2 Kings 4
The Voice
4 The wife of one of the prophets’ disciples pleaded with Elisha.
Woman: My husband who served you is now dead. He greatly feared the Eternal. You yourself know this to be true. The creditor is now trying to take away my only two children and make them into slaves.
Elisha: 2 What is it that you want me to do? Do you have anything of worth in your house?
Woman: I don’t really have much of anything. The only thing I have in my house that might be of any worth is a jar of oil.
Elisha: 3 Borrow as many large empty containers as you can. Ask neighbors for anything they can give to you. Be sure to collect a lot of them. 4 Then enclose yourself in a room with only you and your sons. Pour oil into as many of the containers as you can. Set aside the full ones.
5 The widow went away from Elisha and enclosed herself in a room with her sons. One at a time, her sons held a container before her, and she poured. 6 Soon all of the containers were filled.
Woman: Bring me another container.
Son: There aren’t any left.
It was then that the oil ran out. 7 The widow then went back to Elisha, the man of God.
Elisha: Now go sell the oil, and pay the creditor what you owe. Then your children won’t be made into slaves, and you and your sons can live on the remaining money.
8 One day, Elisha traveled to Shunem. There was a well-known woman who lived there, and she convinced him to eat something. So whenever he walked by her house, he went in and ate.
Shunammite Woman (to her husband): 9 This man, who comes by here frequently to eat, is a holy man of God. 10 Can we please make a little room for him—just a simple setting: a bed, a lamp, a table, and a chair. That way, whenever he comes here, he can rest in his own room and have his privacy.
11 Elisha went by their house to eat one day, and he went and lay down in the upper room. 12 He spoke to his servant, Gehazi.
Elisha: Tell the Shunammite woman to come here.
So Gehazi called out her name, and she came to him.
Elisha (to Gehazi): 13 Tell her, “You have been fearfully attentive to us. We thank you for all of your care. Now what can I do to repay you? Would you like for me to speak to the king or the military commander on your behalf?”
Shunammite Woman: No, that’s OK. I dwell with my own people.
Elisha (to Gehazi): 14 Is there anything at all that I can do for her?
Gehazi: Actually, her husband is an old man, and she doesn’t have a son.
Elisha: 15 Tell her to come here.
Gehazi called out her name, and she came and stood at the entrance to the room.
Elisha: 16 This time next year, when spring is full of new life, you will hold a son of your own in your arms.
Shunammite Woman: That’s impossible, my lord! You are a man of great integrity, a man of God, so please do not deceive me, your servant.
17 But that time next year, the Shunammite woman did conceive and deliver a son, just as Elisha said she would. 18 When the child was older, he walked out to his father, who was harvesting the fields with the reapers.
Son (to his father): 19 My head hurts! My head hurts!
Father (to his servant): Take the child inside to his mother.
20 The servant brought the child inside to his mother; and about noon, while the boy was sitting in his mother’s lap, he died. 21 She took his lifeless body and laid him down on Elisha’s bed. She then closed the door and went away.
Shunammite Woman (to her husband): 22 I beg you to send me a servant and a donkey so that I can go find Elisha, the man of God. As soon as I do, I will come back here.
Father: 23 Why is it that you are so anxious to find him today? Today is not a holy day—a new moon or a Sabbath.
Shunammite Woman: Don’t worry; all will be well.
24 She prepared the donkey and gave instructions to her servant.
Shunammite Woman: Go quickly! Don’t slow down unless I tell you to.
25 She rode quickly toward the man of God who was staying about a day away on Mount Carmel. As she approached, Elisha saw her at a distance.
Elisha (to Gehazi): Look! It’s the Shunammite woman. 26 Go quickly to see what she wants. Ask her, “Is everything fine? Is your husband well? Is your son well?”
Shunammite Woman: Everything is fine.
27 When she approached the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground and hugged his feet. Gehazi approached to pull her away, but the man of God stopped him.
Elisha: Leave her be. Her very soul is distressed, but the Eternal has kept her troubles hidden from me.
Shunammite Woman: 28 Was it I who asked for a son? I told you not to mislead me!
Elisha (to Gehazi): 29 Prepare yourself, and carry my staff to where the boy is now. Do not acknowledge any blessing to anyone on your way there. If someone speaks a blessing to you, do not respond. When you get there, lay my staff on the boy’s face.
Shunammite Woman (to Elisha): 30 As certain as the life of the Eternal and your own life, I will not leave without you.
Elisha then stood up and followed her to her house. 31 Gehazi went ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but nothing happened. The boy did not move or make a sound. Gehazi went back to Elisha and reported this to him: “The boy did not wake up.”
32 Elisha arrived at the house and saw the lifeless body of the boy lying on Elisha’s bed. 33 He went into the room, closed the door behind both of them, and prayed to the Eternal. 34 Elisha approached the boy and lay down, placing his mouth on the boy’s mouth, his eyes on the boy’s eyes, and his hands on the boy’s hands. He covered the boy with his own body, and warmth returned to the boy’s body. 35 Elisha turned around and paced back and forth in the house, then he went back into the room and covered the boy’s body with his own body. The boy sneezed seven times, and then he opened his eyes.
Elisha (to Gehazi): 36 Tell the Shunammite woman to come here.
Gehazi told the Shunammite woman to go inside the room, and she did.
Elisha: Lift up your son, for he is alive.
37 She fell to the floor before Elisha’s feet, bowing to the ground, and she wept with happiness. She picked up her son and left the room with him.
38 Elisha returned to Gilgal, and he found that there was a famine throughout the entire country. While the disciples of the local prophets were sitting with him, he told his servant to find a big pot and make a big stew for the prophets’ disciples.
39 A man walked out into the fields to look for herbs, and he came across an uncultivated vine and picked enough wild gourds from it to fill the folds of his cloak. He chopped up the gourds and tossed them into the large pot of stew, not knowing what they were. 40 Those who prepared the stew gave helpings of it to the men. While they were eating the stew, they cringed and pushed the bowls away from them. They could not eat it.
Prophets’ Disciples: Man of God, this stew is horrible! It will be the death of us!
Elisha: 41 Go bring some meal.
They brought him some meal, and Elisha threw it in the large pot and renewed the stew.
Elisha: Distribute this food to the people so that they may fill their hungry bellies.
Everyone ate it, and there was nothing wrong with it this time.
42 Sometime later, a man from Baal-shalishah brought some food from the firstfruits of the harvest to the man of God: in his sack were 20 barley loaves and fresh produce still in the husk.
Elisha: Distribute this food to the people so that they may fill their hungry bellies.
Servant: 43 Do you really think this will be enough for 100 hungry men?
Elisha: Yes, do as I said, and distribute this food to the people. The Eternal One says, “They will fill their bellies and still have some food left over.”
44 He handed out the food to them; and exactly as the Eternal One said, they ate and had food to spare.
2 Kings 4
The Message
4 One day the wife of a man from the guild of prophets called out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead. You well know what a good man he was, devoted to God. And now the man to whom he was in debt is on his way to collect by taking my two children as slaves.”
2 Elisha said, “I wonder how I can be of help. Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Well, I do have a little oil.”
3-4 “Here’s what you do,” said Elisha. “Go up and down the street and borrow jugs and bowls from all your neighbors. And not just a few—all you can get. Then come home and lock the door behind you, you and your sons. Pour oil into each container; when each is full, set it aside.”
5-6 She did what he said. She locked the door behind her and her sons; as they brought the containers to her, she filled them. When all the jugs and bowls were full, she said to one of her sons, “Another jug, please.”
He said, “That’s it. There are no more jugs.”
Then the oil stopped.
7 She went and told the story to the man of God. He said, “Go sell the oil and make good on your debts. Live, both you and your sons, on what’s left.”
* * *
8 One day Elisha passed through Shunem. A leading lady of the town talked him into stopping for a meal. And then it became his custom: Whenever he passed through, he stopped by for a meal.
9-10 “I’m certain,” said the woman to her husband, “that this man who stops by with us all the time is a holy man of God. Why don’t we add on a small room upstairs and furnish it with a bed and desk, chair and lamp, so that when he comes by he can stay with us?”
11 And so it happened that the next time Elisha came by he went to the room and lay down for a nap.
12 Then he said to his servant Gehazi, “Tell the Shunammite woman I want to see her.” He called her and she came to him.
13 Through Gehazi Elisha said, “You’ve gone far beyond the call of duty in taking care of us; what can we do for you? Do you have a request we can bring to the king or to the commander of the army?”
She replied, “Nothing. I’m secure and satisfied in my family.”
14 Elisha conferred with Gehazi: “There’s got to be something we can do for her. But what?”
Gehazi said, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man.”
15 “Call her in,” said Elisha. He called her and she stood at the open door.
16 Elisha said to her, “This time next year you’re going to be nursing an infant son.”
“O my master, O Holy Man,” she said, “don’t play games with me, teasing me with such fantasies!”
17 The woman conceived. A year later, just as Elisha had said, she had a son.
18-19 The child grew up. One day he went to his father, who was working with the harvest hands, complaining, “My head, my head!”
His father ordered a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
20 The servant took him in his arms and carried him to his mother. He lay on her lap until noon and died.
21 She took him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut him in alone, and left.
22 She then called her husband, “Get me a servant and a donkey so I can go to the Holy Man; I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
23 “But why today? This isn’t a holy day—it’s neither New Moon nor Sabbath.”
She said, “Don’t ask questions; I need to go right now. Trust me.”
24-25 She went ahead and saddled the donkey, ordering her servant, “Take the lead—and go as fast as you can; I’ll tell you if you’re going too fast.” And so off she went. She came to the Holy Man at Mount Carmel.
25-26 The Holy Man, spotting her while she was still a long way off, said to his servant Gehazi, “Look out there; why, it’s the Shunammite woman! Quickly now. Ask her, ‘Is something wrong? Are you all right? Your husband? Your child?’”
She said, “Everything’s fine.”
27 But when she reached the Holy Man at the mountain, she threw herself at his feet and held tightly to him.
Gehazi came up to pull her away, but the Holy Man said, “Leave her alone—can’t you see that she’s in distress? But God hasn’t let me in on why; I’m completely in the dark.”
28 Then she spoke up: “Did I ask for a son, master? Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t tease me with false hopes’?”
29 He ordered Gehazi, “Don’t lose a minute—grab my staff and run as fast as you can. If you meet anyone, don’t even take time to greet him, and if anyone greets you, don’t even answer. Lay my staff across the boy’s face.”
30 The boy’s mother said, “As sure as God lives and you live, you’re not leaving me behind.” And so Gehazi let her take the lead, and followed behind.
31 But Gehazi arrived first and laid the staff across the boy’s face. But there was no sound—no sign of life. Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and said, “The boy hasn’t stirred.”
32-35 Elisha entered the house and found the boy stretched out on the bed dead. He went into the room and locked the door—just the two of them in the room—and prayed to God. He then got into bed with the boy and covered him with his body, mouth on mouth, eyes on eyes, hands on hands. As he was stretched out over him like that, the boy’s body became warm. Elisha got up and paced back and forth in the room. Then he went back and stretched himself upon the boy again. The boy started sneezing—seven times he sneezed!—and opened his eyes.
36 He called Gehazi and said, “Get the Shunammite woman in here!” He called her and she came in.
Elisha said, “Embrace your son!”
37 She fell at Elisha’s feet, face to the ground in reverent awe. Then she embraced her son and went out with him.
38 Elisha went back down to Gilgal. There was a famine there. While he was consulting with the guild of prophets, he told his servant, “Put a large pot on the fire and cook up some stew for the prophets.”
39-40 One of the men went out into the field to get some herbs; he came across a wild vine and picked gourds from it, filling his gunnysack. He brought them back, sliced them up, and put them in the stew, even though no one knew what kind of plant it was. The stew was then served up for the men to eat. They started to eat, and then exclaimed, “Death in the pot, O man of God! Death in the pot!” Nobody could eat it.
Elisha ordered, “Get me some meal.” Then he sprinkled it into the stew pot.
41 “Now serve it up to the men,” he said. They ate it, and it was just fine—nothing wrong with that stew!
42 One day a man arrived from Baal Shalishah. He brought the man of God twenty loaves of fresh-baked bread from the early harvest, along with a few apples from the orchard.
Elisha said, “Pass it around to the people to eat.”
43 His servant said, “For a hundred men? There’s not nearly enough!”
Elisha said, “Just go ahead and do it. God says there’s plenty.”
44 And sure enough, there was. He passed around what he had—they not only ate, but had leftovers.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson