2 Kings 4 Summary: Meaning, Themes & Reflection

1. Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves." 2. Elisha said to her, "What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" 3. Then he said, "Go, borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Don"t borrow just a few containers. 4. Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full." 5. So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured oil. 6. When the containers were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another container." 7. Then she came and told the man of God. He said, "Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest." 8. One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. 9. She said to her husband, "See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually. 10. Please, let"s make a little room on the roof. Let"s set a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand for him there. When he comes to us, he can stay there." 11. One day he came there, and he went to the room and lay there. 12. He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she stood before him. 13. He said to him, "Say now to her, "Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?"" 14. He said, "What then is to be done for her?" 15. He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the door. 16. He said, "At this season next year, you will embrace a son." 17. The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her. 18. When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers. 19. He said to his father, "My head! My head!" 20. When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. 21. She went up and laid him on the man of God"s bed, and shut the door on him, and went out. 22. She called to her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come again." 23. He said, "Why would you want to go to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath." 24. Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, "Drive, and go forward! Don"t slow down for me, unless I ask you to." 25. So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, "Behold, there is the Shunammite. 26. Please run now to meet her, and ask her, "Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child?"" 27. When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, "Leave her alone, for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me." 28. Then she said, "Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn"t I say, "Do not deceive me"?" 29. Then he said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don"t greet him; and if anyone greets you, don"t answer him again. Then lay my staff on the child"s face." 30. The child"s mother said, "As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." 31. Gehazi went ahead of them, and laid the staff on the child"s face; but there was no voice and no hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, "The child has not awakened." 32. When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lying on his bed. 33. He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh. 34. He went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the child"s flesh grew warm. 35. Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth, then went up and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36. He called Gehazi, and said, "Call this Shunammite!" So he called her. 37. Then she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; then she picked up her son, and went out. 38. Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, "Get the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets." 39. One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds from it, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew; for they didn"t recognize them. 40. So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out and said, "Man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it. 41. But he said, "Then bring meal." He threw it into the pot; and he said, "Serve it to the people, that they may eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot. 42. A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, "Give to the people, that they may eat." 43. His servant said, "What, should I set this before a hundred men?" 44. So he set it before them and they ate and had some left over, according to Yahweh"s word.