2 Kings 4: Elisha, the widow's oil, the Shunammite's son, the stew and the loaves

In plain English: A woman, one of the wives of the sons of the prophets, cried out to Elisha, "Your servant, my husband, is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor (literally: the lender) has come to take my two children for himself as slaves."

In plain English: Elisha said to her, "What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your servant (literally: your maidservant) has nothing in the house except a flask (this Bible: pot) of oil."

The Hebrew word: "Pot" is asuk, which the dictionary gives as "anointed, i.e. an oil-flask". It is in only this verse of the Bible.

In plain English: Then he said, "Go, borrow (literally: ask for) empty containers from outside, from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few.

In plain English: Go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all those containers. Set aside each one when it is full."

In plain English: So she left him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. They kept bringing the containers to her, and she kept pouring.

In plain English: When the containers were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another container." He said to her, "There is not another container." Then the oil stopped flowing.

In plain English: She came and told the man of God. He said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on what is left."

In plain English: One day Elisha went on to Shunem. A great woman (or: a wealthy woman; see the note) lived there, and she urged him (literally: took hold of him) to eat a meal (literally: bread). So whenever he passed by, he turned in there to eat a meal.

The Hebrew word: "Prominent" is gadol, which the dictionary gives as "great (in any sense)".

What changes: Read as "wealthy", she was a rich woman. Read as "important", she was a woman of standing. The text calls her only "a great woman", and it tells of her house, her servants and her donkeys (verses 10 and 22).

In plain English: She said to her husband, "Look now, I know that this man who keeps passing our way is a holy man of God.

In plain English: Please, let us make a small upper room with walls (literally: a small upper room of a wall; this Bible: a little room on the roof), and put a bed, a table, a chair and a lampstand there for him. Then whenever he comes to us, he can stay (literally: turn aside) there."

The Hebrew word: "Room" is aliyah, which the dictionary gives as "a second-story room (or even one on the roof)". It is the word for Ahaziah's "upper room" in 1:2, and for the room where Elijah stayed at Zarephath (1 Kings 17:19).

In plain English: One day he came there, turned in to the upper room, and lay down there.

In plain English: He said to Gehazi his servant (or: young man), "Call this Shunammite woman." When he had called her, she stood before him.

In plain English: He said to Gehazi, "Say to her now, 'Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us (this Bible: cared for us with all this care). What can be done for you? Would you like a word spoken for you to the king, or to the commander of the army?'" She answered, "I live among my own people."

In plain English: He said, "What then can be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Well (literally: truly), she has no son, and her husband is old."

In plain English: He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.

In plain English: He said, "About this time next year (literally: at this set time, about the time of life; see the note), you will hold a son in your arms." She said, "No, my lord, man of God, do not lie to your servant (literally: your maidservant)."

Good to know: "About this time next year" is word for word "at this set time, about the time of life". "About the time of life" is spoken to Abraham about Sarah's son in Genesis 18:10, and all of these words in 18:14: "At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes around, and Sarah will have a son." Verse 17 says it happened as Elisha had told her.

In plain English: The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son at that set time, the next year (literally: about the time of life), as Elisha had told her.

In plain English: When the child had grown, one day he went out to his father, to the reapers.

In plain English: He said to his father, "My head! My head!" His father said to the servant (or: the young man), "Carry him to his mother."

In plain English: He picked him up and brought him to his mother. The boy sat on her knees until noon, and then he died.

In plain English: She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him, and went out.

In plain English: She called to her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so that I may hurry to the man of God and come back."

In plain English: He said, "Why are you going to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath." She said, "It is all right (literally: peace)."

The Hebrew word: "It's all right" is shalom, which the dictionary gives as "safe, i.e. (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also ... welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace". This Bible says "peace" in 160 of the 209 verses that use it. It is the same word in verse 26, where Elisha tells Gehazi to ask her "Is it well?" three times, and she answers "It is well."

In plain English: Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, "Drive on, and go! Do not slow down the ride for me unless I tell you."

In plain English: So she went and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her in the distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, "Look, there is that Shunammite woman.

In plain English: Please run now to meet her and ask her, 'Is it well (literally: is there peace) with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?'" She answered, "It is well (literally: peace)."

In plain English: When she came to the man of God on the mountain (this Bible: the hill), she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress (literally: her soul is bitter to her), and Yahweh has hidden it from me and has not told me."

In plain English: Then she said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, 'Do not deceive (or: mislead) me'?"

In plain English: Then he said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt (literally: gird up your loins), take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him (literally: do not bless him), and if anyone greets you, do not answer him. Then lay my staff on the boy's face."

Good to know: "Greet" is word for word "bless": the Hebrew is barakh, the word for "bless". In Luke 10:4 Jesus tells the seventy he sends out, "Greet no one on the way."

In plain English: The boy's mother said, "As Yahweh lives, and as you live (literally: as your soul lives), I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her.

In plain English: Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound and no sign of hearing (literally: no attention; see the note). So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not woken up."

The Hebrew words: "No voice and no hearing" is word for word "no voice and no attention". Qeshev, "attention", which the dictionary gives as "a hearkening", is in only 3 verses of the Bible. Both words are also in 1 Kings 18:29, when the prophets of Baal called on Baal: "there was no voice, no answer, and nobody paid attention".

In plain English: When Elisha came into the house, there was the boy, dead, lying on his bed.

In plain English: So he went in, shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to Yahweh.

In plain English: He went up and lay on the child. He put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes and his hands (literally: palms) on his hands. He stretched himself (or: bent himself down; see the note) over him, and the child's body (literally: flesh) grew warm.

The Hebrew word: "Stretched himself" is gahar, which the dictionary gives as "to prostrate oneself". It is in only 3 verses of the Bible: here, verse 35, and 1 Kings 18:42, where Elijah "bowed himself down on the earth". It is a different word from the one used of Elijah stretching himself over the widow's son (see the note on 1 Kings 17:21).

Good to know: Verse 32 says the boy was dead, and verses 34 and 35 say that his body grew warm and he opened his eyes. Hebrews 11:35 says "Women received their dead by resurrection", without naming anyone (see the note on 1 Kings 17:17).

In plain English: Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house (literally: once here and once there). Then he went up and stretched himself over him. The boy sneezed seven times, and the boy opened his eyes.

In plain English: He called Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite woman." So he called her. When she came in to him, he said, "Pick up your son."

In plain English: She went in, fell at his feet and bowed down to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

In plain English: Elisha came back to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. He said to his servant, "Put on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."

In plain English: One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine (literally: a vine of the field). From it he gathered wild gourds (see the note), his garment full (this Bible: a lap full), and he came and cut them up into the pot of stew, for they did not know what they were.

The Hebrew words: "Herbs" is from orah, which the dictionary gives as "luminousness ... also a plant (as being bright)". "Wild gourds" is paqqu'ot, which the dictionary gives as "the wild cucumber (from splitting open to shed its seeds)". It is in only this verse of the Bible. The text says only that they did not know what they were, and that the men cried out "there is death in the pot" (verse 40).

In plain English: They poured it out for the men to eat. As they were eating the stew, they cried out, "Man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it.

In plain English: But he said, "Then bring flour (this Bible: meal)." He threw it into the pot and said, "Pour it out for the people, so that they may eat." And there was nothing harmful (literally: no bad thing) in the pot.

In plain English: A 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. Elisha said, "Give it to the people, so that they may eat."

Good to know: "First fruits" is bikkurim, which the dictionary gives as "the first-fruits of the crop". In the law, Yahweh tells Aaron that the first-ripe fruits the people bring to Yahweh "shall be yours" (Numbers 18:8, 18:13). Here the man brings them to the man of God; the text does not say why.

In plain English: His attendant (this Bible: servant) said, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" But he said, "Give it to the people, so that they may eat, for Yahweh says this: 'They will eat and have some left over.'"

Good to know: Elisha gives Yahweh's message here ("Yahweh says"), so it is not in gold. Verse 44 says they ate and had some left over "according to Yahweh's word". In John 6:9 a boy has "five barley loaves and two fish", and in John 6:13 twelve baskets are filled with what was left over.

In plain English: So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to Yahweh's word.