4:1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”
4:2 Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.”
4:3 Then he said, “Go, borrow containers from of all your neighbors, even empty containers. Don’t borrow just a few.
4:4 You shall go in, and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour out into all those containers; and you shall set aside that which is full.”
4:5 So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons; they brought the containers to her, and she poured out.
4:6 It happened, when the containers were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” He said to her, “There isn’t another container.” The oil stopped flowing.
4:7 Then she came and told the man of God. He said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
4:8 It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.
4:9 She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually.
4:10 Please let us make a little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there.”
4:11 One day he came there, and he turned into the room and lay there.
4:12 He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him.
4:13 He said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”
4:14 He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.”
4:15 He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the door.
4:16 He said, “At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid.”
4:17 The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her.
4:18 When the child was grown, it happened one day that he went out to his father to the reapers.
4:19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
4:20 When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died.
4:21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went out.
4:22 She called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.”
4:23 He said, “Why would you want go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.” She said, “It’s alright.”
4:24 Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward! Don’t slow down for me, unless I ask you to.”
4:25 So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. It happened, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, there is the Shunammite.
4:26 Please run now to meet her, and ask her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’” She answered, “It is well.”
4:27 When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, “Leave her alone; for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
4:28 Then she said, “Did I desire a son of my lord? Didn’t I say, Do not deceive me?”
4:29 Then he said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don’t greet him; and if anyone greets you, don’t answer him again. Then lay my staff on the face of the child.”
4:30 The mother of the child said, “As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” He arose, and followed her.
4:31 Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, “The child has not awakened.”
4:32 When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid on his bed.
4:33 He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh.
4:34 He went up, and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child grew warm.
4:35 Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
4:36 He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.”
4:37 Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out.
4:38 Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”
4:39 One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of stew; for they didn’t recognize them.
4:40 So they poured out for the men to eat. It happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” They could not eat of it.
4:41 But he said, “Then bring meal.” He cast it into the pot; and he said, “Pour out for the people, that they may eat.” There was no harm in the pot.
4:42 A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.”
4:43 His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”
4:44 So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to the word of Yahweh.
5:1 Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
5:2 The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
5:3 She said to her mistress, “I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his leprosy.”
5:4 Someone went in, and told his lord, saying, “The maiden who is from the land of Israel said this.”
5:5 The king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
5:6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, “Now when this letter has come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.”
5:7 It happened, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he tore his clothes, and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.”
5:8 It was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
5:10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean.”
5:11 But Naaman was angry, and went away, and said, “Behold, I thought, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leper.’
5:12 Aren’t Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them, and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
5:13 His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean?’”
5:14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
5:15 He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, “See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”
5:16 But he said, “As Yahweh lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” He urged him to take it; but he refused.
5:17 Naaman said, “If not, then, please let two mules’ burden of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will from now on offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to Yahweh.
5:18 In this thing may Yahweh pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, may Yahweh pardon your servant in this thing.”
5:19 He said to him, “Go in peace.” So he departed from him a little way.
5:20 But Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought. As Yahweh lives, I will run after him, and take something from him.”
5:21 So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?”
5:22 He said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Behold, even now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.’”
5:23 Naaman said, “Be pleased to take two talents.” He urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and laid them on two of his servants; and they carried them before him.
5:24 When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed.
5:25 But he went in, and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, “Where did you come from, Gehazi?” He said, “Your servant went nowhere.”
5:26 He said to him, “Didn’t my heart go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive groves and vineyards, and sheep and cattle, and male servants and female servants?
5:27 Therefore the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your seed forever.” He went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow.