Beginning

4 ¶ Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried unto Elisha, saying, Thy slave, my husband, is dead; and thou knowest that thy slave feared the LORD; and the creditor is come to take my two sons to be his slaves.

² And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me what thou hast in the house? And she said, Thy handmaid has nothing in the house except a flask of oil.

³ And he said, Go, borrow vessels from all thy neighbours, empty vessels; borrow not a few.

⁴ Then enter in and shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons and pour out into all those vessels, and as each one is full, set it aside.

⁵ So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out the oil.

⁶ And when the vessels were full, she said unto her son, Bring me yet another vessel. And he said unto her, There are no more vessels. Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷ Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell this oil and pay thy debtors and live thou and thy sons of the rest.

⁸ ¶ And it also happened that one day Elisha passed through Shunem, where there was an important woman, and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.

⁹ And she said to her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us continually.

¹⁰ Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a lampstand so that when he comes to us, he shall turn in there.

¹¹ And it came to pass one day that he came there, and he turned into the chamber and slept there.

¹² Then he said to Gehazi, his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him.

¹³ And he said unto Gehazi, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been diligent for us with all this care; what shall I do for thee? Dost thou have need that I speak for thee unto the king or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among my own people.

¹⁴ And he said, What then shall we do for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she has no child, and her husband is old.

¹⁵ Then he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door.

¹⁶ And he said, At the appointed time, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, No, my lord, thou man of God, do not deceive thy handmaid.

¹⁷ But the woman conceived and gave birth to a son at the appointed time that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.

¹⁸ ¶ And when the child was grown, it came to pass one day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.

¹⁹ And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a servant, Carry him to his mother.

²⁰ And when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon and then died.

²¹ Then she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and went out.

²² And calling her husband, she said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men and one of the asses that I may run to the man of God and come again.

²³ And he said, Why must thou go to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath. And she said, Peace.

²⁴ Then she caused the ass to be saddled and said to her servant, Lead and go forward; slack not the pace for me except I bid thee.

²⁵ So she went and came unto the man of God to Mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi, his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite.

²⁶ Run now, I pray thee, to meet her and say unto her, Dost thou have peace? And thy husband? And the child? And she answered, Peace.

²⁷ And when she came to the man of God in the mountain, she caught him by the feet. And Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, Let her alone, for her soul is bitter within her; and the LORD has hid it from me and has not revealed it to me.

²⁸ Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?

²⁹ Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins and take my staff in thy hand and go; if thou meet anyone, salute him not; and if anyone salutes thee, answer him not again, and lay my staff upon the face of the child.

³⁰ Then the mother of the child said, As the LORD lives and as thy soul lives, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her.

³¹ And Gehazi had gone on before them and had laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was neither voice, nor attention. Therefore he went again to meet him and told him, saying, The child is not awaked.

³² And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was laid dead upon his bed.

³³ He went in therefore and shut the door upon both of them and prayed unto the LORD.

³⁴ Then he went up and lay upon the child and put his mouth upon his mouth and his eyes upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands; thus he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.

³⁵ Then he returned and walked through the house to and fro and went up and stretched himself upon him again; and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.

³⁶ And he called Gehazi and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And as she was coming in unto him, he said, Take up thy son.

³⁷ Then she entered in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground and took up her son and went out.

³⁸ ¶ And Elisha returned to Gilgal. Then there was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, so he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot and make pottage for the sons of the prophets.

³⁹ And one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered his lap full of wild grapes and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not.

⁴⁰ So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of that pottage, that they cried out and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat it.

⁴¹ But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot, and he said, Pour out for the people that they may eat. And there was no evil thing in the pot.

⁴² Then a man came from Baalshalisha, who brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of wheat in the head. And he said, Give unto the people that they may eat.

⁴³ And his minister said, How can I set this before one hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat, for thus hath the LORD said, They shall eat, and some shall be left over.

⁴⁴ So he set it before them, and they ate, and some was left over, according to the word of the LORD.

5 ¶ Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high esteem because by him the LORD had given salvation unto Syria; he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

² And the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman’s wife.

³ And she said unto her mistress, If my lord would ask the prophet that is in Samaria, he would remove his leprosy.

⁴ And Naaman went in and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

⁵ And the king of Syria said, Go, depart, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.

⁶ And he also took the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman, my slave, to thee, that thou may remove his leprosy.

⁷ And when the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and said, Am I God, to kill and to give life, that this man sends unto me to remove the leprosy of this man? Therefore now consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.

⁸ And when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, Why hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

⁹ ¶ So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

¹⁰ And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall be restored, and thou shalt be clean.

¹¹ But Naaman went away angry and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD, his God, and strike his hand over the place and remove the leprosy.

¹² Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

¹³ Then his slaves came near and spoke unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, would thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean?

¹⁴ Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

¹⁵ ¶ And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him, and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing from thy slave.

¹⁶ But he said, As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused.

¹⁷ Then Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy slave two mules’ burden of earth? For from now on thy slave will offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD.

¹⁸ In this thing may the LORD pardon thy slave, that when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, if I also bow myself in the house of Rimmon, that the LORD pardon thy slave in this thing, if I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon.

¹⁹ And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.

²⁰ ¶ But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master has spared Naaman, this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him and take something from him.

²¹ So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him and said, Is there no peace?

²² And he said, Peace. My master has sent me, saying, Behold, even now two young men of the sons of the prophets came to me from Mount Ephraim; give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver and two changes of garments.

²³ And Naaman said, If you wish take two talents. And he urged him and bound two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of garments and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bore them before him.

²⁴ And when he came to a secret place, he took them from their hand and bestowed them in the house; and he let the men go, and they departed.

²⁵ But when he went in and stood before his master, Elisha said unto him, From where comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went nowhere.

²⁶ Then he said unto him, Did not my heart go with thee when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money and to receive garments and oliveyards and vineyards and sheep and oxen and menslaves and maidslaves?

²⁷ The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.