1Now a certain woman, one of the wives of the sons of the prophets, cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you yourself know that your servant was one who feared Yahweh. And now the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”
2Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.”
3He said, “Go, ask for yourself vessels from outside, from all your neighbors — empty vessels; do not get too few.
4Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour into all these vessels; and each one that is full set aside.”
5So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they kept bringing the vessels to her, and she kept pouring.
6And when the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” But he said to her, “There is no other vessel.” Then the oil stopped.
7Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons can live on what is left.”
8One day it happened that Elisha passed over to Shunem, where there was a wealthy woman, and she urged him to eat a meal. And so, as often as he passed by, he would turn aside there to eat a meal.
9She said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually.
10Let us make a small walled upper room, and let us put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lampstand; and whenever he comes to us he can turn aside there.”
11One day it happened that he came there, and he turned aside to the upper room and lay down there.
12He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her, and she stood before him.
13He said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What is to be done for you? Is there something to be said on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’” She said, “I dwell among my own people.”
14He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi said, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.”
15He said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway.
16He said, “At this appointed time, in the season of spring, you will be embracing a son.” But she said, “No, my lord, man of God, do not lie to your maidservant.”
17But the woman conceived and bore a son at that appointed time, about this time next year, just as Elisha had told her.
18The child grew, and one day it happened that he went out to his father, to the reapers.
19He said to his father, “My head, my head!” And he said to the servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
20He carried him and brought him to his mother, and he sat on her knees until noon, and then he died.
21She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and she shut the door behind him and went out.
22She called to her husband and said, “Send me now one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and return.”
23He said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.” She said, “It is well.”
24Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Drive on and go; do not slow the pace for me unless I tell you.”
25So she went and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. And it happened, when the man of God saw her from a distance, that he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, there is the Shunammite!
26Now run to meet her and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’” And she said, “It is well.”
27When she came to the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, “Let her be, for her life is bitter within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me and has not told me.”
28Then she said, “Did I ask a son from my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”
29He said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him; and lay my staff on the face of the boy.”
30But the mother of the boy said, “As Yahweh lives and as your own life lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose and went after her.
31Now Gehazi had gone on ahead of them and had laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound and no response. So he returned to meet him and told him, saying, “The boy has not awakened.”
32When Elisha came into the house, there was the boy, dead, laid out on his bed.
33So he went in, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to Yahweh.
34Then he went up and lay upon the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his palms on his palms; and he stretched himself out over him, and the child’s flesh grew warm.
35Then he turned away and walked in the house, once here and once there, and went up and stretched himself out over him; and the boy sneezed seven times, and the boy opened his eyes.
36Then he called to Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her, and she came to him, and he said, “Pick up your son.”
37So she came and fell at his feet and bowed down to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out.
38Now Elisha returned to Gilgal while there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Set the great pot on and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”
39One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine and gathered from it wild gourds, his garment full; then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were.
40Then they poured it out for the men to eat. But as they were eating from the stew, they cried out and said, “Death is in the pot, man of God!” And they could not eat.
41But he said, “Then bring flour.” And he threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
42Now a man came from Baal-shalishah and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits — twenty loaves of barley and fresh grain in his sack. And he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat.”
43But his attendant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” Yet he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat, for thus says Yahweh: ‘They shall eat and have some left over.’”
44So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of Yahweh.
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