2 Kings 4:1-7

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.”