2 Kings

Miracles of Elisha II

The widow of one of the fellow prophets cried out to Elisha: “You know that my husband feared God. However, his creditor has now come to collect payment. And as we could not pay, he wanted to take my two sons as slaves.”

Elisha said: “What can I do for you? Tell me what you have in your house?” She answered: “I have but a little oil.”

Elisha told her: “Go and ask your neighbors for empty jars.

Get as many as you can. Then go into your house with your sons and close the door. Pour oil into the vessels. And when they are filled, set them aside.”

The woman went and locked herself in her house with her sons. They handed her the vessels, and she filled them all.

Elisha told Gehazi: “Say to her, ‘You have taken all this trouble for us. Tell me: What can we do for you then? Would you like me to say something to the king or the commander of the army for you?’”But she answered: “I do not need anything in this land.”

When she went back to tell the man of God, he told her: “Go and sell the oil to pay for your debts. You and your sons can live on the money that is left.”

The Son of the Shunammite

Elisha went to Shunem one day, and a rich woman invited him to eat. Afterward, whenever he went to that town, he would eat at her house.

The woman said to her husband: “See, this man who constantly passes by our house is a holy man of God.

If you want, we can make a small upper room for him and place a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it. So when he comes, he may stay and rest.”

One day, when Elisha came, he lay down in the upper room.

Then he said to Gehazi, his servant: “Call the Shunammite woman.” She came when called and stood before Elisha.

So Elisha asked Gehazi: “What can we do for her?” The young man answered: “She has no children, and her husband is now old.”

And so Elisha said to him: “Call her.” The young man called her, and as the woman stood by the door,

Elisha said: “By this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” She answered: “No, my lord, O man of God, do not deceive your maidservant.”

But the woman gave birth to a son precisely when Elisha had told her.

The boy grew up healthy. One day, the boy went out to his father among the harvesters.

He complained to his father: “My head! My head!. The father ordered his servant: “Carry him to his mother.”

The servant brought him to his mother, and the boy sat on her lap till noon, when he died.

Then the mother went up and laid him on Elisha’s bed, and she left, closing the door.

Then she called her husband: “Send me one of the servants with a donkey. I am going to the man of God and will return.”

He asked: “Why are you going to him? It is not the new moon yet nor the Sabbath.” But she said: “Do not worry.”

She saddled the donkey and said to her servant: “Lead on, and don’t stop until I tell you.”

So she set off and arrived at Mount Carmel, where the man of God was.Elisha saw her from afar, so he told his servant: “Here comes our Shunammite.

Run to meet her and ask: Are you well? How is your husband? And your son?” She answered: “Everything is all right.”

She went to the man of God and embraced his feet. Then Gehazi came to draw her away, but the man of God said to him: “Leave her, for her soul is in bitter distress, and the Lord has not made known to me nor has he revealed it to me.”

She said: “Did I ask, my lord, for a son? Why have you deceived me?”

Elisha told Gehazi: “Get ready, take my staff and go. If you meet anyone, do not stop to greet him, and if someone greets you, do not greet him in return. And as soon as you arrive, place my staff on the boy’s face.”

The boy’s mother said: “I swear by the Lord and by your life that I will not leave you.” So Elisha arose and followed her.

Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but the boy did not move or give any sign of life, so Gehazi returned to meet them and said: “The boy has not revived.”

Elisha came into the house and found the dead boy lying on his bed.

He entered, closed the door behind him, and prayed to the Lord.

Then he lay upon the boy, put his mouth upon the boy’s mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, his hands upon the boy’s hands, and warmth returned to the boy’s body.

Elisha came down and began walking back and forth. Then he went upstairs to stretch himself upon the boy, and the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Elisha then called Gehazi and said: “Call the woman.” And when she came, Elisha told her: “Take your son.”

She bowed at his feet, took her son, and went out.

Elisha returned to Gilgal. There was a great scarcity of food in the region, and when the fellow prophets came to sit with Elisha, he said to his servant: “Take the big pot and prepare some broth for the fellow prophets.”

One of them went out into the field to gather herbs. He found a wild plant, from which he gathered poisonous fruits, enough to fill his cloak. When he returned, he cut them into pieces and put them in the pot where the broth was being prepared, for he did not know what they were.

Then, the broth was served to the men to eat. But as soon as they tasted the soup, they cried out: “Man of God, this is pure poison!” So they did not eat anymore.

Then Elisha said: “Bring me flour.” And he put it into the pot. Then he said: “Serve these men and let them eat.” And there was no longer anything harmful in the pot.

A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing bread and wheat to the man of God. These were twenty loaves of barley and wheat from the first part of the harvest. Elisha told him:“Give the loaves to these men that they may eat.”

His servant asked him: “How am I to divide these loaves among one hundred men?” Elisha insisted: “Give them to the men that they may eat, for the Lord says: ‘They shall eat and have some left over.’”

So the man set it before them; they ate and had some left, as the Lord had said.