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2 Kings 4
The Voice
2 Kings 4
The Voice
4 The wife of one of the prophets’ disciples pleaded with Elisha.
Woman: My husband who served you is now dead. He greatly feared the Eternal. You yourself know this to be true. The creditor is now trying to take away my only two children and make them into slaves.
Elisha: 2 What is it that you want me to do? Do you have anything of worth in your house?
Woman: I don’t really have much of anything. The only thing I have in my house that might be of any worth is a jar of oil.
Elisha: 3 Borrow as many large empty containers as you can. Ask neighbors for anything they can give to you. Be sure to collect a lot of them. 4 Then enclose yourself in a room with only you and your sons. Pour oil into as many of the containers as you can. Set aside the full ones.
5 The widow went away from Elisha and enclosed herself in a room with her sons. One at a time, her sons held a container before her, and she poured. 6 Soon all of the containers were filled.
Woman: Bring me another container.
Son: There aren’t any left.
It was then that the oil ran out. 7 The widow then went back to Elisha, the man of God.
Elisha: Now go sell the oil, and pay the creditor what you owe. Then your children won’t be made into slaves, and you and your sons can live on the remaining money.
8 One day, Elisha traveled to Shunem. There was a well-known woman who lived there, and she convinced him to eat something. So whenever he walked by her house, he went in and ate.
Shunammite Woman (to her husband): 9 This man, who comes by here frequently to eat, is a holy man of God. 10 Can we please make a little room for him—just a simple setting: a bed, a lamp, a table, and a chair. That way, whenever he comes here, he can rest in his own room and have his privacy.
11 Elisha went by their house to eat one day, and he went and lay down in the upper room. 12 He spoke to his servant, Gehazi.
Elisha: Tell the Shunammite woman to come here.
So Gehazi called out her name, and she came to him.
Elisha (to Gehazi): 13 Tell her, “You have been fearfully attentive to us. We thank you for all of your care. Now what can I do to repay you? Would you like for me to speak to the king or the military commander on your behalf?”
Shunammite Woman: No, that’s OK. I dwell with my own people.
Elisha (to Gehazi): 14 Is there anything at all that I can do for her?
Gehazi: Actually, her husband is an old man, and she doesn’t have a son.
Elisha: 15 Tell her to come here.
Gehazi called out her name, and she came and stood at the entrance to the room.
Elisha: 16 This time next year, when spring is full of new life, you will hold a son of your own in your arms.
Shunammite Woman: That’s impossible, my lord! You are a man of great integrity, a man of God, so please do not deceive me, your servant.
17 But that time next year, the Shunammite woman did conceive and deliver a son, just as Elisha said she would. 18 When the child was older, he walked out to his father, who was harvesting the fields with the reapers.
Son (to his father): 19 My head hurts! My head hurts!
Father (to his servant): Take the child inside to his mother.
20 The servant brought the child inside to his mother; and about noon, while the boy was sitting in his mother’s lap, he died. 21 She took his lifeless body and laid him down on Elisha’s bed. She then closed the door and went away.
Shunammite Woman (to her husband): 22 I beg you to send me a servant and a donkey so that I can go find Elisha, the man of God. As soon as I do, I will come back here.
Father: 23 Why is it that you are so anxious to find him today? Today is not a holy day—a new moon or a Sabbath.
Shunammite Woman: Don’t worry; all will be well.
24 She prepared the donkey and gave instructions to her servant.
Shunammite Woman: Go quickly! Don’t slow down unless I tell you to.
25 She rode quickly toward the man of God who was staying about a day away on Mount Carmel. As she approached, Elisha saw her at a distance.
Elisha (to Gehazi): Look! It’s the Shunammite woman. 26 Go quickly to see what she wants. Ask her, “Is everything fine? Is your husband well? Is your son well?”
Shunammite Woman: Everything is fine.
27 When she approached the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground and hugged his feet. Gehazi approached to pull her away, but the man of God stopped him.
Elisha: Leave her be. Her very soul is distressed, but the Eternal has kept her troubles hidden from me.
Shunammite Woman: 28 Was it I who asked for a son? I told you not to mislead me!
Elisha (to Gehazi): 29 Prepare yourself, and carry my staff to where the boy is now. Do not acknowledge any blessing to anyone on your way there. If someone speaks a blessing to you, do not respond. When you get there, lay my staff on the boy’s face.
Shunammite Woman (to Elisha): 30 As certain as the life of the Eternal and your own life, I will not leave without you.
Elisha then stood up and followed her to her house. 31 Gehazi went ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but nothing happened. The boy did not move or make a sound. Gehazi went back to Elisha and reported this to him: “The boy did not wake up.”
32 Elisha arrived at the house and saw the lifeless body of the boy lying on Elisha’s bed. 33 He went into the room, closed the door behind both of them, and prayed to the Eternal. 34 Elisha approached the boy and lay down, placing his mouth on the boy’s mouth, his eyes on the boy’s eyes, and his hands on the boy’s hands. He covered the boy with his own body, and warmth returned to the boy’s body. 35 Elisha turned around and paced back and forth in the house, then he went back into the room and covered the boy’s body with his own body. The boy sneezed seven times, and then he opened his eyes.
Elisha (to Gehazi): 36 Tell the Shunammite woman to come here.
Gehazi told the Shunammite woman to go inside the room, and she did.
Elisha: Lift up your son, for he is alive.
37 She fell to the floor before Elisha’s feet, bowing to the ground, and she wept with happiness. She picked up her son and left the room with him.
38 Elisha returned to Gilgal, and he found that there was a famine throughout the entire country. While the disciples of the local prophets were sitting with him, he told his servant to find a big pot and make a big stew for the prophets’ disciples.
39 A man walked out into the fields to look for herbs, and he came across an uncultivated vine and picked enough wild gourds from it to fill the folds of his cloak. He chopped up the gourds and tossed them into the large pot of stew, not knowing what they were. 40 Those who prepared the stew gave helpings of it to the men. While they were eating the stew, they cringed and pushed the bowls away from them. They could not eat it.
Prophets’ Disciples: Man of God, this stew is horrible! It will be the death of us!
Elisha: 41 Go bring some meal.
They brought him some meal, and Elisha threw it in the large pot and renewed the stew.
Elisha: Distribute this food to the people so that they may fill their hungry bellies.
Everyone ate it, and there was nothing wrong with it this time.
42 Sometime later, a man from Baal-shalishah brought some food from the firstfruits of the harvest to the man of God: in his sack were 20 barley loaves and fresh produce still in the husk.
Elisha: Distribute this food to the people so that they may fill their hungry bellies.
Servant: 43 Do you really think this will be enough for 100 hungry men?
Elisha: Yes, do as I said, and distribute this food to the people. The Eternal One says, “They will fill their bellies and still have some food left over.”
44 He handed out the food to them; and exactly as the Eternal One said, they ate and had food to spare.
2 Kings 4
New International Version
2 Kings 4
New International Version
The Widow’s Olive Oil
4 The wife of a man from the company(A) of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor(B) is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”(C)
3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She went and told the man of God,(D) and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
The Shunammite’s Son Restored to Life
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem.(E) And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay(F) there whenever he comes to us.”
11 One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.”(G) So he called her, and she stood before him. 13 Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’”
She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”
14 “What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”
15 Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 “About this time(H) next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”
“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”
17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
18 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers.(I) 19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!”
His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21 She went up and laid him on the bed(J) of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
22 She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.”
23 “Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon(K) or the Sabbath.”
“That’s all right,” she said.
24 She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.” 25 So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.(L)
When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite! 26 Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’”
“Everything is all right,” she said.
27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress,(M) but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”
28 “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”
29 Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt,(N) take my staff(O) in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”
30 But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.
31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”
32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch.(P) 33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed(Q) to the Lord. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched(R) himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. 35 Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times(S) and opened his eyes.(T)
36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.”(U) 37 She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.
Death in the Pot
38 Elisha returned to Gilgal(V) and there was a famine(W) in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.”
39 One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. 40 The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
41 Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.(X)
Feeding of a Hundred
42 A man came from Baal Shalishah,(Y) bringing the man of God twenty loaves(Z) of barley bread(AA) baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.
43 “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.
But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat.(AB) For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.(AC)’” 44 Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.
The Voice (VOICE)
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.