Book of Common Prayer

⁸ One day Elisha visited Shunem, and a well-to-do woman living there pressed him to stay and eat a meal. After this, whenever he came through, he stopped there for a meal. ⁹ She said to her husband, “I can see that this is a holy man of God who keeps stopping at our place. ¹⁰ Please, let’s build him a little room on the roof. We’ll put a bed and a table in it for him, and a stool and a candlestick. Then, whenever he comes to visit us, he can stay there.”

¹¹ One day Elisha came to visit there, and he went into the upper room to lie down. ¹² He said to Geichazi his servant, “Call this Shunamit.” He called her; and when she arrived, ¹³ he said to him, “Tell her this: ‘You have shown us so much hospitality! What can I do to show my appreciation? Do you want me to say anything to the king for you? or to the commander of the army?” She answered, “I’m happy living as I do, among my own people.” ¹⁴ He said, “What, then, is to be done for her?” Geichazi answered, “There’s one thing — she doesn’t have a son; and her husband is old. ¹⁵ Elisha said, “Call her.” After he called her, she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶ He said, “Next year, when the season comes around, you will be holding a son.” “No, my lord,” she answered. “Man of God, don’t lie to your servant!” ¹⁷ But the woman conceived and gave birth to a son the following year when the season came around, just as Elisha had said to her.

¹⁸ When the child was old enough, he went out one day to be with his father, who was with the reapers. ¹⁹ Suddenly he cried out to his father, “My head! My head hurts!” He said to his servant, “Carry him back to his mother.” ²⁰ When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he lay on her lap until noon; and then he died. ²¹ She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him and went out. ²² She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants with a donkey. I must get to the man of God as fast as I can; I’ll come straight back.” ²³ He asked, “Why are you going to him today? It isn’t Rosh-Hodesh and it isn’t Shabbat.” She said, “It’s all right.” ²⁴ Then she saddled the donkey and ordered her servant, “Drive as fast as you can; don’t slow down for me unless I say so.”

²⁵ She set out and came to the man of God on Mount Karmel. When the man of God saw her in the distance, he said to Geichazi his servant, “Look, here comes that Shunamit. ²⁶ Run now to meet her, and ask her, “Is everything all right with you? with your husband? with the child?” She answered, “Everything is all right.” ²⁷ But when she reached the man of God on the hill, she grabbed his feet. Geichazi came up to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is in great distress, but Adonai has hidden from me what it is, he hasn’t told me.” ²⁸ Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say not to deceive me?” ²⁹ Then Elisha said to Geichazi, “Get dressed for action, take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, don’t greet him; if anyone greets you, don’t answer; and lay my staff on the child’s face.” ³⁰ The mother of the child said, “As Adonai lives, and as you live, I will not leave you. He got up and followed her. ³¹ Geichazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the child’s face, but there was no sound or sign of life. So he went back to Elisha and told him, “The child didn’t wake up.”

³² When Elisha reached the house, there the child was, dead and laid on the bed. ³³ He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to Adonai. ³⁴ Then he got up on the bed and lay on top of the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands. As he stretched himself out on the child, its flesh began to grow warm. ³⁵ Then he went down, walked around in the house awhile, went back up and stretched himself out on the child again. The child sneezed seven times, then opened his eyes. ³⁶ Elisha called Geichazi and said, “Call this Shunamit.” So he called her; and when she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” ³⁷ She entered, fell at his feet and prostrated herself on the floor. Then she picked up her son and went out.

¹⁰ There was a talmid in Dammesek, Hananyah by name; and in a vision the Lord said to him, “Hananyah!” He said, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹ The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to Straight Street, to Y’hudah’s house; and ask for a man from Tarsus named Sha’ul; for he is praying, ¹² and in a vision he has seen a man named Hananyah coming in and placing his hands on him to restore his sight.” ¹³ But Hananyah answered, “Lord, many have told me about this man, how much harm he has done to your people in Yerushalayim; ¹⁴ and here he has a warrant from the head cohanim to arrest everyone who calls on your name.” ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, because this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name to the Goyim, even to their kings, and to the sons of Isra’el as well. ¹⁶ For I myself will show him how much he will have to suffer on account of my name.”

¹⁷ So Hananyah left and went into the house. Placing his hands on him, he said, “Brother Sha’ul, the Lord — Yeshua, the one who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here — has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Ruach HaKodesh.” ¹⁸ In that moment, something like scales fell away from Sha’ul’s eyes; and he could see again. He got up and was immersed; ¹⁹ then he ate some food and regained his strength.

Sha’ul spent some days with the talmidim in Dammesek, ²⁰ and immediately he began proclaiming in the synagogues that Yeshua is the Son of God. ²¹ All who heard him were amazed. They asked, “Isn’t he the man who in Yerushalayim was trying to destroy the people who call on this name? In fact, isn’t that why he came here, to arrest them and bring them back to the head cohanim?” ²² But Sha’ul was being filled with more and more power and was creating an uproar among the Jews living in Dammesek with his proofs that Yeshua is the Messiah.

²³ Quite some time later, the non-believing Jews gathered together and made plans to kill him; ²⁴ but their plot became known to Sha’ul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to do away with him; ²⁵ but under cover of night, his talmidim took him and let him down over the city wall, lowering him in a large basket.

²⁶ On reaching Yerushalayim, he tried to join the talmidim; but they were all afraid of him — they didn’t believe he was a talmid. ²⁷ However, Bar-Nabba got hold of him and took him to the emissaries. He told them how Sha’ul had seen the Lord while traveling, that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Dammesek Sha’ul had spoken out boldly in the name of Yeshua. ²⁸ So he remained with them and went all over Yerushalayim continuing to speak out boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹ He talked and debated with the Greek-speaking Jews, but they began making attempts to kill him. ³⁰ When the brothers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus.

³¹ Then the Messianic community throughout Y’hudah, the Galil and Shomron enjoyed peace and was built up. They lived in the fear of the Lord, with the counsel of the Ruach HaKodesh; and their numbers kept multiplying.

⁷ Therefore, Yochanan said to the crowds who came out to be immersed by him, “You snakes! Who warned you to escape the coming punishment? ⁸ If you have really turned from your sins, produce fruit that will prove it! And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘Avraham is our father’! For I tell you that God can raise up for Avraham sons from these stones! ⁹ Already the axe is at the root of the trees, ready to strike; every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown in the fire!”

¹⁰ The crowds asked Yochanan, “So then, what should we do?” ¹¹ He answered, “Whoever has two coats should share with somebody who has none, and whoever has food should do the same.” ¹² Tax-collectors also came to be immersed; and they asked him, “Rabbi, what should we do?” ¹³ “Collect no more than the government assesses,” he told them. ¹⁴ Some soldiers asked him, “What about us? What should we do?” To them he said, “Don’t intimidate anyone, don’t accuse people falsely, and be satisfied with your pay.”

¹⁵ The people were in a state of great expectancy, and everyone was wondering whether perhaps Yochanan himself might be the Messiah; ¹⁶ so Yochanan answered them all, “I am immersing you in water, but he who is coming is more powerful than I — I’m not worthy to untie his sandals! He will immerse you in the Ruach HaKodesh and in fire. ¹⁷ He has with him his winnowing fork to clear out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the straw with unquenchable fire!”

¹⁸ And with many other warnings besides these he announced the Good News to the people.