2 Kings 4 · Story · Hospitality
The Shunammite Woman and Elisha
The story stands in 2 Kings 4:8 to 37 and 8:1 to 6, among the deeds of the prophet Elisha.
Elisha passed through Shunem so often that a woman who lived there had a room built upstairs for him and furnished it.
Please let us make a small room upstairs and put in it a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there.”
- Where
- Shunem, Mount Carmel
- Who
- Elisha, Gehazi
Summary
The woman of Shunem gave Elisha more than meals. She gave him a room of his own, kept ready for whenever he came, and she asked nothing for it. The son Elisha promised her was a gift she had not sought. Her story shows hospitality as a standing welcome, and God answering a welcome given without a request.
- She told her husband that the man who often came their way was a holy man of God (2 Kings 4:9).
- Offered a word to the king or the army's commander on her behalf, she answered, "I have a home among my own people" (2 Kings 4:13).
- Elisha promised her a son within a year, and she gave birth to him at the time Elisha had told her (2 Kings 4:16 to 17).
- The boy died on her lap, and Elisha brought him back to life (2 Kings 4:20 to 35).
- After a famine of seven years the king restored her house, her land and the produce of her field (2 Kings 8:1 to 6).
A Room for the Man of God
The story runs from Elisha's first meal at Shunem to the woman's return from seven years among the Philistines.
The woman of Shunem was the host of the prophet Elisha, a wife with a house, servants and a field. Her story belongs to hospitality, the value Scripture lays on every believer when it commands the welcome of the stranger and the guest.
The question it answers is what a lasting welcome looks like, and how it stands beside the reward it received. The story sets the events on a timeline and tells each scene with its verses. It weighs the reward against the words of Jesus, places Shunem on the prophet's road and sets the widow of Zarephath beside her. It then gives Matthew Henry on three moments and two readings of why she gave.
The Story in Seventeen Events
Fifteen of the events stand in 2 Kings 4 and two in 2 Kings 8.
Ten of the seventeen events are the woman's own acts.
- A woman of Shunem gives Elisha a meal"a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal."2 Kings 4:8
- She tells her husband who their guest is"the one who often comes our way is a holy man of God."2 Kings 4:9
- She asks for a furnished room for him"put in it a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him."2 Kings 4:10
- Elisha rests in the room"went to his upper room to lie down."2 Kings 4:11
- She refuses a favour at court"I have a home among my own people,"2 Kings 4:13
- Elisha asks what can be done for her"Then what should be done for her?"2 Kings 4:14
- Elisha promises a son"At this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms."2 Kings 4:16
- The son is born"at that time the next year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her."2 Kings 4:17
- The boy dies on his mother's lap"the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died."2 Kings 4:20
- She lays him on the prophet's bed"laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out."2 Kings 4:21
- She rides to Mount Carmel"So she set out and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel."2 Kings 4:25
- She clings to Elisha's feet"she clung to his feet."2 Kings 4:27
- Gehazi lays the staff on the boy"but there was no sound or response."2 Kings 4:31
- Elisha raises the boy"the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes."2 Kings 4:34 to 35
- She takes up her son"Then she picked up her son and went out."2 Kings 4:36 to 37
- She lives abroad through the famine"she and her household lived as foreigners for seven years in the land of the Philistines."2 Kings 8:1 to 2
- The king restores her land"Restore all that was hers, along with all the proceeds of the field"2 Kings 8:3 to 6
A timeline of seventeen events, each card carrying words of its verse from the Berean text.
Elisha promises a son, The son is born, The boy dies on his mother's lap, She lays him on the prophet's bed, She rides to Mount Carmel, She clings to Elisha's feet, Gehazi lays the staff on the boy, Elisha raises the boy and 3 more
The Story Told in Order
Six scenes carry the story from her table to the room upstairs, to Mount Carmel, back to the room, and to the king's court.
She proposed a room upstairs for Elisha2 Kings 4:8 to 11
Then the woman said to her husband, “Behold, now I know that the one who often comes our way is a holy man of God.Her welcome rests on what she had seen of him, and she brings her husband into the plan before anything is built.
On a later journey Elisha went up to the finished room and lay down (2 Kings 4:11).
She asked for nothing, and the prophet promised a son2 Kings 4:12 to 17
Elisha sent Gehazi to ask what could be done for her, since she had gone to so much trouble for them. When she wanted nothing, Gehazi pointed out that she had no son and that her husband was old (2 Kings 4:14).
And Elisha declared, “At this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord,” she said. “Do not lie to your maidservant, O man of God.”The verse stands here because the death and the raising that follow both turn on this promise.
The child died, and she laid him in the guest room2 Kings 4:18 to 25
The boy cried out about his head in the harvest field, and by noon he was dead.
And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out.The verse stands before the ride to Carmel because it shows her acting before she says a word to anyone.
She told her husband only that everything was all right, saddled a donkey and set off to find Elisha.
She held to the prophet and would not go home without him2 Kings 4:26 to 31
Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me?’”The verse stands here because her plea at Carmel holds Elisha to his own promise in 2 Kings 4:16.
Elisha sent Gehazi ahead with his staff. She swore that she would not leave the prophet, and he went with her (2 Kings 4:29 to 30). Gehazi's errand failed, and the child stayed lifeless (2 Kings 4:31).
Elisha prayed in the room, and the boy lived2 Kings 4:32 to 37
Elisha found the boy lying dead on the prophet's bed in the room. He shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD (2 Kings 4:32 to 33).
Elisha turned away and paced back and forth across the room. Then he got on the bed and stretched himself out over the boy again, and the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.The verse stands as God's answer to the plea the mother brought to Carmel.
Years later the king gave back her house and land2 Kings 8:1 to 6
Elisha warned her of a hunger the LORD had decreed, and she left her home until it was over. On her return she brought her claim to the throne (2 Kings 8:3).
And Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had brought the dead back to life. Just then the woman whose son Elisha had revived came to appeal to the king for her house and her land. So Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is the son Elisha restored to life.”The verse stands here because the moment of her arrival is what brings her case before the king.
The Reward and the Words of Jesus
The woman received a son and later her land, and two sayings of Jesus bear on a reward given to a host.
She declined a favour at the king's court2 Kings 4:13
and Elisha said to Gehazi, “Now tell her, ‘Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’” “I have a home among my own people,” she replied.The verse stands first in this section because every reward in the story comes after this refusal.
Jesus told hosts to invite those who cannot repayLuke 14:12 to 14
At a dinner Jesus told the man who had invited Him not to invite those who could invite him in return. The woman's guest was a prophet who could speak to the king, and he did repay her.
and you will be blessed. Since they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”Jesus places the host's repayment at the resurrection, which sets the woman's earthly reward beside a later one.
Jesus promised a reward to those who receive a prophetMatthew 10:41
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.The saying bears on her case, since she received Elisha for the reason the verse names.
She gave that reason to her husband in 2 Kings 4:9, before anyone spoke of a reward.
Shunem on the Prophet's Road
Shunem lay in the territory of Issachar, on the road Elisha travelled between Mount Carmel and the towns of Israel.
Joshua lists Shunem among the towns of Issachar (Joshua 19:18). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown placed it at Sulam, "in the plain of Esdraelon, at the southwestern base of Little Hermon."
After Elijah was taken up, Elisha went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria (2 Kings 2:25). The woman later rode to him at Carmel on a donkey (2 Kings 4:24 to 25).
Her husband asked why she would go to the prophet on a day that was neither a New Moon nor a Sabbath (2 Kings 4:23). His question suggests that people went to a man of God on those days.
The Widow of Zarephath Beside Her
In 1 Kings 17 a widow of Zarephath in Sidon lodged Elijah, the prophet Elisha later followed and served.
When her son died, Elijah laid him on his own bed in the upper room, and the LORD gave him life (1 Kings 17:19 to 22).
Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused their release, so that they might gain a better resurrection.The verse stands here because it joins the widow of Zarephath and the woman of Shunem in one line of faith.
Matthew Henry, on 2 Kings 4:20, applies this verse to the woman of Shunem, and he reads her laying the boy on the prophet's bed as a preparation for his resurrection.
What the Text Leaves Unsaid
Four things a reader may want to know about the woman of Shunem are left untold in 2 Kings.
The text never gives her name. Elisha calls her the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:12, 4:25 and 4:36).
Her husband speaks only to send the sick boy home and to ask why she is going to the prophet. The text does not say what he did when he learned of the death.
In 2 Kings 8 she leaves and returns with her household and appeals to the king for her land, and her husband is not named. The text does not say whether he was still alive.
Gehazi tells the king of Elisha's deeds in 2 Kings 8:4 to 5, after his leprosy in 2 Kings 5:27. The text does not say when the scene at court took place.
A Welcome Kept Ready
The room at Shunem shows hospitality as a place kept ready for a guest who comes and goes.
The woman turned one meal into a custom, so that Elisha could stop at her house on any journey without asking.
She furnished the room with what a guest needs for rest, work and light. John Wesley read the furnishings as those of a guest who "cares not for rich furniture or costly entertainment, and is content with bare necessaries."
When her son died, she laid him in that room, and Elisha raised him on the bed she had placed there (2 Kings 4:21 and 4:32 to 35).
John Chrysostom pressed the same practice on his hearers in his Homily 45 on Acts. He told them to keep "a room, to which Christ may come" and to call it "Christ's cell".
In the same homily he gave his reason: "Naked and a stranger, Christ goes about, it is but a shelter He wants."
Matthew Henry on Three Moments
Matthew Henry's Commentary reads the prophet's first visit, the mother's grief and the raising of the boy.
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
Elisha came to the house slowly, then often
The quotation1 quotation
“He was modest and loth to be troublesome, humble and affected not to associate with those of the first rank; so that it was not without some difficulty that he was first drawn into an acquaintance there; but afterwards, whenever he went that way in his circuit, he constantly called there.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on 2 Kings 4:8Puritan
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The death of the son God had given her
The quotation1 quotation
“She was ready to think herself mocked with the mercy when it was so soon removed, and that it would have been better she had never had this child than to be deprived of him when she began to have comfort in him. Note, The loss of a mercy should not make us undervalue the gift of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on 2 Kings 4:16Puritan
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
Elisha gave himself wholly to the boy
The quotation1 quotation
“He first put his mouth to the child's mouth, as if, in God's name, he would breathe into him the breath of life; then his eyes to the child's eyes, to open them again to the light of life; then his hands to the child's hands, to put strength into them. He then returned, and walked in the house, as one full of care and concern, and wholly intent upon what he was about.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on 2 Kings 4:34Puritan
Why Did She Give?
The text records her refusal of a reward, and commentators read her motive in two ways.
She gave freely and looked for nothingJohn Wesley, Explanatory Notes, and Adam Clarke, Commentary, on 2 Kings 4:28
John Wesley reads her complaint at Carmel as her own witness that the son was not asked for "upon my immoderate desire" but was "freely promised" in God's name.
Adam Clarke gives her words the sense that she had made no such request, for "I was contented and happy."
She trusted God to repay kindness to His prophetMatthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 2 Kings 4:9 to 10
Matthew Henry held that she reasoned from who her guest was. She expected that "God would recompense the kindness done to him; perhaps she had heard how well paid the widow of Sarepta was for entertaining Elijah."
The Room and the Son
The last verse of 2 Kings 4:8 to 37 records the mother's answer to the raising.
The chapter gives her the last act of the story, as it gave her the first.
She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.The verse stands last because her bow here answers her grief at Elisha's feet in 2 Kings 4:27.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily 45, translated by J. Walker and J. Sheppard, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, volume 11 (1889)
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832)
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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