2 Kings 4–6

Elisha Answers a Widow’s Request

4A certain woman from the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. Now you know that your servant was a fearer of Yahweh, but the creditor came to take two of my children for himself as slaves. ²Elisha asked her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” Then she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of olive oil.” ³Then he said to her, “Go, ask for yourself some containers from the streets, from all your neighbors. You must collect as many empty containers as you can!^{a 4}You must also go and shut the door behind you and your children, and you must pour out oil into all of these containers and set the filled ones aside.” ⁵So she went from him, and she shut the door behind her and her children. They were bringing containers to her, and she kept pouring. ⁶It happened that when the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring near me another container,” but he said to her, “There is not another container.” Then the olive oil stopped flowing. ⁷So she came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the olive oil and repay your debt. You and your sons can live on what is left over.”

Elisha at Shunem

⁸It happened one day that Elisha passed through to Shunem where there was a wealthy woman, and she urged him to eat bread; so it happened each time he passed through, he would stop there to eat. ⁹She said to her husband, “Please now, I know that he is a holy man of God who is passing our way^b regularly; ¹⁰let us make a small enclosed room upstairs and put a bed, table, chair, and lampstand there for him, so that when he comes to us, he can turn and stay there. ¹¹One day it happened that he came there and went to the upper room and lay down there. ¹²He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call to this Shunammite,” so he called to her, and she stood before him. ¹³He said to him, “Please say to her, ‘Look, you took all this trouble, showing care for us; what is there for me to do for you? To speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’ ” She said, “I am living among my people.” ¹⁴Then he said, “What may be done for her?” Gehazi said, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” ¹⁵And he said, “Call for her,” so he called for her and she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶And he said, “At this time next spring,^c you will be embracing a son.” She said, “No, my lord, O man of God! You must not tell a lie to your servant!” ¹⁷But the woman conceived, and she bore a son in the spring,^d which Elisha had promised to her.

Elisha Restores the Shunammite’s Son

¹⁸The child grew older, and it happened one day that he went out to his father and to the reapers. ¹⁹Then he said to his father, “My head, my head!” So he said to the servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰So they carried him and brought him to his mother; he sat on her lap until noon and then died. ²¹She went up, laid him on the bed of the man of God, closed the door, and went out behind it. ²²She called to her husband and said, “Please send one of the servants and one of the female donkeys for me, so that I can go quickly up to the man of God and return.” ²³And he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the new moon nor the Sabbath!” And she said, “Peace.” ²⁴She saddled the female donkey, and she said to her servant, “Drive along and go; you must not hold me back from riding, unless I tell you.” ²⁵So she went and came to the man of God by Mount Carmel. It happened when the man of God saw her at a distance,^e he said to Gehazi his servant, “There is this Shunammite. ²⁶Now, please run to meet her and ask her, ‘Is it peace for you? Is it peace for your husband? Is it peace for the boy?’ ” She said, “Peace.” ²⁷So she came to the man of God at the mountain, and she caught hold of his feet. Then Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, “Let her alone, for her soul is bitter, and Yahweh has hidden it from me and has not told me.” ²⁸Then she said, “Did I ask for a son from my lord? Did I not say that you must not mislead me?”

²⁹Then he said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, you must not greet them; if anyone greets you, you must not answer them. You must put my staff on the face of the boy.” ³⁰Then the mother of the boy said, “As Yahweh lives^f and as your soul lives,^g I will surely not leave you.” So he got up and went after her. ³¹Gehazi crossed over before them, and he put the staff on the face of the boy; but there was no sound, and there was no sign of life, so he returned to meet him. He told him, saying, “The boy did not wake up.”

³²When Elisha came to the house, here was the boy dead, lying on his bed. ³³He went and closed the door behind the two of them and prayed to Yahweh. ³⁴Then he went up and lay upon the child and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his palms on his palms. As he bent down over him, the flesh of the boy became warm. ³⁵He returned and went to and fro^h in the house one time, then he went up and bent over him. Then the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. ³⁶Elisha called to Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite.” So he called her and she came to him; then he said, “Pick up your son.” ³⁷She came and fell at his feet and bowed down to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out.

Elisha Secures the Food

³⁸So Elisha returned to Gilgal. Now the famine was in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. He said to his servant, put on the large pot and cook a stew for the sons of the prophets. ³⁹One went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vineⁱ and gathered wild gourds from it and filled his cloak. Then he came and cut them into the pot of stew, but they did not know what they were. ⁴⁰They served the men to eat, but when they ate from the stew, they cried out and said, “There is death in the pot, O man of God!” They were not able to eat it. ⁴¹Then he said, “Bring some flour,” and he threw it into the pot. He then said, “Serve the people and let them eat.” There was nothing harmful in the pot.

⁴²A man came from Baal-Shalishah and brought food to the man of God: firstfruits and twenty loaves of barley bread, with ripe grain in his sack. He said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” ⁴³Then 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 Yahweh says, ‘They shall eat and have some left over.’ ” ⁴⁴So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of Yahweh.

The Healing of Naaman the Syrian

5Now Naaman was the commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man before his master and highly regarded,^a for by him Yahweh had given victory to Aram. Now the man was a mighty warrior, but he was afflicted with a skin disease. ²When the Arameans went on a raid, they brought back a young girl from the land of Israel, and she came into the service of^b the wife of Naaman. ³She said to her mistress, “If only my lord would come before the prophet who is in Samaria; then he would cure his skin disease.”^{c 4}He came and told his master, saying, “Thus and so the girl who is from the land of Israel said.” ⁵So the king of Aram said, “Go, I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” He went and took with him^d ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of clothing.

⁶So he brought the letter to the king to Israel, saying, “Now, when this letter comes to you, I have just sent Naaman my servant to you that you may cure him from his skin disease.” ⁷It happened that when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God to cause death or to give life? This man is sending a man to me to cure his disease. Indeed! But know and see that he seeks an opportunity against me.”

⁸It happened that as soon as Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why did you tear your clothes? Please may he come to me, that he might know that there is a prophet in Israel.” ⁹Then Naaman came with his horses and his chariots, and he stopped at the doorway of the house of Elisha. ¹⁰Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, you must wash seven times in the Jordan, then your flesh shall return to you, and you shall be clean.” ¹¹But Naaman became angry and he went and said, “Look, I said to myself, ‘Surely he will come out, stand, call upon the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hands over the spot; then he would take away the skin disease.’ ¹²Are not the Abana and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all of the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them that I may be clean?” Then he turned and left in anger. ¹³But his servants came near and spoke to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had spoken a difficult thing to you to do, would you not have done it? Why not even when he says to you, ‘Wash and you shall be clean’?” ¹⁴So he went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh returned as the flesh of a small boy, and he was clean.

Elisha’s Greedy Servant Gehazi

¹⁵When he returned to the man of God, he and all of his army, he came and stood before him and said, “Please now, I know that there is no God in all of the world except in Israel. So then, please take a gift from your servant.” ¹⁶And he said, “As Yahweh lives,^e before whom I stand, I surely will not take it.” Still he urged him to take it, but he refused. ¹⁷Then Naaman said, “If not, then please let a load of soil on a pair of mules be given to your servants, for your servant will never again bring a burnt offering and sacrifice to other gods, but only to Yahweh. ¹⁸As far as this matter, may Yahweh pardon your servant when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he is leaning himself on my arm,…