New Heart English Bible

2Kings 4

1 Now a wife from among the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD, but the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be his slaves."

2 Then Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a small jar of oil."

3 Then he said, "Go, ask for containers from outside, from all your neighbors, empty containers.

4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these containers, and you are to set each one aside when it is full."

5 So she left him and shut the door behind herself and her sons; they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring.

6 Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, "Bring me another container." But he said to her, "There aren't any more." Then the oil stopped flowing.

7 Then 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 the rest."

8 Now it happened one day that Elisha traveled to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman, who urged him to eat some food. so whenever he passed by, he would stop in there to eat some food.

9 And she said to her husband, "Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God who often passes by us.

10 Please, let’s make a little room on the wall, and let’s set up a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him there, so that whenever he comes to us, he can stay there."

11 Now it happened one day he came there, and he turned into the upper room and rested.

12 And he said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." So he called for her and she stood before him.

13 And he said to him, "Say now to her, ‘Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What can I do for you? Can I put in a good word for you to the king, or to the commander of the army?’" She answered, “I have a home among my own people.”

14 So he said, "What then can I do for her?" And Gehazi replied, "Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old."

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

16 And he said, "At this season, when the time comes around, you will be holding a son." And she said, "No, my lord, man of God, do not lie to your servant."

17 But the woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, just as Elisha had said to her.

18 And the child grew and it happened one day that he went out to his father to the harvest workers.

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

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

21 Then she went up and put him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and left.

22 Then she called to her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and then return."

23 But he said, "Why would you want to see him today? It is not the new moon or Sabbath." And she said, "It’s alright."

24 Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, "Lead on; do not slow down for me unless I tell you."

25 So she went and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. So it happened when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, "Look, there is the Shunammite.

26 Please run now to meet her and ask her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’" And she answered, "It is well."

27 But when she came to the man of God to the mountain, she grabbed hold of his feet. And Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone, for she is in severe anguish, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me."

28 Then she said, "Did I ask a son from my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not mislead me?’"

29 Then he said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, and take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not reply. And lay my staff on the face of the child."

30 But the mother of the child said, "As the LORD lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." So he arose and followed her.

31 Now Gehazi went on ahead of them and placed the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or response. Therefore he came back to meet him and told him, saying, "The child did not wake up."

32 When Elisha arrived at the house, look, the child was dead, lying on his bed.

33 So he went in and shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD.

34 Then he got up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself upon him, and the body of the child grew warm.

35 Then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth, and went up and stretched himself upon him, and the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes.

36 Then he called to Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, "Pick up your son."

37 Then she came in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground. Then she picked up her son and left.

38 Now Elisha came again to Gilgal, while there was a famine in the land. And the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, "Put on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."

39 Then one of them went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine, and gathered as many of its gourds as his garment would hold, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, for he was unaware what it was.

40 So they poured out for the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, "Man of God, there is death in the pot." And they could not eat it.

41 But he said, "Bring some flour." And he threw it into the pot and said, "Pour it out for the people, that they may eat." And there was no harm in the pot.

42 Now a man from Baal Shalishah came and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And he said, "Give to the people, that they may eat."

43 But his servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” So he said, "Give them to the people so that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’"

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