Beginning
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.”
The Hospitality of a Woman from Shunem
8 Some time later, Elisha went to Shunem,[f] where he met a prominent and wealthy[g] woman who persuaded him to have a meal with her. As a result, whenever he was in the area, he stopped by to eat with her. 9 So she had a talk with her husband. “Look here! I’ve learned that this is a holy and godly man[h] who comes by here on a regular basis. 10 Now then, let’s build a small upper room and put a bed in it for him there, along with a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. That way, when he comes to visit, he can rest[i] there.”
11 One day, Elisha[j] came by to visit and stopped in to rest in the upper chamber. 12 He told his attendant[k] Gehazi, “Call this Shunammite.” So when he had summoned her, she stood in front of him.
13 Elisha[l] told him, “Ask her, ‘Look how you’ve gone to all this trouble to care for us! What can I do for you? Do you wish to be mentioned to the king or to the head of the army?’”
She replied, “I’m at home[m] living among my own people.”
14 He responded, “What, then, is to be done on her behalf?”
Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son and her husband is growing old.”
15 “Call her,” Elisha[n] ordered. After he called her, she came and stood in the doorway, 16 and he told her, “About this time next year you will be embracing a son.”
“No, sir! Please, as a godly man,[o] don’t mislead your servant!” 17 But the woman did conceive and did bear a son at that very same time the next year, just as Elisha had told her.
Elisha Raises the Shunammite’s Son(B)
18 After the child had grown up a bit, one day he went out to visit his father, who was with the harvesters. 19 He told his father, “My head! My head!”
So his father ordered his servant, “Carry him over to his mother!” 20 So the servant carried him over to his mother, where he rested on her lap until mid-day,[p] and then he died. 21 The woman went upstairs, laid him on the bed belonging to the man of God, and shut the door, leaving him behind as she left.
22 Then she called to her husband and asked him, “Please send me one of the servants, along with one of the donkeys, so I can ride quickly to see that godly man.[q] I’ll be right back.”
23 He asked her, “What’s the point of visiting him today? It’s not a New Moon, and it isn’t the Sabbath!”
But she kept saying, “Things will go well.”[r]
24 So she saddled a donkey and told her servant, “Forward, driver! Don’t slow down on my account, unless I tell you!” 25 So out she went and eventually she arrived at Mount Carmel to visit the man of God.
When the man of God noticed her from a distance, he told his attendant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the woman from Shunem! 26 Please run out quickly and greet her. Ask her, ‘Are things going well with you? Are things going well with your husband? Are things going well with your child?’”
She answered Gehazi,[s] “Things are going well.”
27 As she came near the man of God on the mountain, she grabbed his feet. When Gehazi intervened to push her away, the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is deeply troubled! The Lord has concealed the thing from me, and hasn’t informed me.”
28 Then she asked, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I beg you, ‘Don’t mislead me?’”
29 At this he told Gehazi, “Get ready to run![t] Take my staff in your hand, and get on the road. Don’t greet anyone you meet. If anyone greets you, don’t respond. Just go lay my staff on the youngster’s face.”
30 At this, the youngster’s mother replied, “As long as you and the Lord live, I’m not leaving you!” So he got up and followed her.
31 Meanwhile, Gehazi went on ahead of them and placed the staff on the youngster’s face, but when there was no sound or reaction, he returned, met Elisha,[u] and told him, “The youngster has shown no sign of awakening.”
32 When Elisha entered the house, there was the youngster, dead and laid out on Elisha’s[v] bed! 33 So he entered, shut the door behind them both, and prayed to the Lord. 34 Then he approached the child and lay down with his mouth near the child’s, with his eyes near those of the child, and taking the child’s hands in his. As Elisha[w] stretched himself on the child, the child’s flesh began to grow warm. 35 Then he went downstairs, walked around back and forth inside the house once, went back up to his upper chamber,[x] and stretched himself over the child again. The young man sneezed seven times and then opened his eyes.
36 He called out to Gehazi, “Go get the Shunammite woman!” So he called her. When she came in to see Elisha,[y] he told her, “Take back your son!” 37 Then she approached him, fell at his feet, bowing low to the ground, took back her son, and went out.
Poisoned Stew is Purified
38 Elisha returned to Gilgal during a time of famine in the land. While the Guild of Prophets were having a meal[z] with him, he instructed his attendant, “Put a large pot on the fire and boil some stew for the Guild of Prophets.” 39 Somebody went out into the fields to grab some herbs, found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds, which he came and sliced up into the stew pot, but nobody else knew.
40 When they served the men, they began to eat the stew. But they cried out, “That pot of stew is deadly, you man of God!” So they couldn’t eat the stew.
41 But he replied, “Bring me some flour.” He tossed it into the pot and said, “Serve the people so they can eat.” Then there was nothing harmful in the pot.
Feeding of the Crowd(C)
42 Later on, a man arrived from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God some bread as a first fruit offering. He had 20 loaves of barley and ripe ears of corn in his sack. So Elisha[aa] said, “Give them to the people so they can eat.”
43 Elisha’s attendant asked, “What? Will this serve 100 men?”
But he replied, “Distribute it to the people so they can eat, because this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have a surplus!’” 44 So he served them, and they ate and had some left over, just as the Lord had indicated.
The Healing of Naaman
5 Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram,[ab] was a great man in the opinion[ac] of his master. He was highly favored, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. Though he was a mighty and valiant man, he was suffering from leprosy. 2 On one of their raids to the territory of Israel, Aram had taken captive a young girl when she was an infant,[ad] who had eventually become an attendant to[ae] Naaman’s wife. 3 She mentioned to her mistress, “If only my master were to visit the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
4 Later, Naaman[af] went to inform his master and told him something like this: “Thus and so spoke the young woman from the territory of Israel.”
5 The king of Aram replied, “Go now, and I’ll send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he left and took with him ten talents[ag] of silver and 6,000 units[ah] of gold, along with ten sets[ai] of clothing. 6 He also brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read as follows: “…and now as this letter finds its way to you, look! I’ve sent my servant Naaman to you so you may heal him of his leprosy.”
7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he ripped his clothes and cried out, “Am I God? Can I kill and give life? Is this man sending me a request[aj] to heal a man’s leprosy? Let’s think about this—he’s looking for a reason to start a fight[ak] with me!”
8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message[al] to the king and asked, “Why did you tear your clothes? Please, let the man come visit me and he will learn that there is a prophet in Israel!”
9 So Naaman arrived with his horses and chariots and stood in front of the door to Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger out to him, who told him, “Go bathe in the Jordan River[am] seven times. Your flesh will be restored for you. Now stay clean!”
11 But Naaman flew into a rage and left, telling himself, “Look! I thought ‘He’s surely going to come out to me, stand still, call out in the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the infection,[an] and cure the leprosy!’ 12 Aren’t the Abana and Pharpar rivers in Damascus better than all of the water in Israel? Couldn’t I just bathe in them and become clean?” So he turned away and left, filled with anger.
13 But then his servants approached him and spoke with him. They said, “My father, had the prophet only asked of you something great, you would have done it, wouldn’t you? Yet he told you, ‘Bathe, and be clean…!’” 14 So he went down and plunged himself into the Jordan River[ao] seven times, just as the man of God had said, and his flesh rejuvenated like the flesh of a newborn child. And he was clean.
Gehazi’s Greed is Punished
15 Naaman[ap] went back to the man of God, along with his entire entourage, and stood before him. “Please look!” he said. “I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel! So please, take a present from your servant.”
16 But Elisha[aq] replied, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will not receive anything from you.” Though Naaman[ar] urged him to take it, Elisha[as] declined.
17 So Naaman asked, “No? Then please let your servant load two mules with dirt from Israel,[at] because your servant will no longer offer any burnt offering or sacrifice to any other god but the Lord. 18 In this one area may the Lord pardon your servant: Whenever my master enters the temple of Rimmon to worship there, he will lean on my hand while I bow down in the temple of Rimmon. So may the Lord pardon your servant in this one area.”
19 “Go in peace,” he said. So Naaman[au] left.
After Naaman had gone only a short distance, 20 Gehazi, the attendant to Elisha, the man of God, told himself, “Look how my master has spared this Aramean, Naaman! He declined to take from him what he brought. As the Lord lives, I’m going to run after him and get something from him.” 21 So Gehazi ran after Naaman.
When Naaman noticed someone running after him, he came down from his chariot, greeted him and asked, “Is everything all right?”[av]
22 Gehazi said, “Everything’s all right. My master sent me to tell you, ‘Just now two men from the Guild of Prophets have arrived from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them each a talent[aw] of silver bullion and two sets[ax] of clothes.’”
23 But Naaman said, “Please accept my invitation to take two talents[ay] of silver.” He urged him, binding two talents[az] of silver in two bags, along with two sets of clothes. He placed them in the care of two of his young men, and they went on ahead of Gehazi.[ba] 24 When he arrived at the stronghold, Gehazi[bb] took the bags from their custody and hid them away in the house. Then he sent the men away and they left.
25 Later he went to address[bc] his master. Elisha asked him, “Where did you go, Gehazi?”
“Your servant went nowhere in particular,” he said.
26 But Elisha[bd] responded, “Didn’t my heart break[be] as the man was turning from his chariot to greet you? Is now the time to receive money? To receive clothes? And olive groves, vineyards, sheep, oxen, servants, or female attendants? 27 Naaman’s leprosy will plague you and your descendants forever!” As he left Elisha’s presence, he was infected with leprosy that looked like white snow.
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