Open English Translation 2KI Chapter 4

4 One day a woman who was a wife of one of the prophets-in-training, called out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, died, and you yourself know that your servant served Yahweh. Now the moneylender has come to take two of my children in payment to become his slaves.”

2 “Hmmh, what could I do to help you?” Elisha responded. “Tell me, what have you got in your house?”

“Your servant’s got nothing in the house except a flask of oil,” she replied.

3 He told her, “Go and ask for empty containers from all of your neighbours. Make sure you get plenty of them. 4 Then go and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all those containers. Once each one’s full, set it aside.” 5 So she went and she shut the door of her house with her and her sons inside. They would bring the empty containers to her, and she poured the oil. 6 Eventually when she told one of her sons to bring the next container, he told her that there wasn’t any more, and at that point, the oil stopped flowing.

7 Then she went and informed the man of God, and he told her, “Go and sell the oil and pay off your debt. Then you and your sons can live on the rest.”

8 One day, Elisha went to Shunem, and there was a wealthy woman there who invited him in for a meal. After that, he dropped in there for a meal whenever he was going past, 9 and the woman said to her husband, “You know, I’m sure that this man who often drops in on us is a holy man of God. 10 Please, can we make a small upstairs room on our flat roof, and we could put a bed and a lampstand in it for him, plus a table and chair . Then whenever he’s passing through here, he’ll have his own spot to stay.”

11 Another day when Elisha arrived, he went up to his room and lay down. 12 Then he told his servant Gehazi to call the Shunammite woman, so he called her and she came and stood in front of Elisha. 13 He told Gehazi, “Now tell her that we’ve noticed how she looks after us, and ask her what we can do for her? Can we speak to the king for her or to the captain of the army?”

But she replied, “I have family and friends all around me.”

14 After she’d left again, he asked Gehazi, “Well, what can I do for her?”

“Hmmh,,” Gehazi replied. “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is old.”

15 “Call her then,” Elisha said. So he called her and she came and stood in the doorway, 16 and Elisha told her, “In due course after the normal months, you’ll have a son to hold.”

“No, my master, man of God,” she stammered. “Don’t lie to your female servant.”

17 Then the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son after the normal time, just as Elisha had told her.

18 The child grew up and one day he went out to his father who was with the harvesters, 19 and he called to his father, “My head, my head.”

His father told one of the servants, “Carry him home to his mother.”

20 So the servant carried him back to his mother, and he sat on her knees until noon when he died. 21 His mother carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shutting the door behind her as she went out. 22 Then she called her husband and told him, “Please send one of the young men and one of the donkeys to me so I can run and see the man of God and then come back.” 23 “Why are you going there today?” he asked. “It’s not a religious holiday.”

“It’ll be okay,” she answered, 24 and she saddled the donkey, and told the young man, “Now, let’s go! You lead and don’t slacken off for my comfort unless I tell you to.” 25 So they set off to see out the man of God at Mt. Carmel.

When Elisha saw her coming from a distance, he told Gehazi, “Look, there’s the Shunammite woman. 26 Now, please, run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’ ”

“Everything’s all right,” she answered. 27 Then she got to the mountain and to the man of God, and she knelt and grabbed his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her because she’s upset, but Yahweh has hidden the problem from me—he hasn’t informed me.”

28 “Did I ask for a son from you, my master?” she said. “No, but didn’t I say, ‘Don’t mislead me?’ ” 29 Then he told Gehazi, “Tuck in your robe and take my staff in your hand, and go quickly. If you meet anyone, just keep going and don’t stop to bless them, and if someone blesses you, don’t stop to answer them. When you get there, lay my staff on the young man’s face.”

30 But the mother of the young man said, “By the life of Yahweh and the life of your spirit, I won’t leave without you.” So he got ready, and went with her. 31 However, Gehazi had gone ahead and he put the staff on the young man’s face, but he didn’t open his eyes or make a sound. So he returned to meet Elisha and told him that the young man didn’t wake up.

32 When Elisha reached the house, it was a shock to see the young man lying on his bed, dead. 33 He went in and he shut the door behind the other two, and he prayed to Yahweh. 34 Then he got on the bed, and he lay on the child and bent down near him, putting his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his palms on his palms. Then the child’s body started getting warmer, 35 and he got down and walked around the room several times. Then he got on the bed again, and bent down near him. The young man gasped several times, and then opened his eyes. 36 Then he called to Gehazi, and told him to call the Shunammite woman, and he called her, and she came and Elisha told her, “Here, take your son.” 37 Then she came in and fell to her knees in front of him with her face to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out, 38 and Elisha returned to Gilgal.

At that time, there was a drought and the prophets-in-training were sitting facing him, and Elisha told his servant, “Get the large pot and boil a stew for these prophets-in-training.” 39 One person went out to the countryside to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine, and he collected wild fruit from it—as many as he could hold in the fold of his robe. Then not realising that they were poisonous, he came and he sliced them into the pot of stew. 40 Then they served it up for the men to eat, but when they ate it, they called out, “Man of God, there’s poison in that pot!” 41 “Bring me some flour,” Elisha said. Then he threw it into the pot, and said, “Serve it up for the people to eat,” and no one was harmed.

42 One day a man came from Baal-Shalishah, and he brought to the man of God an offering from the beginning of his harvest: twenty loaves of barley bread, and newly-harvested corn in his sack, and Elisha said to his servant, “Give it to our people so they can eat.”

43 “How can I divide that out to one hundred men?” asked his servant.

“Give them to the people so they can eat,” he replied, “because Yahweh says that they can eat and have left-overs.” 44 So he laid it out in front of them and they ate and had left-overs, just like Yahweh had said would happen.