Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
2 Kings 4
The Widow’s Oil
A woman from the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. But the creditor has come to take my two children for himself as servants.” Elisha said to her, “What will I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing at all in the house except a jar of oil.” He said, “Go, ask for vessels from outside, from all your neighbors—empty vessels, not a few. Then go in and shut the door behind you and behind your sons. Pour into all these vessels, and when one is full, set it aside.” So she went from him and shut the door behind her and behind her sons. They brought the vessels to her, and she kept pouring. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” But he said to her, “There is no more vessel.” Then the oil stopped. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on what remains.”
The Shunammite Woman Welcomes Elisha
One day Elisha passed through Shunem, and there was a great woman there, and she urged him to eat bread. So whenever he passed by, he would turn aside there to eat bread. She said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God who continually passes by us. Please let us make a small upper room with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then when he comes to us, he may turn aside there.”
Elisha Promises a Son
One day he came there, turned aside to the upper room, and lay down there. He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” He called her, and she stood before him. He said to him, “Please say to her, ‘Look, you have taken all this trouble for us. What is to be done for you? Is there something to speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’” She said, “I live among my own people.” He said, “Then what is to be done for her?” Gehazi said, “Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old.” He said, “Call her.” He called her, and she stood in the doorway. He said, “At this appointed time, according to the time of life, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, man of God! Do not deceive your servant.” But the woman conceived and bore a son at that appointed time, according to the time of life, just as Elisha had spoken to her.
The Child Dies
The child grew. One day he went out to his father, to the reapers. He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to the servant, “Carry him to his mother.” He carried him and brought him to his mother, and he sat on her knees until noon, and then he died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door behind him, and went out. She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, so that I may run to the man of God and return.” He said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.” She said, “It is well.” Then she saddled the donkey and said to her young man, “Drive and go forward. Do not slow the riding for me unless I tell you.”
The Shunammite Reaches Elisha
So she went and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her from a distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, there is the Shunammite. Now run to meet her and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’” She said, “It is well.” But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her life is bitter within her, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.” Then she said, “Did I ask a son from my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”
Elisha Sends Gehazi Ahead
He said to Gehazi, “Gird up your waist, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if someone greets you, do not answer him. Lay my staff upon the face of the boy.” But the mother of the boy said, “As the LORD lives and as your life lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her. Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff upon the face of the boy, but there was no voice and no response. So he returned to meet him and told him, saying, “The boy has not awakened.”
Elisha Raises the Child
Elisha came into the house, and look, the boy was dead, lying on his bed. He went in, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD. Then he went up and lay upon the child, put his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his palms upon his palms. He stretched himself upon him, and the flesh of the child became warm. Then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth. He went up and stretched himself upon him again. The boy sneezed seven times, and the boy opened his eyes. He called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite.” So he called her. When she came to him, he said, “Lift up your son.” She came, fell at his feet, and bowed down to the ground. Then she lifted up her son and went out.
Death in the Pot
Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, “Set on the large pot and cook stew for the sons of the prophets.” One went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered from it his garment full of wild gourds. He came and sliced them into the stew pot, though they did not know what they were. They poured it out for the men to eat. And it happened as they were eating from the stew that they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they were not able to eat it. He said, “Then bring flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people, and let them eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
Twenty Loaves Feed a Hundred Men
A man came from Baal-Shalishah and brought the man of God bread of firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people so that they may eat.” But his attendant said, “How can I set this before one hundred men?” He said, “Give it to the people so that they may eat, for thus says the LORD: ‘They will eat and have some left.’” So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.