列王纪下 4
Chinese Union Version Modern Punctuation (Simplified)
以利沙为嫠妇行奇事
4 有一个先知门徒的妻哀求以利沙说：“你仆人我丈夫死了，他敬畏耶和华是你所知道的。现在有债主来，要取我两个儿子做奴仆。” 2 以利沙问她说：“我可以为你做什么呢？你告诉我，你家里有什么？”她说：“婢女家中除了一瓶油之外，没有什么。” 3 以利沙说：“你去，向你众邻舍借空器皿，不要少借。 4 回到家里，关上门，你和你儿子在里面将油倒在所有的器皿里，倒满了的放在一边。” 5 于是妇人离开以利沙去了，关上门，自己和儿子在里面，儿子把器皿拿来，她就倒油。 6 器皿都满了，她对儿子说：“再给我拿器皿来。”儿子说：“再没有器皿了。”油就止住了。 7 妇人去告诉神人，神人说：“你去卖油还债，所剩的，你和你儿子可以靠着度日。”
书念妇接待以利沙
8 一日，以利沙走到书念，在那里有一个大户的妇人强留他吃饭。此后以利沙每从那里经过，就进去吃饭。 9 妇人对丈夫说：“我看出那常从我们这里经过的是圣洁的神人。 10 我们可以为他在墙上盖一间小楼，在其中安放床榻、桌子、椅子、灯台，他来到我们这里，就可以住在其间。” 11 一日以利沙来到那里，就进了那楼躺卧。 12 以利沙吩咐仆人基哈西说：“你叫这书念妇人来。”他就把妇人叫了来，妇人站在以利沙面前。 13 以利沙吩咐仆人说：“你对她说：‘你既为我们费了许多心思，可以为你做什么呢？你向王或元帅有所求的没有？’”她回答说：“我在我本乡安居无事。” 14 以利沙对仆人说：“究竟当为她做什么呢？”基哈西说：“她没有儿子，她丈夫也老了。” 15 以利沙说：“再叫她来。”于是叫了她来，她就站在门口。 16 以利沙说：“明年到这时候，你必抱一个儿子。”她说：“神人，我主啊，不要那样欺哄婢女！”
书念妇生子
17 妇人果然怀孕，到了那时候，生了一个儿子，正如以利沙所说的。
子死以利沙苏之
18 孩子渐渐长大，一日到他父亲和收割的人那里。 19 他对父亲说：“我的头啊！我的头啊！”他父亲对仆人说：“把他抱到他母亲那里。” 20 仆人抱去，交给他母亲，孩子坐在母亲的膝上，到晌午就死了。 21 他母亲抱他上了楼，将他放在神人的床上，关上门出来， 22 呼叫她丈夫说：“你叫一个仆人，给我牵一匹驴来，我要快快地去见神人，就回来。” 23 丈夫说：“今日不是月朔，也不是安息日，你为何要去见他呢？”妇人说：“平安无事。” 24 于是备上驴，对仆人说：“你快快赶着走，我若不吩咐你，就不要迟慢。” 25 妇人就往迦密山去见神人。
神人远远地看见她，对仆人基哈西说：“看哪，书念的妇人来了。 26 你跑去迎接她，问她说：‘你平安吗？你丈夫平安吗？孩子平安吗？’”她说：“平安。” 27 妇人上了山，到神人那里，就抱住神人的脚。基哈西前来要推开她，神人说：“由她吧！因为她心里愁苦。耶和华向我隐瞒，没有指示我。” 28 妇人说：“我何尝向我主求过儿子呢？我岂没有说过，不要欺哄我吗？” 29 以利沙吩咐基哈西说：“你束上腰，手拿我的杖前去。若遇见人，不要向他问安，人若向你问安，也不要回答。要把我的杖放在孩子脸上。” 30 孩子的母亲说：“我指着永生的耶和华，又敢在你面前起誓：我必不离开你！”于是以利沙起身，随着她去了。 31 基哈西先去，把杖放在孩子脸上，却没有声音，也没有动静。基哈西就迎着以利沙回来，告诉他说：“孩子还没有醒过来。”
32 以利沙来到，进了屋子，看见孩子死了，放在自己的床上。 33 他就关上门，只有自己和孩子在里面，他便祈祷耶和华。 34 上床伏在孩子身上，口对口，眼对眼，手对手。既伏在孩子身上，孩子的身体就渐渐温和了。 35 然后他下来，在屋里来往走了一趟，又上去伏在孩子身上。孩子打了七个喷嚏，就睁开眼睛了。 36 以利沙叫基哈西说：“你叫这书念妇人来。”于是叫了她来。以利沙说：“将你儿子抱起来。” 37 妇人就进来，在以利沙脚前俯伏于地，抱起她儿子出去了。
先知徒中毒以利沙解之
38 以利沙又来到吉甲，那地正有饥荒。先知门徒坐在他面前，他吩咐仆人说：“你将大锅放在火上，给先知门徒熬汤。” 39 有一个人去到田野掐菜，遇见一棵野瓜藤，就摘了一兜野瓜回来，切了搁在熬汤的锅中，因为他们不知道是什么东西。 40 倒出来给众人吃，吃的时候，都喊叫说：“神人哪，锅中有致死的毒物！”所以众人不能吃了。 41 以利沙说：“拿点面来。”就把面撒在锅中，说：“倒出来给众人吃吧。”锅中就没有毒了。
以二十饼饱百人
42 有一个人从巴力沙利沙来，带着初熟大麦做的饼二十个并新穗子，装在口袋里送给神人。神人说：“把这些给众人吃。” 43 仆人说：“这一点岂可摆给一百人吃呢？”以利沙说：“你只管给众人吃吧，因为耶和华如此说：‘众人必吃了，还剩下。’” 44 仆人就摆在众人面前。他们吃了，果然还剩下，正如耶和华所说的。
2 Kings 4
New Living Translation
Elisha Helps a Poor Widow
4 One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”
2 “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”
“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.
3 And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”
5 So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6 Soon every container was full to the brim!
“Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons.
“There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.
7 When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.”
Elisha and the Woman from Shunem
8 One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat.
9 She said to her husband, “I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.”
11 One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to this upper room to rest. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, “Tell the woman from Shunem I want to speak to her.” When she appeared, 13 Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tell her, ‘We appreciate the kind concern you have shown us. What can we do for you? Can we put in a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’”
“No,” she replied, “my family takes good care of me.”
14 Later Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can we do for her?”
Gehazi replied, “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.”
15 “Call her back again,” Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway, 16 “Next year at this time you will be holding a son in your arms!”
“No, my lord!” she cried. “O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that.”
17 But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.
18 One day when her child was older, he went out to help his father, who was working with the harvesters. 19 Suddenly he cried out, “My head hurts! My head hurts!”
His father said to one of the servants, “Carry him home to his mother.”
20 So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died. 21 She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there. 22 She sent a message to her husband: “Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back.”
23 “Why go today?” he asked. “It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath.”
But she said, “It will be all right.”
24 So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, “Hurry! Don’t slow down unless I tell you to.”
25 As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, “Look, the woman from Shunem is coming. 26 Run out to meet her and ask her, ‘Is everything all right with you, your husband, and your child?’”
“Yes,” the woman told Gehazi, “everything is fine.”
27 But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is deeply troubled, but the Lord has not told me what it is.”
28 Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? And didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me and get my hopes up’?”
29 Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready to travel[a]; take my staff and go! Don’t talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child’s face.”
30 But the boy’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I won’t go home unless you go with me.” So Elisha returned with her.
31 Gehazi hurried on ahead and laid the staff on the child’s face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, “The child is still dead.”
32 When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet’s bed. 33 He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord. 34 Then he lay down on the child’s body, placing his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the child’s hands. And as he stretched out on him, the child’s body began to grow warm again! 35 Elisha got up, walked back and forth across the room once, and then stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
36 Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. “Call the child’s mother!” he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, “Here, take your son!” 37 She fell at his feet and bowed before him, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she took her son in her arms and carried him downstairs.
Miracles during a Famine
38 Elisha now returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. One day as the group of prophets was seated before him, he said to his servant, “Put a large pot on the fire, and make some stew for the rest of the group.”
39 One of the young men went out into the field to gather herbs and came back with a pocketful of wild gourds. He shredded them and put them into the pot without realizing they were poisonous. 40 Some of the stew was served to the men. But after they had eaten a bite or two they cried out, “Man of God, there’s poison in this stew!” So they would not eat it.
41 Elisha said, “Bring me some flour.” Then he threw it into the pot and said, “Now it’s all right; go ahead and eat.” And then it did not harm them.
42 One day a man from Baal-shalishah brought the man of God a sack of fresh grain and twenty loaves of barley bread made from the first grain of his harvest. Elisha said, “Give it to the people so they can eat.”
43 “What?” his servant exclaimed. “Feed a hundred people with only this?”
But Elisha repeated, “Give it to the people so they can eat, for this is what the Lord says: Everyone will eat, and there will even be some left over!” 44 And when they gave it to the people, there was plenty for all and some left over, just as the Lord had promised.
Footnotes
- 4:29 Hebrew Bind up your loins.
2 Kings 4
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 4
The Widow’s Oil.[a] 1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant lived in fear of the Lord. His creditor is coming to take away his two sons to be his slaves.” 2 Elisha said, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have at home?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing at home except for a flask of oil.” 3 He said, “Go around and borrow jars from all of your neighbors. Empty jars, and not too few of them. 4 Then go inside, and shut the door behind you and your sons. Fill all of those jars, and when a jar is full, set it to the side.”
5 So she left him, and she shut the door behind her and her sons who had brought her jars, and she kept pouring. 6 When all of the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another jar.” He said, “There are no more jars,” and then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She went and recounted it to the man of God, and he said, “Go and sell the oil and pay your debt. You and your children can live on what is left over.”
Elisha and the Shunammite.[b] 8 One day Elisha traveled to Shunem.[c] There was an important woman there, and she insisted that he stop to eat. Whenever he passed by there, he would stop to eat.
9 She said to her husband, “Behold, this man who often visits us is a holy man of God. 10 We should prepare a small room on the roof, and place a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it for him. Then he can stay there when he visits us.”
11 One day he arrived, and he went into the room to lie down. 12 He said to Gehazi, his servant, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. 13 He said to him, “Say to her, ‘You have put yourself through all this trouble for us. What could be done for you? Should we speak to the king or the commander of the army for you?’ ” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”
14 He said, “Then what can be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “She and her husband are old, and they have no children.” 15 Elisha said, “Summon her.” He called her and she stood in the doorway. 16 He said, “You will embrace a son around this time next year.” She said, “No, my lord, O man of God. Do not lie to your servant.”
17 The woman became pregnant, and she had a son that time the next year, just as Elisha had predicted. 18 The child grew up, and one day he went out to his father who was with the reapers. 19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to a young man, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 He picked him up and brought him to his mother. He sat on her lap until noon when he died.
21 She went up and laid him on the bed belonging to the man of God. She closed him in the room and went out. 22 She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys so that I can hurry to the man of God and return.” 23 He said, “Why would you go today? It is not a new moon or the Sabbath.” But she said, “It is all right.”[d]
24 She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on, and do not slow down for me unless I tell you.” 25 So she departed and came to the man of God on Mount Carmel.
When the man of God saw her from a distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, it is the Shunammite. 26 Run to her and say to her, ‘Is everything all right? Is your husband well? Is your child well?’ ” She answered, “It is all right.”
27 When she reached the man of God on the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. Her spirit is in despair, but the Lord had hidden it from me and did not tell me.”
28 She said, “Did I ask for a son from my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not lie to me.’ ”
29 Elisha said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hands, and go! If you meet anyone, do not greet him. And if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff upon the child’s face.”[e] 30 But the boy’s mother said, “As the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.
31 Gehazi went on before them, and he laid the staff upon the child’s face, but there was no sound or response. He went out to meet him, and he said to him, “The child did not wake up.”
32 When Elisha arrived at the house, the child was lying dead upon his bed. 33 He went in, and he shut the door on the two of them, and then he prayed to the Lord. 34 He got up and lay upon the child, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, and hands to hands. He stretched himself out upon the child, and the child’s flesh grew warm. 35 He turned and walked back and forth in the room, and then he went and stretched himself out again. The boy sneezed seven times, and then the boy opened his eyes.
36 Elisha called for Gehazi, and he said, “Call this Shunammite.” He called her, and she came, and he said to her, “Take your son.” 37 She came in and bowed down, falling to the ground at Elisha’s feet. She then took her son and left.
38 Poisoned Stew. Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting in front of him, and he said to his servant, “Set up the large pot and cook some soup for the sons of the prophets.”
39 One of them went out into the field to gather some herbs and he found a wild vine. He picked the wild gourds, filling his cloak. He cut them up into the pot of soup, although no one knew what they were.
40 When they poured out the soup for the men to eat, and they began to eat the soup, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot.” And they could not eat it.
41 He said, “Bring some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
42 Multiplication of Loaves. A man came from Baal-shalishah, and he brought the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread from the firstfruits along with some heads of grain. He said, “Give it to the people so that they might eat.” 43 His servant said, “What? Should I place this before one hundred men?” But he said again, “Give it to the people to eat, for thus says the Lord: They will eat, and there will be some left over.”
44 He set it before them, and they ate, and there was some left over, just as the Lord had predicted.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 4:1 This chapter recounts God’s mercy and power in providing for the needs of the faithful. God uses Elisha to help the widow in debt, to restore life to the dead boy, to purify food, and to feed one hundred men.
- 2 Kings 4:8 The story is very like the one told of Elijah (1 Ki 17:17-24).
- 2 Kings 4:8 Shunem: at the foot of Little Hermon in northern Israel.
- 2 Kings 4:23 It was customary to approach the prophets on festival days (see 1 Sam 20:5).
- 2 Kings 4:29 The sign of an urgent mission (see Lk 10:4). Easterners are, even today, very formal, and even the simplest greeting takes time.
Copyright © 2011 by Global Bible Initiative
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
