2 Kings 4

The Shunammite Woman's Hospitality 2 Kings 4:8–17

⁸Verse 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. ⁹Verse 9. She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually. ¹⁰Verse 10. Please let us make a little room on the roof. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. When he comes to us, he can stay there.” ¹¹Verse 11. One day he came there, and he went to the room and lay there.

¹²Verse 12. He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him. ¹³Verse 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?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.” ¹⁴Verse 14. He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.” ¹⁵Verse 15. He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the door.

¹⁶Verse 16. He said, “At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.” ¹⁷Verse 17. The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her.

Restoration of the Shunammite's Son 2 Kings 4:18–37

¹⁸Verse 18. When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers. ¹⁹Verse 19. He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰Verse 20. When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. ²¹Verse 21. She went up and laid him on the man of God’s bed, and shut the door on him, and went out. ²²Verse 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.”

²³Verse 23. He said, “Why would you want go to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath.” She said, “It’s alright.” ²⁴Verse 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.” ²⁵Verse 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. ²⁶Verse 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?’” She answered, “It is well.”

²⁷Verse 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.” ²⁸Verse 28. Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me’?” ²⁹Verse 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.”

³⁰Verse 30. The child’s mother said, “As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose, and followed her. ³¹Verse 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.” ³²Verse 32. When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lying on his bed. ³³Verse 33. He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh. ³⁴Verse 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.

³⁵Verse 35. Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. ³⁶Verse 36. He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.” ³⁷Verse 37. Then she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; then she picked up her son, and went out.

Purification of the Stew 2 Kings 4:38–44

³⁸Verse 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.” ³⁹Verse 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. ⁴⁰Verse 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.

⁴¹Verse 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. ⁴²Verse 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. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.” ⁴³Verse 43. His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for Yahweh says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”

⁴⁴Verse 44. So he set it before them, and they ate, and had some left over, according to Yahweh’s word.