World English Bible

Chapter 4

¹Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant did fear Yahweh: and the creditor is come to take to him my two children to be bondservants. ²Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? tell me; what have you in the house? She said, Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil. ³Then he said, Go, borrow you vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. ⁴You shall go in, and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour out into all those vessels; and you shall set aside that which is full. ⁵So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons; they brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. ⁶It happened, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, Bring me yet a vessel. He said to her, There isn’t another vessel. The oil stayed. ⁷Then she came and told the man of God. He said, Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt, and live you and your sons of the rest. ⁸It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. ⁹She said to her husband, See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually. ¹⁰Let us make, Please, a little chamber on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a seat, and a lamp stand: and it shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there. ¹¹It fell on a day, that he came there, and he turned into the chamber and lay there. ¹²He said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. When he had called her, she stood before him. ¹³He said to him, Say now to her, Behold, you have been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for you? would you be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army? She answered, I dwell among my own people. ¹⁴He said, What then is to be done for her? Gehazi answered, Most assuredly she has no son, and her husband is old. ¹⁵He said, Call her. When he had called her, she stood in the door. ¹⁶He said, At this season, when the time comes round, you shall embrace a son. She said, No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid. ¹⁷The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came round, as Elisha had said to her. ¹⁸When the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. ¹⁹He said to his father, My head, my head. He said to his servant, Carry him to his mother. ²⁰When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. ²¹She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went out. ²²She 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. ²³He said, Why will you go to him today? it is neither new moon nor Sabbath. She said, It shall be well. ²⁴Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; don’t slacken me the riding, except I bid you. ²⁵So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. It happened, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is the Shunammite: ²⁶please run now to meet her, and ask her, Is it well with you? is it well with your husband? is it well with the child? She answered, It is well. ²⁷When 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, Let her alone: for her soul is vexed within her; and Yahweh has hid it from me, and has not told me. ²⁸Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? Didn’t I say, Do not deceive me? ²⁹Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up your waist, and 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: and lay my staff on the face of the child. ³⁰The mother of the child said, As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. He arose, and followed her. ³¹Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, The child has not awakened. ³²When Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid on his bed. ³³He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh. ³⁴He 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: and he stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child grew warm. ³⁵Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself on him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. ³⁶He called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. When she was come in to him, he said, Take up your son. ³⁷Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out. ³⁸Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets. ³⁹One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of stew; for they didn’t recognize them. ⁴⁰So they poured out for the men to eat. It happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, man of God, there is death in the pot. They could not eat of it. ⁴¹But he said, Then bring meal. He cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. There was no harm in the pot. ⁴²There came a man from Baal Shalishah, and brought the man of God 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. ⁴³His servant said, What, should I set this before a hundred men? But he said, Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, They shall eat, and shall leave of it. ⁴⁴So he set it before them, and they ate, and left of it, according to the word of Yahweh.