2 Kings 4:30

THE MESSAGE

The boy's mother said, "As sure as God lives and you live, you're not leaving me behind." And so Gehazi let her take the lead, and followed behind.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The boy’s mother said to Elisha, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.

Hebrew Names Version
The mother of the child said, As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. He arose, and followed her.

King James Version
And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.

English Standard Version
Then the mother of the child said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So he arose and followed her.

New Century Version
The boy's mother said, "As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I won't leave you!" So Elisha got up and followed her.

New English Translation
The mother of the child said, "As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So Elisha got up and followed her back.

Amplified Bible
The mother of the child said, "As the LORD lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." So Elisha arose and followed her.

New American Standard Bible
The mother of the boy said, "As surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And the mother of the childe sayde, As the Lorde liueth, and as thy soule liueth, I will not leaue thee. Therefore he arose, and followed her.

Legacy Standard Bible
But the mother of the boy said, "As Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, I will not forsake you." And he arose and followed her.

Contemporary English Version
But the boy's mother said to Elisha, "I swear by the living Lord and by your own life that I won't leave without you." So Elisha got up and went with them.

Complete Jewish Bible
The mother of the child said, "As Adonai lives, and as you live, I will not leave you. He got up and followed her.

Darby Translation
And the mother of the lad said, As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee! And he rose up and followed her.

Easy-to-Read Version
But the child's mother said, "I promise, as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave without you!" So Elisha got up and followed her.

George Lamsa Translation
And the mother of the child said, As the LORD lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And he arose and followed her.

Good News Translation
The woman said to Elisha, "I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you!" So the two of them started back together.

Lexham English Bible
Then the mother of the boy said, "As Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, I will surely not leave you." So he got up and went after her.

Literal Translation
And the mother of the boy said, As Jehovah lives, and your soul lives, I will not leave you. And he rose up and went after her.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But the childes mother sayde: As truly as the LORDE lyueth, and as truly as yi soule lyueth, I wyll not leaue the. Then gat he vp, and wente after her.

American Standard Version
And the mother of the child said, As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.

Bible in Basic English
But the mother of the child said, As the Lord is living and as your soul is living, I will not go back without you. So he got up and went with her.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the mother of the childe said: As the Lorde lyueth, and as thy soule lyueth, I wyll not leaue thee. And he arose, and folowed her.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the mother of the child said: 'As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.' And he arose, and followed her.

King James Version (1611)
And the mother of the childe said, As the Lord liueth, and as thy soule liueth, I will not leaue thee. And he arose, and followed her.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the mother of the child said, As the Lord lives and as thy soul lives, I will not leave thee. And Elisaie arose, and went after her.

English Revised Version
And the mother of the child said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.

Berean Standard Bible
And the mother of the boy said, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Forsothe the `modir of the child seide, The Lord lyueth and thi soule lyueth, Y schal not leeue, `ether forsake, thee. Therfor he roos, and suede hir.

Young's Literal Translation
And the mother of the youth saith, `Jehovah liveth, and thy soul liveth -- if I leave thee;' and he riseth and goeth after her.

Update Bible Version
And the mother of the child said, As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And he arose, and followed her.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the mother of the child said, [As] the LORD liveth, and [as] thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.

World English Bible
The mother of the child said, As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. He arose, and followed her.

New King James Version
And the mother of the child said, "As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." So he arose and followed her.

New Living Translation
But the boy's mother said, "As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I won't go home unless you go with me." So Elisha returned with her.

New Life Bible
The mother of the boy said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So Elisha got up and followed her.

New Revised Standard
Then the mother of the child said, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave without you." So he rose up and followed her.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But the mother of the boy said, By the life of Yahweh and by the life of thine own soul, I will not leave thee. So he arose and followed her.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose, therefore, and followed her.

Revised Standard Version
Then the mother of the child said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So he arose and followed her.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
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.

Contextual Overview

¹⁸The child grew up. One day he went to his father, who was working with the harvest hands, complaining, "My head, my head!" His father ordered a servant, "Carry him to his mother." ²⁰ The servant took him in his arms and carried him to his mother. He lay on her lap until noon and died. ²¹ She took him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut him in alone, and left. ²² She then called her husband, "Get me a servant and a donkey so I can go to the Holy Man; I'll be back as soon as I can." ²³ "But why today? This isn't a holy day—it's neither New Moon nor Sabbath." She said, "Don't ask questions; I need to go right now. Trust me." ²⁴She went ahead and saddled the donkey, ordering her servant, "Take the lead—and go as fast as you can; I'll tell you if you're going too fast." And so off she went. She came to the Holy Man at Mount Carmel. The Holy Man, spotting her while she was still a long way off, said to his servant Gehazi, "Look out there; why, it's the Shunammite woman! Quickly now. Ask her, ‘Is something wrong? Are you all right? Your husband? Your child?'" She said, "Everything's fine." But when she reached the Holy Man at the mountain, she threw herself at his feet and held tightly to him. Gehazi came up to pull her away, but the Holy Man said, "Leave her alone—can't you see that she's in distress? But God hasn't let me in on why; I'm completely in the dark." Then she spoke up: "Did I ask for a son, master? Didn't I tell you, ‘Don't tease me with false hopes'?" He ordered Gehazi, "Don't lose a minute—grab my staff and run as fast as you can. If you meet anyone, don't even take time to greet him, and if anyone greets you, don't even answer. Lay my staff across the boy's face." The boy's mother said, "As sure as God lives and you live, you're not leaving me behind." And so Gehazi let her take the lead, and followed behind. But Gehazi arrived first and laid the staff across the boy's face. But there was no sound—no sign of life. Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and said, "The boy hasn't stirred." Elisha entered the house and found the boy stretched out on the bed dead. He went into the room and locked the door—just the two of them in the room—and prayed to God . He then got into bed with the boy and covered him with his body, mouth on mouth, eyes on eyes, hands on hands. As he was stretched out over him like that, the boy's body became warm. Elisha got up and paced back and forth in the room. Then he went back and stretched himself upon the boy again. The boy started sneezing—seven times he sneezed!—and opened his eyes. He called Gehazi and said, "Get the Shunammite woman in here!" He called her and she came in. Elisha said, "Embrace your son!" She fell at Elisha's feet, face to the ground in reverent awe. Then she embraced her son and went out with him. Elisha went back down to Gilgal. There was a famine there. While he was consulting with the guild of prophets, he told his servant, "Put a large pot on the fire and cook up some stew for the prophets." One of the men went out into the field to get some herbs; he came across a wild vine and picked gourds from it, filling his gunnysack. He brought them back, sliced them up, and put them in the stew, even though no one knew what kind of plant it was. The stew was then served up for the men to eat. They started to eat, and then exclaimed, "Death in the pot, O man of God! Death in the pot!" Nobody could eat it. Elisha ordered, "Get me some meal." Then he sprinkled it into the stew pot. "Now serve it up to the men," he said. They ate it, and it was just fine—nothing wrong with that stew! One day a man arrived from Baal Shalishah. He brought the man of God twenty loaves of fresh-baked bread from the early harvest, along with a few apples from the orchard. Elisha said, "Pass it around to the people to eat." His servant said, "For a hundred men? There's not nearly enough!" Elisha said, "Just go ahead and do it. God says there's plenty." And sure enough, there was. He passed around what he had—they not only ate, but had leftovers. ²⁶ One day the wife of a man from the guild of prophets called out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead. You well know what a good man he was, devoted to God . And now the man to whom he was in debt is on his way to collect by taking my two children as slaves." Elisha said, "I wonder how I can be of help. Tell me, what do you have in your house?" "Nothing," she said. "Well, I do have a little oil." "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." She did what he said. She locked the door behind her and her sons; as they brought the containers to her, she filled them. When all the jugs and bowls were full, she said to one of her sons, "Another jug, please." He said, "That's it. There are no more jugs." Then the oil stopped. She went and told the story to the man of God. He said, "Go sell the oil and make good on your debts. Live, both you and your sons, on what's left." One day Elisha passed through Shunem. A leading lady of the town talked him into stopping for a meal. And then it became his custom: Whenever he passed through, he stopped by for a meal. "I'm certain," said the woman to her husband, "that this man who stops by with us all the time is a holy man of God. Why don't we add on a small room upstairs and furnish it with a bed and desk, chair and lamp, so that when he comes by he can stay with us?" And so it happened that the next time Elisha came by he went to the room and lay down for a nap. Then he said to his servant Gehazi, "Tell the Shunammite woman I want to see her." He called her and she came to him. Through Gehazi Elisha said, "You've gone far beyond the call of duty in taking care of us; what can we do for you? Do you have a request we can bring to the king or to the commander of the army?" She replied, "Nothing. I'm secure and satisfied in my family." Elisha conferred with Gehazi: "There's got to be something we can do for her. But what?" Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man." "Call her in," said Elisha. He called her and she stood at the open door. Elisha said to her, "This time next year you're going to be nursing an infant son." "O my master, O Holy Man," she said, "don't play games with me, teasing me with such fantasies!" The woman conceived. A year later, just as Elisha had said, she had a son. The child grew up. One day he went to his father, who was working with the harvest hands, complaining, "My head, my head!" His father ordered a servant, "Carry him to his mother." The servant took him in his arms and carried him to his mother. He lay on her lap until noon and died. She took him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut him in alone, and left. She then called her husband, "Get me a servant and a donkey so I can go to the Holy Man; I'll be back as soon as I can." "But why today? This isn't a holy day—it's neither New Moon nor Sabbath." She said, "Don't ask questions; I need to go right now. Trust me." She went ahead and saddled the donkey, ordering her servant, "Take the lead—and go as fast as you can; I'll tell you if you're going too fast." And so off she went. She came to the Holy Man at Mount Carmel. The Holy Man, spotting her while she was still a long way off, said to his servant Gehazi, "Look out there; why, it's the Shunammite woman! Quickly now. Ask her, ‘Is something wrong? Are you all right? Your husband? Your child?'" She said, "Everything's fine." ²⁷ But when she reached the Holy Man at the mountain, she threw herself at his feet and held tightly to him. Gehazi came up to pull her away, but the Holy Man said, "Leave her alone—can't you see that she's in distress? But God hasn't let me in on why; I'm completely in the dark." ²⁸ Then she spoke up: "Did I ask for a son, master? Didn't I tell you, ‘Don't tease me with false hopes'?" ²⁹ He ordered Gehazi, "Don't lose a minute—grab my staff and run as fast as you can. If you meet anyone, don't even take time to greet him, and if anyone greets you, don't even answer. Lay my staff across the boy's face."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

As the Lord: 2 Kings 2:2, 2 Kings 2:4

I will not: Exodus 33:12-16, Ruth 1:16-18

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 1:26 - as thy soul 2 Samuel 15:21 - As the Lord 1 Kings 1:29 - As the

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the mother of the child said,.... Having no faith in what the servant was to do, or could do:

as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee; signifying she would not go with his servant, but insisted upon it that he himself went with her, or she would not depart:

and he arose, and followed her; influenced by her importunity, and a sense of favours he had received from her, and more especially by the Spirit of God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 30. I will not leave thee. — The prophet it seems had no design to accompany her; he intended to wait for Gehazi's return; but as the woman was well assured the child was dead, she was determined not to return till she brought the prophet with her.