2 Kings 4 · WEB
Elisha's Miracles: Oil, Shunem, and Provision
Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.
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Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves."
2Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a pot of oil."
3Then he said, "Go, borrow containers from all your neighbors — empty containers. Don't borrow just a few.
4Go in and shut the door on yourself and your sons, and pour into all those containers; and set aside that which is full."
5So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and her sons; they brought the containers to her, and she poured.
6When the containers were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another container." He said to her, "There isn't another container." The oil stopped.
7Then 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."
8One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman, and she urged him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.
9She said to her husband, "Behold, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually.
10Please, let's make a little room on the wall. Let's put a bed for him there, a table, a stool, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there."
11One day he came there and he turned into the upper room and lay there.
12He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she stood before him.
13He said to him, "Say now to her, 'Behold, you have been careful for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Should I speak for you to the king or to the captain of the army?'" She answered, "I dwell among my own people."
14He said, "What then is to be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old."
15He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the door.
16He said, "At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my lord, you man of God, don't lie to your servant."
17The woman conceived and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her.
18When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers.
19He said to his father, "My head! My head!" He said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."
20When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died.
21She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went out.
22She 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."
23He said, "Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She said, "It shall be well."
24Then she saddled a donkey and said to her servant, "Drive and go forward! Don't slow down for me, unless I tell you."
25So she went and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, "Behold, there is the Shunammite.
26Please 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."
27When 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."
28Then she said, "Did I desire a son from my lord? Didn't I say, 'Don't deceive me?'"
29Then he said to Gehazi, "Gird up your waist and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet any man, don't greet him; and if anyone greets you, don't answer him again. Lay my staff on the face of the child."
30The mother of the child said, "As Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." He arose and followed her.
31Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was no voice and no hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, "The child has not awakened."
32When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead and laid on his bed.
33He went in therefore and shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to Yahweh.
34He 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 became warm.
35Then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth, went up and stretched himself on him. The child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes.
36He called Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, "Take up your son."
37Then she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son and went out.
38Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, "Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."
39One went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine, and gathered wild gourds from it, and came and shredded them into the pot of stew, for they didn't know what they were.
40So they poured it out for the men to eat. As they were eating of the stew, they cried out and said, "Man of God, there is death in the pot!" They couldn't eat it.
41But he said, "Then bring meal." He threw it into the pot; and he said, "Pour out for the people that they may eat." There was nothing harmful in the pot.
42A man came from Baal Shalishah 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."
43His servant said, "What, should I set this before a hundred men?" He said, "Give the people that they may eat; for Yahweh says, 'They shall eat and will have some left over.'"
44So he set it before them, and they ate and left some of it, according to the word of Yahweh.
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Summary
Chapter 4 presents four miracles demonstrating Elisha's compassion and God's provision. He multiplies a widow's oil to rescue her sons from debt slavery. He promises a son to a generous Shunammite woman, and when that son dies suddenly, Elisha raises him back to life in a dramatic display of prophetic power. During a famine at Gilgal, he neutralizes a pot of poisonous stew by adding flour. He then multiplies twenty barley loaves to feed a hundred men with food left over — a miracle strikingly parallel to Jesus feeding the multitudes.
Themes
- God's abundant provision for the poor and desperate
- Elisha as a type of Christ through his miracles
- The reward of hospitality and generosity
- Resurrection and new life through God's prophet
Key verses
- 2 Kgs 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 became warm.”
- 2 Kgs 4:43 — “Give the people that they may eat; for Yahweh says, 'They shall eat and will have some left over.'”
- 2 Kgs 4:6 — “When the containers were full, she said to her son, 'Bring me another container.' He said, 'There isn't another container.' The oil stopped.”
Context & background
Shunem (modern Sulam, Israel) was a town in the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. Mount Carmel (modern Mount Carmel, Israel) was Elisha's destination and a significant prophetic site since Elijah's confrontation with Baal's prophets. The raising of the Shunammite's son is one of only a handful of resurrection miracles in the entire Bible, placing Elisha alongside Elijah (1 Kings 17) and anticipating Jesus. The feeding of one hundred men from twenty loaves is a direct parallel to Jesus feeding five thousand from five loaves (John 6), suggesting the New Testament writers understood Jesus as the ultimate prophet like Elijah and Elisha.
Cross-references
- 1 Kgs 17:17-24 — Elijah raises the widow of Zarephath's son, the precedent for Elisha's miracle
- 1 Kgs 17:8-16 — Elijah's multiplication of the widow's oil and flour, the precedent for Elisha's oil miracle
- Heb 11:35 — "Women received their dead by resurrection" — a reference that may include both Elijah's and Elisha's miracles
- John 6:1-13 — Jesus feeds five thousand, echoing Elisha's feeding of the hundred
- Luke 7:11-17 — Jesus raises the widow of Nain's son