4

1Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”

2Elisha said to her, “What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.”

3Then he said, “Go, borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers. 4Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full.”

5So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured oil. 6When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.”

He said to her, “There isn’t another container.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

7Then she came and told the man of God. He said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”

8One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. 9She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually. 10Please, let’s make a little room on the roof. Let’s set a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand for him there. When he comes to us, he can stay there.”

11One day he came there, and he went to the room and lay there. 12He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him. 13He said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?’”

She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”

14He said, “What then is to be done for her?”

Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.”

15He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the door. 16He said, “At this season next year, you will embrace a son.”

She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.”

17The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her. 18When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers. 19He said to his father, “My head! My head!”

He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

20When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. 21She went up and laid him on the man of God’s bed, and shut the door on him, and went out. 22She 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 come again.”

23He said, “Why would you want go to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath.”

She said, “It’s all right.”

24Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward! Don’t slow down for me, unless I ask you to.”

25So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, there is the Shunammite. 26Please run now to meet her, and ask her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child?’”

She answered, “It is well.”

27When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”

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

29Then he said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don’t greet him; and if anyone greets you, don’t answer him again. Then lay my staff on the child’s face.”

30The child’s mother said, “As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.”

So he arose, and followed her.

31Gehazi went ahead of them, and laid the staff on the child’s face; but there was no voice and no hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, “The child has not awakened.”

32When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lying on his bed. 33He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh. 34He went 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. He stretched himself on him; and the child’s flesh grew warm. 35Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth, then went up and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her.

When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.”

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

38Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Get the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”

39One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds from it, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew; for they didn’t recognize them. 40So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.

41But he said, “Then bring meal.” He threw it into the pot; and he said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

42A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.”

43His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?”

But he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for Yahweh says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”

44So he set it before them and they ate and had some left over, according to Yahweh’s word.

5

1Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria; he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little girl, and she waited on Naaman’s wife. 3She said to her mistress, “I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his leprosy.”

4Someone went in and told his lord, saying, “The girl who is from the land of Israel said this.”

5The king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”

He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing. 6He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, “Now when this letter has come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.”

7When the king of Israel had read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.”

8It was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

9So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. 10Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean.”

11But Naaman was angry, and went away and said, “Behold, I thought, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leper.’ 12Aren’t Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

13His servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean?’”

14Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 15He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, “See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”

16But he said, “As Yahweh lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.”

He urged him to take it; but he refused. 17Naaman said, “If not, then, please let two mules’ load of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will from now on offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to Yahweh. 18In this thing may Yahweh pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, may Yahweh pardon your servant in this thing.”

19He said to him, “Go in peace.”

So he departed from him a little way. 20But Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought. As Yahweh lives, I will run after him, and take something from him.”

21So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?”

22He said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Behold, even now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.’”

23Naaman said, “Be pleased to take two talents.” He urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and laid them on two of his servants; and they carried them before him. 24When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed. 25But he went in, and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, “Where did you come from, Gehazi?”

He said, “Your servant went nowhere.”

26He said to him, “Didn’t my heart go with you when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive groves and vineyards, and sheep and cattle, and male servants and female servants? 27Therefore the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your offspring forever.”

He went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow.