held Elisha's stick over the child. There was no sound or any other sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and said: »The boy did not wake up.«

³² When Elisha arrived he went alone into the room. He saw the boy lying dead on the bed.

³³ He closed the door and prayed to Jehovah.

³⁴ Then he lay down on the boy, placing his mouth, eyes, and hands on the boy's mouth, eyes, and hands. As he lay stretched out over the boy, the boy's body started to get warm.

³⁵ Elisha got up and walked around the room. He returned and again stretched himself over the boy. The boy sneezed seven times and then opened his eyes.

³⁶ Elisha called Gehazi and told him to call the boy's mother. When she came in, he said to her: »Take your son!«

³⁷ She fell at Elisha's feet with her face on the ground. Then she took her son and left.

³⁸ When there was a famine throughout the land, Elisha returned to Gilgal. He was teaching a group of prophets. He told his servant to put a big pot on the fire and make some stew for them.

³⁹ One of them went out in the fields to gather herbs. He found a wild vine and picked as many gourds as he could carry. He brought them back and sliced them into the stew, not knowing what they were.

⁴⁰ The stew was poured out for the men to eat. They tasted it and exclaimed to Elisha: »It is poisoned!« They would not eat it.

⁴¹ Elisha asked for some meal. He threw it into the pot and said: »Pour out some more stew for them.« Then there was nothing wrong with it.

⁴² A man came from Baal Shalishah. He brought Elisha twenty loaves of bread made from the first barley harvested that year and some freshly cut heads of grain. Elisha told his servant to feed the group of prophets with this.

⁴³ He asked: »How am I to feed a hundred hungry men with this?« Elisha replied: »Give it to them to eat, because Jehovah says that they will eat and still have some left over.« (Matthew 14:20)

⁴⁴ So the servant set the food before them. Just as Jehovah said, they ate and had some left over.