4:1  Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband has died, and you know that your servant feared the LORD; and the creditor has come to take my two children to serve as his slaves."

4:2  Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" And she said, "Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil."

4:3  Then he said, "Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few.

4:4  "And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what you have filled."

4:5  So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they brought the vessels to her and she poured.

4:6  When they had filled the vessels, she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." And he said to her, "We cannot find one vessel more." And the oil stopped.

4:7  Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest."

4:8  Now there came a day when Elisha passed over to Shunem, where there lived a prominent woman, and she persuaded him to eat food. And so it came to pass, as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat food.

4:9  She said to her husband, "Behold now, I perceive a holy man of God passing by us continually.

4:10  "Please, let us make a little walled upper chamber and let us set a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; and it shall come to pass, when he comes to us, that he can turn in there."

4:11  One day he came there and turned in to the upper chamber and rested.

4:12  Then he said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." And when he had called her, she stood before him.

4:13  He said to him, "Say now to her, 'Behold, you have shown care for us with all this care; what can I do for you? Would the king or the captain of the army speak for you?'" And she answered, "I live among my own people."

4:14  So he said, "What then can we do for her?" And Gehazi answered, "Truly she has no son and her husband has grown old."

4:15  He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.

4:16  Then he said, "At this season next year you will embrace a son." And she said, "No, my lord, O man of God, do not lie to your maidservant."

4:17  The woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had said to her.

4:18  When the child had grown, the day came that he went out to his father to the reapers.

4:19  He said to his father, "My head, my head." And he said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."

4:20  When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and then died.

4:21  She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door behind him and went out.

4:22  Then 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 return."

4:23  He said, "Why will you go to him today? We neither celebrate a new moon nor sabbath." And she said, "It will turn out well."

4:24  Then she saddled a donkey and said to her servant, "Drive and go forward; do not slow down the pace for me unless I tell you."

4:25  So she went and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, "Behold, there comes the Shunammite.

4:26  "Please run now to meet her and say to her, 'Do you find it well with you? Do you find it well with your husband? Do you find it well with the child?'" And she answered, "I find it well."

4:27  When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came near to push her away; but the man of God said, "Let her alone, for her soul has become troubled within her; and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me."

4:28  Then she said, "Did I ask for a son from my lord? Did I not say, 'Do not deceive me'?"

4:29  Then he said to Gehazi, "Gird up your loins and take my staff in your hand, and go your way; if you meet any man, do not salute him, and if anyone salutes you, do not answer him; and lay my staff on the lad's face."

4:30  The mother of the lad said, "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." And he arose and followed her.

4:31  Then Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff on the lad's face, but there came no sound or response. So he returned to meet him and told him, "The lad has not awakened."

4:32  When Elisha came into the house, behold the lad appeared dead and laid on his bed.

4:33  So he entered and shut the door behind them both and prayed to the LORD.

4:34  And 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, and he stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child became warm.

4:35  Then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth, and went up and stretched himself on him; and the lad sneezed seven times and the lad opened his eyes.

4:36  He called Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, "Take up your son."

4:37  Then she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground, and she took up her son and went out.

4:38  When Elisha returned to Gilgal, a famine afflicted the land. As the sons of the prophets sat before him, he said to his servant, "Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."

4:39  Then one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, for they did not know what they consisted of.

4:40  So they poured it out for the men to eat. And as they ate of the stew, they cried out and said, "O man of God, we find death in the pot." And they could not eat.

4:41  But he said, "Now bring meal." He threw it into the pot and said, "Pour it out for the people that they may eat." Then there existed no harm in the pot.

4:42  Now a man came from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And he said, "Give them to the people that they may eat."

4:43  His attendant said, "What, will I set this before a hundred men?" But he said, "Give them to the people that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and have some left over.'"

4:44  So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.