THE ORIGINAL BIBLE for Modern Readers
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2 KINGS chapter
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
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11
12
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15
16
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20
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1 Now 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 Jehovah. Now the creditor has come to take for
himself my two children to be slaves.”
2 Elisha 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.”
3 Then he said, “Go, borrow empty containers from
of all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers. 4 Go 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.”
5 So she went from him, and shut the door on
herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured
oil. 6 When 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.
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 One 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. 9 She said to her
husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us
continually. 10 Please let us make a little room on the roof. Let us set
for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. When he comes to us,
he can stay there.”
11 One day he came there, and he went to 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 servant.”
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, one day 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 man of God’s bed, 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 to go to him
today? It is not a new moon or a 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. When the man of God saw her afar off, 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 your 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 Jehovah
has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
28 Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, 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 child’s face.”
30 The child’s mother said, “As Jehovah lives,
and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.”
So he arose, and followed her.
31 Gehazi went ahead of them, and laid the staff
on the child’s face; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he returned
to meet him, and told him, “The child has not awakened.”
32 When Elisha had come into the house, behold,
the child was dead, and lying on his bed. 33 He went in therefore, and
shut the door on them both, and prayed to Jehovah. 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 child’s flesh grew
warm. 35 Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth;
and went up, and stretched himself out 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, fell at his feet, and bowed
herself to the ground; then she picked 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, “Get the large 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 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. 40 So
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.
41 But 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.
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 Jehovah
says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”
44 So he set it before them, and they ate, and
had some left over, according to Jehovah’s word.
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