Study Desk

"How can I help you?" asked Elisha. "Tell me, what do you have in the house?" She answered, "Your servant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil."

When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another." But he replied, "There are no more jars." Then the oil stopped flowing.

But the woman did conceive, and at that time the next year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me."

Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened."

And they poured it out for the men to eat, but when they tasted the stew they cried out, "There is death in the pot, O man of God!" And they could not eat it.

But his servant asked, "How am I to set twenty loaves before a hundred men?" "Give it to the people to eat," said Elisha, "for this is what the LORD says: 'They will eat and have some left over.'"

Now Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master's sight and highly regarded; for through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. And he was a mighty warrior, but he was a leper.

But Naaman went away angry, saying, "I thought that he would surely come out, stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the spot to cure my leprosy.

But Elisha replied, "As surely as the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will not accept it." And although Naaman urged him to accept it, he refused.

"If you will not," said Naaman, "please let me, your servant, be given as much soil as a pair of mules can carry. For your servant will never again make a burnt offering or a sacrifice to any other god but the LORD.

"Go in peace," said Elisha, and Naaman departed. But after he had traveled a short distance,

But Naaman insisted, "Please, take two talents." And he urged Gehazi to accept them. Then he tied up two talents of silver in two bags along with two sets of clothing and gave them to two of his servants, who carried them ahead of Gehazi.

But Elisha questioned him, "Did not my spirit go with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to accept money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, menservants and maidservants?

But one of his servants replied, "No one, my lord the king. For Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom."

So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, 'Give up your son, and we will eat him.' But she has hidden her son."

Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, "Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door to keep him out. Is not the sound of his master's footsteps behind him?"

But the officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?" "You will see it with your own eyes," replied Elisha, "but you will not eat any of it."

If we say, 'Let us go into the city,' we will die there from the famine in the city; but if we sit here, we will also die. So come now, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they let us live, we will live; if they kill us, we will die."

So they arose at twilight and went to the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the outskirts of the camp, there was not a man to be found.