The Miracle of the Oil Vessels^(A)

4 Now there happened to be a certain woman who had been the wife of a member of the Guild of Prophets. She cried out to Elisha, “My husband who served you has died, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. But a creditor has come to take away my children into indentured servitude!”

² Elisha responded, “What shall I do for you? Tell me what you have in your house.”

She replied, “Your servant has nothing in the entire house except for a flask of oil.”

³ He told her, “Go out to all of your neighbors in the surrounding streets and borrow lots of pots from them. Don’t get just a few empty vessels, either. ⁴ Then go in and shut the door behind you, taking only your children, and pour oil^[a] into all of the pots. As each one is filled, set it aside.”

⁵ So she left Elisha,^[b] shut the door behind her and her children, and while they kept on bringing vessels to her, she kept on pouring oil.^{[c] 6} When the last of^[d] the vessels had been filled, she told her son, “Bring me another pot!”

But he replied, “There isn’t even one pot left.” Then the oil stopped flowing. ⁷ After this, she went and told the man of God what had happened.^[e] So he said, “Go sell the oil, pay your debt, and you and your children will be able to live on the proceeds.”