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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>2 Kings 4 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/2_kings/4.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/2_kings/4-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > 2 Kings 4</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../2_kings/3.htm" title="2 Kings 3">◄</a> 2 Kings 4 <a href="../2_kings/5.htm" title="2 Kings 5">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/2_kings/4.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">The Widow’s Olive Oil</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the <span class="name">Lord</span>. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”</p><p class="reg">“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”</p><p class="reg">But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”</p> <p class="sectionhead">The Shunammite’s Son Restored to Life</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’ ”</p><p class="reg">She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>“What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.</p><p class="reg">Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>“About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”</p><p class="reg">“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>He said to his father, “My head! My head!”</p><p class="reg">His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>“Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.”</p><p class="reg">“That’s all right,” she said.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.</p><p class="reg">When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite! <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’ ”</p><p class="reg">“Everything is all right,” she said.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the <span class="name">Lord</span> has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>“Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the <span class="name">Lord</span> lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the <span class="name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span>Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-36.htm"><b>36</b></a></span>Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-37.htm"><b>37</b></a></span>She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.</p> <p class="sectionhead">Death in the Pot</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-38.htm"><b>38</b></a></span>Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-39.htm"><b>39</b></a></span>One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-40.htm"><b>40</b></a></span>The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-41.htm"><b>41</b></a></span>Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.</p> <p class="sectionhead">Feeding of a Hundred</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-42.htm"><b>42</b></a></span>A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-43.htm"><b>43</b></a></span>“How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.</p><p class="reg">But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the <span class="name">Lord</span> says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ ” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/4-44.htm"><b>44</b></a></span>Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the <span class="name">Lord</span>.</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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