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Monday, July 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

2 Kings 4:3

"Go to your neighbors and borrow as many empty jars as you can," Elisha told her.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Debtor;   Elisha;   Miracles;   Oil;   Poor;   Readings, Select;   Servant;   Widow;   Thompson Chain Reference - Bible Stories for Children;   Borrowing;   Business Life;   Children;   Credit System;   Faith;   Hindrances;   Home;   Pleasant Sunday Afternoons;   Preparation;   Prophet's;   Readiness-Unreadiness;   Religion;   Stories for Children;   Tested;   Tests, Spiritual;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Miracles Wrought through Servants of God;   Oil;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Miracle;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Elisha;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Miracle;   Orphan;   Poor and Poverty, Theology of;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Hospitality;   Preaching;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Elijah;   Elisha;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Kings, 1 and 2;   Sons of the Prophets;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Debt;   Marriage;   Medicine;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Miracles;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Chief parables and miracles in the bible;   Gehazi;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Preaching;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Kingdom of Israel;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Debt;   Elisha;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Slaves and Slavery;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Then he said, “Go out and borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few.
Hebrew Names Version
Then he said, Go, borrow you vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
King James Version
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
English Standard Version
Then he said, "Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.
New Century Version
Then Elisha said, "Go and get empty jars from all your neighbors. Don't ask for just a few.
New English Translation
He said, "Go and ask all your neighbors for empty containers. Get as many as you can.
Amplified Bible
Then he said, "Go, borrow containers from all your neighbors, empty containers—and not just a few.
New American Standard Bible
Then he said, "Go, borrow containers elsewhere for yourself, empty containers from all your neighbors—do not get too few.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And he sayde, Goe, and borowe thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, emptie vessels, and spare not.
Legacy Standard Bible
Then he said, "Go, ask for vessels for yourself, from those outside, from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few.
Contemporary English Version
Elisha told her, "Ask your neighbors for their empty jars. And after you've borrowed as many as you can,
Complete Jewish Bible
Then he said, "Go, and borrow containers from all your neighbors, empty containers; and don't borrow just a few!
Darby Translation
And he said, Go, borrow for thyself vessels abroad from all thy neighbours, empty vessels; let it not be few;
Easy-to-Read Version
Then Elisha said, "Go and borrow bowls from all your neighbors. They must be empty. Borrow plenty of bowls.
George Lamsa Translation
Then he said to her, Go, borrow for yourself vessels from the houses of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
Lexham English Bible
Then he said to her, "Go, ask for yourself some containers from the streets, from all your neighbors. You must collect as many empty containers as you can!
Literal Translation
And he said, Go, beg vessels for yourself from outside, from your neighbors, empty vessels. Do not let them be few.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He sayde: Go yi waye, borowe without of all thy neghboures emptye vessels, & that not a fewe,
American Standard Version
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
Bible in Basic English
Then he said, Go out to all your neighbours and get vessels, a very great number of them.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
He saide vnto her: Go, and borow vessels for thee [of them that are] without, [euen] of all thy neighbours, emptie vessels, and that not a fewe:
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Then he said: 'Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
King James Version (1611)
Then hee said, Goe, borrow thee vessels abroad, of all thy neighbours; euen emptie vessels, borrow not a few.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he said to her, Go, borrow for thyself vessels without of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
English Revised Version
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
Berean Standard Bible
"Go," said Elisha, "borrow empty jars from all your neighbors. Do not gather just a few.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
To whom he seide, Go thou, and axe bi borewyng of alle thi neiyboris voide vessels not fewe.
Young's Literal Translation
And he saith, `Go, ask for thee vessels from without, from all thy neighbours -- empty vessels -- let [them] not be few;
Update Bible Version
Then he said, Go, borrow for yourself vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; don't borrow a few.
Webster's Bible Translation
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, [even] empty vessels; borrow not a few.
World English Bible
Then he said, Go, borrow you vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
New King James Version
Then he said, "Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors--empty vessels; do not gather just a few.
New Living Translation
And Elisha said, "Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.
New Life Bible
Then he said, "Go around and get jars from all your neighbors. Get empty jars, many of them.
New Revised Standard
He said, "Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not just a few.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And he said - Go, ask thee vessels, from without, of all thy neighbours, - empty vessels, let them not be few.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And he said to her: Go, borrow of all thy neighbours empty vessels, not a few.
Revised Standard Version
Then he said, "Go outside, borrow vessels of all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.
THE MESSAGE
"Here's what you do," said Elisha. "Go up and down the street and borrow jugs and bowls from all your neighbors. And not just a few—all you can get. Then come home and lock the door behind you, you and your sons. Pour oil into each container; when each is full, set it aside."
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then he said, "Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few.

Contextual Overview

1 The widow of a member of a group of prophets went to Elisha and said, "Sir, my husband has died! As you know, he was a God-fearing man, but now a man he owed money to has come to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband's debt." 2 "What shall I do for you?" he asked. "Tell me, what do you have at home?" "Nothing at all, except a small jar of olive oil," she answered. 3 "Go to your neighbors and borrow as many empty jars as you can," Elisha told her. 4 "Then you and your sons go into the house, close the door, and start pouring oil into the jars. Set each one aside as soon as it is full." 5 So the woman went into her house with her sons, closed the door, took the small jar of olive oil, and poured oil into the jars as her sons brought them to her. 6 When they had filled all the jars, she asked if there were any more. "That was the last one," one of her sons answered. And the olive oil stopped flowing. 7 She went back to Elisha, the prophet, who said to her, "Sell the olive oil and pay all your debts, and there will be enough money left over for you and your sons to live on."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

empty vessels: 2 Kings 3:16, John 2:7

borrow not a few: Heb. scant not, 2 Kings 13:18, 2 Kings 13:19, Psalms 81:10, John 16:24

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 8:4 - all the great Luke 5:6 - they enclosed

Cross-References

Genesis 4:1
Then Adam had intercourse with his wife, and she became pregnant. She bore a son and said, "By the Lord 's help I have gotten a son." So she named him Cain.
Genesis 4:11
You are placed under a curse and can no longer farm the soil. It has soaked up your brother's blood as if it had opened its mouth to receive it when you killed him.
Numbers 18:12
"I am giving you all the best of the first produce which the Israelites give me each year: olive oil, wine, and grain.
1 Kings 17:7
After a while the brook dried up because of the lack of rain.
Nehemiah 13:6
While this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, because in the thirty-second year that Artaxerxes was king of Babylon I had gone back to report to him. After some time I received his permission

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then he said, go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours,.... For he perceived that she had none:

even empty vessels; which they might more readily lend her:

borrow not a few; but as many as she could get; the prophet, under a divine impulse, was directed to say this to her, foreseeing, by a spirit of prophecy, that a large quantity of oil would be given her.


 
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