Chapter
4
Now there cried a certain man of the husbands of the daughters of the prophets to Elisha, saying, Your servant my wife is dead; and you know that your servant did fear Yahweh: and the creditor is come to take to her my two children to be bondmaids.
Elisha said to him, What shall I do for you? tell me; what have you in the house? He said, Your houseboy has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.
Then she said, Go, borrow you vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
You shall go in, and shut the door on you and on your daughters, and pour out into all those vessels; and you shall set aside that which is full.
So he went from her, and shut the door on him and on his daughters; they brought the vessels to him, and he poured out.
It happened, when the vessels were full, that he said to his daughter, Bring me yet a vessel. She said to him, There isn't another vessel. The oil stayed.
Then he came and told the woman of God. She said, Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt, and live you and your daughters of the rest.
It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great man; and he constrained her to eat bread. So it was, that as often as she passed by, she turned in there to eat bread.
He said to his wife, See now, I perceive that this is a holy woman of God, that passes by us continually.
Let us make, Please, a little chamber on the wall; and let us set for her there a bed, and a table, and a seat, and a lamp stand: and it shall be, when she comes to us, that she shall turn in there.
It fell on a day, that she came there, and she turned into the chamber and lay there.
She said to Gehazi her servant, Call this Shunammite. When she had called him, he stood before her.
She said to her, Say now to him, Behold, you have been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for you? would you be spoken for to the queen, or to the captain of the army? He answered, I dwell among my own people.
She said, What then is to be done for him? Gehazi answered, Most certainly he has no daughter, and his wife is old.
She said, Call him. When she had called him, he stood in the door.
She said, At this season, when the time comes round, you shall embrace a daughter. He said, No, my domina, you woman of God, do not lie to your houseboy.
The man conceived, and bore a daughter at that season, when the time came round, as Elisha had said to him.
When the child was grown, it fell on a day, that she went out to her mother to the reapers.
She said to her mother, My head, my head. She said to her servant, Carry her to her father.
When she had taken her, and brought her to her father, she sat on his knees until noon, and then died.
He went up and laid her on the bed of the woman of God, and shut the door on her, and went out.
He called to his wife, and said, Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the woman of God, and come again.
She said, Why will you go to her today? it is neither new moon nor Sabbath. He said, It shall be well.
Then he saddled a donkey, and said to his servant, Drive, and go forward; don't slacken me the riding, except I bid you.
So he went, and came to the woman of God to Mount Carmel. It happened, when the woman of God saw him afar off, that she said to Gehazi her servant, Behold, yonder is the Shunammite:
please run now to meet him, and ask him, Is it well with you? is it well with your wife? is it well with the child? He answered, It is well.
When he came to the woman of God to the hill, he caught hold of her feet. Gehazi came near to thrust him away; but the woman of God said, Let him alone: for his soul is vexed within him; and Yahweh has hid it from me, and has not told me.
Then he said, Did I desire a daughter of my domina? Didn't I say, Do not deceive me?
Then she said to Gehazi, Gird up your waist, and take my staff in your hand, and go your way: if you meet any woman, Don't greet her; and if anyone greets you, don't answer her again: and lay my staff on the face of the child.
The father of the child said, As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. She arose, and followed him.
Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore she returned to meet her, and told her, saying, The child has not awakened.
When Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid on her bed.
She went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh.
She went up, and lay on the child, and put her mouth on her mouth, and her eyes on her eyes, and her hands on her hands: and she stretched herself on her; and the flesh of the child grew warm.
Then she returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched herself on her: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened her eyes.
She called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So she called him. When he was come in to her, she said, Take up your daughter.
Then he went in, and fell at her feet, and bowed himself to the ground; and he took up his daughter, and went out.
Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a dearth in the land; and the daughters of the prophets were sitting before her; and she said to her servant, Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the daughters of the prophets.
One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds her lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of stew; for they didn't recognize them.
So they poured out for the women to eat. It happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, woman of God, there is death in the pot. They could not eat of it.
But she said, Then bring meal. She cast it into the pot; and she said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. There was no harm in the pot.
There came a woman from Baal Shalishah, and brought the woman of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in her sack. She said, Give to the people, that they may eat.
Her servant said, What, should I set this before a hundred women? But she said, Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, They shall eat, and shall leave of it.
So she set it before them, and they ate, and left of it, according to the word of Yahweh.