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Elisha and the Jar of Oil

¹ Now the wife of the son of one of the men who tell what will happen in the future cried out to Elisha, "Your servant, my husband, is dead. You know that your servant honored the Lord with fear. But the man to whom he owed money has come to take my two children to make them serve him." ² Elisha said to her, "What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" And she said, "Your woman servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil." ³ Then he said, "Go around and get jars from all your neighbors. Get empty jars, many of them. ⁴ Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour the oil into all these jars, and set aside each one that is full." ⁵ So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They took the jars to her, and she poured. ⁶ When the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another jar." And he said to her, "There is not one jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing. ⁷ She came and told the man of God. And he said, "Go and sell the oil and pay what you owe. You and your sons can live on the rest."

Elisha and the Shunammite's Son

⁸ One day Elisha went to Shunem. An important woman was there, who talked him into eating some food. So every time he passed by, he would turn in there to eat food. ⁹ She said to her husband, "Now I see that this is a holy man of God who is always passing by. ¹⁰ Let us make a little room on the second floor. And let us put a bed there for him, and a table and a chair and a lamp. Then when he comes to us, he can go in there."

¹¹ One day Elisha came there and went into the room on the second floor, and rested. ¹² He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she came and stood in front of him. ¹³ Elisha said to Gehazi, "Now tell her, ‘See, you have done much for us. What can I do for you? Should I speak to the king or to the captain of the army for you?'" And she answered, "I live among my own people." ¹⁴ So Elisha said, "What then is to be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "She has no son, and her husband is old." ¹⁵ Elisha said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood at the door. ¹⁶ Then he said, "At this time next year you will hold a son in your arms." And she said, "No, my lord, O man of God. Do not lie to your woman servant." ¹⁷ Later she was going to have a child and she gave birth to a son at that time the next year, as Elisha had told her.

¹⁸ When the child was grown, he went out one day to his father who was with those gathering grain. ¹⁹ He said to his father, "O, my head, my head!" The father said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother." ²⁰ When he was brought to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon. Then he died. ²¹ She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. She shut the door behind him, and went out. ²² Then she called to her husband and said, "Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and return." ²³ Her husband said, "Why will you go to him today? It is not the time of the new moon or the Day of Rest." She said, "It will be all right." ²⁴ Then she put a seat on a donkey and said to her servant, "Drive on. Do not slow down for me unless I tell you." ²⁵ So she went and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her far away, he said to Gehazi his servant, "See, there is the Shunammite. ²⁶ Run now to meet her. Say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?'" And she answered, "It is well." ²⁷ When she came to the mountain to the man of God, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, "Let her alone. For her soul is troubled within her. The Lord has hidden it from me. He has not told me." ²⁸ Then she said, "Did I ask you for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not lie to me'?"

²⁹ Elisha said to Gehazi, "Get ready to travel. Take my walking stick and go. If you meet any man, do not greet him. If anyone greets you, do not answer him. Then lay my stick on the boy's face." ³⁰ 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. ³¹ Gehazi went on before them and laid the stick on the boy's face. But there was no sound or anything to show that the boy was alive. So Gehazi returned to meet Elisha, and told him, "The boy is not awake." ³² When Elisha came into the house, he saw the boy lying dead on his bed. ³³ So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. ³⁴ He went up and lay on the child. He put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He spread himself out on him, and the child's flesh became warm. ³⁵ Then Elisha got up again. He walked from one end of the house to the other. Then he went up and spread himself on the child again. The boy sneezed seven times, and opened his eyes. ³⁶ Elisha called Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her. When she came to him, he said, "Take up your son." ³⁷ She came and fell at his feet and put her face to the ground. Then she took up her son and went out.

Elisha and the Pot of Food

³⁸ When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was no food in the land. The sons of the men who tell what will happen in the future were sitting in front of him. Elisha said to his servant, "Put the large pot over the fire and make food ready for the sons of the men who tell what will happen in the future." ³⁹ One of them went out into the field to gather plants. He found a wild vine, and gathered wild gourds from it. He came and cut them up in the pot of food, not knowing what they were. ⁴⁰ Then they poured it out for the men to eat. As they were eating the food, they cried out, "O man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it. ⁴¹ But he said, "Get some grain." And he threw it into the pot, and said, "Pour it out for the people to eat." Then there was no danger in the pot.

Elisha Feeds One Hundred Men

⁴² A man came from Baal-shalishah. He brought the man of God a gift of the first-fruits. There were twenty loaves of barley bread and new-grown grain in his bag. Elisha said, "Give them to the people, that they may eat." ⁴³ But his servant said, "What? Should I put this in front of 100 men?" But Elisha said, "Give them to the people to eat. For the Lord says, ‘They will eat and have some left.'" ⁴⁴ So he put it in front of them. And they ate and had some left, as the word of the Lord had said.