1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets 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." 2 Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil." 3 Then he said, "Go, borrow containers from of all your neighbors, even empty containers. Don't borrow just a few. 4 You shall go in, and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour out into all those containers; and you shall set aside that which is full." 5 So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons; they brought the containers to her, and she poured out. 6 It happened, when the containers were full, that she said to her son, "Bring me another container." He said to her, "There isn't another container." The oil stopped flowing. 7 Then 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." 8 It fell on a day, that Elisha passed 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. 9 She said to her husband, "See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually. 10 Please let us make a little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there." 11 One day he came there, and he turned into the room and lay there. 12 He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she stood before him. 13 He 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." 14 He said, "What then is to be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old." 15 He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the door. 16 He said, "At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid." 17 The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her. 18 When the child was grown, it happened one day that he went out to his father to the reapers. 19 He said to his father, "My head! My head!" He said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother." 20 When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. 21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went out. 22 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 come again." 23 He said, "Why would you want go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She said, "It's alright." 24 Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, "Drive, and go forward! Don't slow down for me, unless I ask you to." 25 So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. It happened, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, "Behold, 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?'" She answered, "It is well." 27 When 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." 28 Then she said, "Did I desire a son of my lord? Didn't I say, Do not deceive me?" 29 Then 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 face of the child." 30 The mother of the child said, "As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." He arose, and followed her. 31 Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, "The child has not awakened." 32 When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid on his bed. 33 He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh. 34 He 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 flesh of the child grew warm. 35 Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36 He called Gehazi, and said, "Call this Shunammite!" So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, "Take up your son." 37 Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out. 38 Elisha 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, "Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets." 39 One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of stew; for they didn't recognize them. 40 So they poured out for the men to eat. It happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, "Man of God, there is death in the pot!" They could not eat of it. 41 But he said, "Then bring meal." He cast it into the pot; and he said, "Pour out for the people, that they may eat." There was no harm in the pot. 42 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. He said, "Give to the people, that they may eat." 43 His servant said, "What, should I set this before a hundred men?" But he said, "Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, 'They will eat, and will have some left over.'" 44 So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to the word of Yahweh.
A widow of one of the prophets, oppressed by a merciless creditor, applies to Elisha, who multiplies her oil; by a part of which she pays her debt, abut subsists on the rest, 2-Kings 4:1-7. His entertainment at the house of a respectable woman in Shunem, 2-Kings 4:8-10. He foretells to his hostess the birth of a son, 2-Kings 4:11-17. After some years the child dies, and the mother goes to Elisha at Carmel; he comes to Shunem, and raises the child to life, vv. 18-37. He comes to Gilgal, and prevents the sons of the prophets from being poisoned by wild gourds, 2-Kings 4:38-41. He multiplies a scanty provision, so as to make it sufficient to feed one hundred men, 2-Kings 4:42-44.
INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 4
This chapter treats of the miracles of Elisha, of his multiplying a poor widow's pot of oil for the payment of her husband's debts, 2-Kings 4:1 of obtaining a son for a Shunamitish woman, who had been very hospitable to him, 2-Kings 4:8, of his raising up her son to life when dead, 2-Kings 4:18, of his curing the deadly pottage made of wild gourds, 2-Kings 4:38, and of his feeding one hundred men with twenty barley loaves, 2-Kings 4:42.
(2-Kings 4:1-7) Elisha multiplies the widow's oil.
(2-Kings 4:8-17) The Shunammite obtains a son.
(v. 18-37) The Shunammite's son restored to life.
(2-Kings 4:38-44) The miracle of healing the pottage, and of feeding the sons of the prophets.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.