1One of the wives of a prophet's son cried out to Elisha, "My husband, your servant, has died. You know that he feared Yahweh. Now, a creditor has come to take my two children as slaves to pay our debt."
2Elisha asked her, "What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?" She replied, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil."
3Then he said, "Go and borrow empty jars from all your neighbors; don't just borrow a few.
4Then go inside, close the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all those jars. As they fill up, set them aside."
5So she left him and closed the door behind her and her sons. They brought her the jars, and she poured the oil.
6When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another jar." He replied, "There are no more jars." Then the oil stopped flowing.
7She then went and told the man of God. He said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debt. You and your sons can live on what's left."
8One day Elisha went to Shunem, where an important woman lived. She convinced him to stay and eat. Every time he passed by after that, he would stop there to eat.
9She said to her husband, "Look, I can tell that this man who often visits us is a holy man of God.
10Please let's build a small room on the roof for him. We can put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it, so he can stay there whenever he comes to us."
11One day he arrived there, went to the room, and lay down.
12He told his servant Gehazi, "Call this Shunammite woman." When Gehazi called her, she stood before Elisha.
13Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tell her, 'You have gone to a lot of trouble for us. What can I do for you in return? Would you like a favor spoken to the king or to the army's commander?'" She replied, "I live securely among my own people."
14Elisha asked, "What can we do for her?" Gehazi replied, "She has no son, and her husband is old."
15Elisha said, "Call her." When Gehazi called her, she stood in the doorway.
16Elisha said, "Around this time next year, you will be holding a son." She said, "No, my master, you man of God, don't lie to your servant."
17The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son at the same time the next year, just as Elisha had told her.
18When the child had grown, one day he went out to his father, who was with the harvesters.
19He cried out to his father, "My head! My head!" His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother."
20The servant carried him and brought him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.
21She went up and laid him on the man of God's bed, shut the door, and left.
22She called to her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys so I can quickly go to the man of God and come back."
23He asked, "Why do you want to go to him today? It's not a New Moon or a Sabbath." She replied, "It's alright."
24Then she saddled a donkey and told her servant, "Drive ahead and don't slow down for me unless I tell you to."
25So she left and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her from a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, "Look, there's the woman from Shunem."
26Please run to meet her and ask her, 'Are you well? Is your husband well? Is your child well?'" She answered, "Everyone is well."
27When she reached the man of God on the hill, she grabbed his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone, because she is deeply distressed, and Yahweh has hidden it from me and hasn't told me."
28Then she said, "My master, did I ask you for a son? Didn't I say, 'Don't mislead me'?"
29Then he said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, don't greet them; and if anyone greets you, don't answer them. Then lay my staff on the child's face."
30The child's mother said, "As Yahweh lives, and as you live, I will not leave you." So Elisha got up and followed her.
31Gehazi went ahead of them and laid the staff on the child's face, but there was no sound or sign of life. So he returned to meet Elisha and told him, "The child has not woken up."
32When Elisha arrived at the house, he saw that the child was dead and lying on his bed.
33So Elisha went in, shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh.
34He went up, lay on the child, and put his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on the child's eyes, and his hands on the child's hands. He stretched himself out on him; and the child’s body grew warm.
35Then he came down, walked around the house once, and went up again and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
36He called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite woman!” So he called her. When she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.”
37Then she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed down to the ground. Then she picked up her son and left.
38Elisha returned to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land, and the prophets’ students were sitting before him. He said to his servant, “Get the large pot and boil stew for the prophets’ students.”
39One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine. He gathered a lap full of wild gourds from it, came back, and cut them up into the pot of stew, because they didn’t recognize what they were.
40So they poured it 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.
41But he said, “Then bring some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people, so they can eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
42A man from Baal Shalishah came and brought the man of God some of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley bread and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people, so they can eat.”
43His servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” But Elisha said, “Give it to the people, so they can eat; for Yahweh says, ‘They will eat and have some left over.’”
44So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, just as Yahweh had said.