2 Kings 4
A Hundred Fed from Twenty Loaves, with Some Left Over
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The Widow’s Jar of Oil
4:1A woman from among the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, saying, ‘Your slave, my husband, has died. You know that he was a slave who feared the Lord. Now the lender has come to take my two sons as his slaves.’
4:2Elisha said, ‘What should I do for you? Tell me what you have in the house.’ She said, ‘Your slave woman has nothing in the house except oil with which I may anoint myself.’
4:3He said to her, ‘Go and ask for vessels from outside, from all your neighbors—empty vessels. Do not get just a few.’
4:4‘Then go inside and shut the door behind yourself and your sons. Pour into these vessels, and take away each full one.’
4:5She went away from him and did so. She shut the door behind herself and her sons. They kept bringing vessels to her, and she kept pouring,
4:6until the vessels were full. She said to her sons, ‘Bring me another vessel.’ They said to her, ‘There is no other vessel.’ Then the oil stopped.
4:7She came and reported to the man of God. Elisha said, ‘Go, sell the oil, and pay your interest. You and your sons can live on the remaining oil.’
The Shunammite Woman
4:8One day Elisha passed through Shunem. A prominent woman was there, and she pressed him to eat bread. As he continued coming there over time, he would turn aside to eat there.
4:9The woman said to her husband, ‘Look, I know that this is a holy man of God who continually passes by us.’
4:10‘Please let us make a small upstairs place for him and put a bed, a table, a stool, and a lampstand there for him. When he comes to us, he can turn aside there.’
4:11One day he came there, turned aside to the upper room, and slept there.
4:12He said to Gehazi his attendant, ‘Call this Shunammite woman for me.’ He called her, and she stood before him.
4:13He said to him, ‘Please say to her: Look, you have shown us all this extraordinary concern. What should be done for you? Do you have a matter for the king or the commander of the army?’ She said, ‘I am living among my own people.’
4:14He said, ‘What should be done for her?’ Gehazi his attendant said, ‘Indeed, she has no son, and her husband is an old man.’
4:15He called her, and she stood beside the door.
4:16Elisha said to her, ‘At this season, as the season comes alive, you will be holding a son.’ She said, ‘No, my lord! Do not deceive your slave woman.’
4:17The woman conceived and bore a son at that season, as the season came alive, just as Elisha had told her.
The Death of the Shunammite’s Son
4:18The child grew strong. When the child went out to his father, to the reapers,
4:19he said to his father, ‘My head, my head!’ His father said to the attendant, ‘Carry him to his mother.’
4:20He carried him to his mother. The boy lay on her knees until noon, and died.
4:21She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door behind him, and went out.
4:22She called her husband and said, ‘Please send me one of the attendants and one of the female donkeys, so that I may run to the man of God and return.’
4:23He said, ‘Why are you going to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.’ She said, ‘Peace.’
4:24She saddled the female donkey and said to her attendant, ‘Lead on, go. Do not hold me back from riding unless I tell you.
4:25Come, and you will go and come to the man of God at Mount Carmel.’ When Elisha saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his attendant, ‘Look, there is that Shunammite woman.’
4:26‘Now run to meet her and say: Is there peace with you? Is there peace with your husband? Is there peace with the child?’ She said, ‘Peace.’
4:27She came to Elisha at the mountain and seized his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away, but Elisha said, ‘Leave her alone, for her soul is in pain within her. The Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.’
4:28She said, ‘Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, Do not play me false?’
4:29Elisha said to Gehazi, ‘Fasten your belt, take my staff in your hand, and come. If you meet a man, do not bless him, and if a man blesses you, do not answer him. Place my staff on the child’s face.’
4:30The child’s mother said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as your life lives, I will not leave you.’ Elisha rose and went behind her.
4:31Gehazi went ahead of her and placed the staff on the child’s face, but there was no voice and no hearing. He returned to meet him and reported, ‘The child has not been raised.’
Elisha Raises the Child
4:32Elisha entered the house, and there was the child, dead, lying on his bed.
4:33Elisha entered the house, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.
4:34He went up and lay upon the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He bent over him, and the child’s flesh was warmed.
4:35He returned and walked in the house this way and that. He went up and bent over the child as many as seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
4:36Elisha called out to Gehazi and said, ‘Call this Shunammite woman.’ He called, and she came in to him. Elisha said, ‘Take your son.’
4:37The woman came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. She took her son and went out.
Death in the Cauldron
4:38Elisha returned to Gilgal. There was famine in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. Elisha said to his attendant, ‘Set on the large cauldron and cook a cooked dish for the sons of the prophets.’
4:39One went out into the field to gather arioth. He found a vine in the field and gathered wild round fruit from it, filling his garment. He put it into the cauldron of the cooked dish, for they did not recognize it.
4:40He poured it out for the men to eat. As they ate from the cooked dish, look—they cried out, ‘Death is in the cauldron, man of God!’ They could not eat it.
4:41He said, ‘Bring flour and put it into the cauldron.’ Elisha said to Gehazi the attendant, ‘Pour it out for the people, and let them eat.’ There was no longer anything harmful there in the cauldron.
The Twenty Barley Loaves
4:42A man passed through from Baithsarisa and brought the man of God twenty barley loaves of firstfruits and cakes of dried fruit. He said, ‘Give them to the people, and let them eat.’
4:43His minister said, ‘How can I put this before a hundred men?’ He said, ‘Give it to the people, and let them eat, for thus says the Lord: They will eat and leave some over.’
4:44They ate and left some over, according to the word of the Lord.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.