2 Kings 4:1-14

New American Standard Bible

The Widow’s Oil

4 Now a woman of the wives of ^(A)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; and ^(B)the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” ² So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except ^(C)a jar of oil.” ³ Then he said, “Go, ^[a]borrow containers ^[b]elsewhere for yourself, empty containers from all your neighbors—do not get too few. ⁴ Then you shall come in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour into all these containers; and you shall set aside what is full.” ⁵ So she left him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they began bringing the containers to her, and she poured the oil. ⁶ When ^(D)the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” But he said to her, “There ^[c]are no more containers.” Then the oil stopped. ⁷ So she came and told ^(E)the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

The Shunammite Woman

⁸ Now a day came when Elisha went over to ^(F)Shunem, where there was a ^[d]prominent woman, and she urged him to eat ^[e]food. And so it was, as often as he passed by, that he turned in there to eat ^[f]food. ⁹ And she said to her husband, “Behold now, I am aware that this is a holy ^(G)man of God passing by us repeatedly. ¹⁰ Please, let’s ^(H)make a little walled upper room, and let’s set up a bed for him there, and a table, a chair, and a lampstand; then it shall be, when he comes to us, that he can turn in there.”

¹¹ Now ^[g]one day he came there, and turned in to the upper room and ^[h]rested. ¹² Then he said to his servant ^(I)Gehazi, “Call this Shunammite.” And when he had called her, she stood before him. ¹³ And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have taken trouble for us with all this ^[i]care; what can I do for you? ^[j]Would you like me to speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’” But she ^[k]answered, “I live among my own people.” ¹⁴ So he said, “What then is to be done for her?” And Gehazi ^[l]answered, “It is a fact that she has no son, and her husband is old.”