Elisha Raises the Shunammite’s Son

(Acts 20:7–12)

18 And the child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the harvesters.

19 “My head! My head!” he complained to his father.

So his father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

20 After the servant had picked him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out.

22 And the woman called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may go quickly to the man of God and return.”

23 “Why would you go to him today?” he replied. “It is not a New Moon or a Sabbath.”

“Everything is all right,” she said.

24 Then she saddled the donkey and told her servant, “Drive onward; do not slow the pace for me unless I tell you.” 25 So she set out and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman. 26 Please run out now to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’ ”

And she answered, “Everything is all right.”

27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.”

28 Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me?’ ”

29 So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tie up your garment,[fn] 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. Then lay my staff on the boy’s face.”

30 And the mother of the boy said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.

31 Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”

32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his bed. 33 So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.

34 Then Elisha got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, and hand to hand. As he stretched himself out over him, the boy’s body became warm. 35 Elisha turned away and paced back and forth across the room. Then he got on the bed and stretched himself out over the boy again, and the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she came.

Then Elisha said, “Pick up your son.”

37 She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.