2 Kings 4–6

Chapter 4

Now a certain woman of the wives of the prophets, cried to Eliseus, saying: Thy servant, my husband, is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant was one that feared God, and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him.

²And Eliseus said to her: What wilt thou have me do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? And she answered: I, thy handmaid, have nothing in my house but a little oil, to anoint me.

³And he said to her: Go, borrow of all thy neighbours empty vessels, not a few.

⁴And go in, and shut thy door, when thou art within, and thy sons: and pour out thereof into all those vessels: and when they are full, take them away.

⁵So the woman went, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons: they brought her the vessels, and she poured in.

⁶And when the vessels were full, she said to her son: Bring me yet a vessel. And he answered: I have no more. And the oil stood.

⁷And she came, and told the man of God. And he said: Go, sell the oil, and pay thy creditor: and thou and thy sons live of the rest.

⁸And there was a day when Eliseus passed by Sunam: now there was a great woman there, who detained him to eat bread: and as he passed often that way, he turned into her house to eat bread.

⁹And she said to her husband: I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who often passeth by us.

¹⁰Let us, therefore, make him a little chamber, and put a little bed in it for him, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick, that when he cometh to us he may abide there.

¹¹Now, there was a certain day, when he came, and turned into the chamber, and rested there.

¹²And he said to Giezi, his servant: Call this Sunamitess. And when he had called her, and she stood before him,

¹³He said to his servant: Say to her: Behold, thou hast diligently served us in all things; what wilt thou have me to do for thee? Hast thou any business, and wilt thou, that I speak to the king, or to the general of the army? And she answered: I dwell in the midst of my own people.

¹⁴And he said: What will she then that I do for her? And Giezi said: Do not ask, for she hath no son, and her husband is old.

¹⁵Then he bid him call her. And when she was called, and stood before the door,

¹⁶He said to her: At this time, and this same hour, if life be in company, thou shalt have a son in thy womb. But she answered: Do not, I beseech thee, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie to thy handmaid.

¹⁷And the woman conceived, and brought forth a son in the time, and at the same hour that Eliseus had said.

¹⁸And the child grew. And on a certain day, when he went out to his father to the reapers,

¹⁹He said to his father: My head acheth, my head acheth. But he said to his servant. Take him, and carry him to his mother.

²⁰And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, she sat him on her knees, until noon, and then he died.

²¹And she went up, and laid him upon the bed of the man of God, and shut the door: and going out,

²²She called her husband, and said: Send with me, I beseech thee, one of thy servants, and an ass, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.

²³And he said to her: Why dost thou go to him? to day is neither new moon nor sabbath. She answered: I will go.

²⁴And she saddled an ass, and commanded her servant: Drive, and make haste, make no stay in going: And do that which I bid thee.

²⁵So she went forward, and came to the man of God, to mount Carmel: and when the man of God saw her coming towards, he said to Giezi, his servant: Behold that Sunamitess.

²⁶Go, therefore, to meet her, and say to her: Is all well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son? And she answered: Well.

²⁷And when she came to the man of God, to the mount, she caught hold on his feet: and Giezi came to remove her. And the man of God said: Let her alone for her soul is in anguish, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.

²⁸And she said to him: Did I ask a son of my lord? did I not say to thee: Do not deceive me?

²⁹Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him not: and if any man salute thee, answer him not: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.

³⁰But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose, therefore, and followed her.

³¹But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child, and there was no voice nor sense: and he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: The child is not risen.

³²Eliseus, therefore, went into the house, and behold the child lay dead on his bed:

³³And going in, he shut the door upon him, and upon the child, and prayed to the Lord.

³⁴And he went up, and lay upon the child: and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he bowed himself upon him, and the child’s flesh grew warm.

³⁵Then he returned and walked in the house, once to and fro: and he went up, and lay upon him: and the child gaped seven times, and opened his eyes.

³⁶And he called Giezi, and said to him: Call this Sunamitess. And she being called, went in to him: and he said: Take up thy son.

³⁷She came and fell at his feet, and worshipped upon the ground: and took up her son, and went out.

³⁸And Eliseus returned to Galgal, and there was a famine in the land, and the sons of the prophets dwelt before him: And he said to one of his servants: Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.

³⁹And one went out into the field to gather wild herbs: and he found something like a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds of the field, and filled his mantle, and coming back, he shred them into the pot of pottage; for he knew not what it was.

⁴⁰And they poured it out for their companions to eat: and when they had tasted of the pottage, they cried out, saying: Death is in the pot, O man of God. And they could not eat thereof.

⁴¹But he said: Bring some meal. And when they had brought it, he cast it into the pot, and said: Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was now no bitterness in the pot.

⁴²And a certain man came from Baalsalisa, bringing to the man of God, bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and new corn in his scrip. And he said: Give to the people, that they may eat.

⁴³And his servant answered him: How much is this, that I should set it before a hundred men? He said again: Give to the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord: They shall eat, and there shall be left.

⁴⁴So he set it before them: and they ate, and there was left, according to the word of the Lord.

Chapter 5

Naaman, general of the army, of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable: for by him the Lord gave deliverance to Syria: and he was a valiant man, and rich, but a leper.

²Now there had gone out robbers from Syria, and had led away captive out of the land of Israel, a little maid, and she waited upon Naaman’s wife.

³And she said to her mistress: I wish my master had been with the prophet that is in Samaria: he would certainly have healed him of the leprosy which he hath.

⁴Then Naaman went in to his lord, and told him, saying: Thus and thus said the girl from the land of Israel.

⁵And the king of Syria said to him: Go; and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment;

⁶And brought the letter to the king of Israel, in these words: When thou shalt receive this letter, know that I have sent to thee Naaman, my servant, that thou mayst heal him of his leprosy.

⁷And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he rent his garments, and said: Am I God, to be able to kill and give life, that this man hath sent to me to heal a man of his leprosy? mark, and see how he seeketh occasions against me.

⁸And when Eliseus, the man of God, had heard this, to wit, that the king of Israel had rent his garments, he sent to him, saying: Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel.

⁹So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus:

¹⁰And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thou shalt be clean.

¹¹Naaman was angry, and went away, saying: I thought he would have come out to me, and standing, would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me.

¹²Are not the Abana, and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean? So as he turned, and was going away with indignation,

¹³His servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, surely thou shouldst have done it: how much rather what he now hath said to thee: Wash, and thou shalt be clean?

¹⁴Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child: and he was made clean.

¹⁵And returning to the man of God, with all his train, he came, and stood before him, and said: In truth, I know there is no other God, in all the earth, but only in Israel: I beseech thee, therefore, take a blessing of thy servant.

¹⁶But he answered: As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And when he pressed him, he still refused.

¹⁷And Naaman said: As thou wilt: but I beseech thee, grant to me, thy servant, to take from hence two mules’ burden of earth: for thy servant will not henceforth offer holocaust, or victim, to other gods, but to the Lord.

¹⁸But there is only this, for which thou shalt entreat the Lord for thy servant; when my master goeth into the temple of Remmon, to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand: if I bow down in the temple of…