2 Kingschapter 4

A.Borrow vessels not a few — oil until the last jarvv. 1-7

1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves!” 2 “How can I help you?” asked Elisha. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.” 3 “Go,” said Elisha, “borrow jars, even empty ones, from all your neighbors. Do not gather just a few. 4 Then go inside, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these jars, setting the full ones aside.” 5 So she left him, and after she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing jars to her, and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another.” But he replied, “There are no more jars.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt. Then you and your sons can live on the remainder.”

B.A little chamber on the wall, and the promise of a sonvv. 8-17

8 One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal. So whenever he would pass by, he would stop there to eat. 9 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. 10 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.” 11 One day Elisha came to visit and went to his upper room to lie down. 12 And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call the Shunammite woman.” And when he had called her, she stood before him, 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. 14 So he asked, “Then what should be done for her?” “Well, she has no son,” Gehazi replied, “and her husband is old.” 15 “Call her,” said Elisha. So Gehazi called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 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.” 17 But the woman did conceive, and at that time the next year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

C.My head, my head — the Shunammite rides to Carmelvv. 18-37

18 And the child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the harvesters. 19 “My head! My head!” he complained to his father. So his father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 After the servant had picked him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out. 22 And the woman called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may go quickly to the man of God and return.” 23 “Why would you go to him today?” he replied. “It is not a New Moon or a Sabbath.” “Everything is all right,” she said. 24 Then she saddled the donkey and told her servant, “Drive onward; do not slow the pace for me unless I tell you.” 25 So she set out and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman. 26 Please run out now to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’” And she answered, “Everything is all right.” 27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.” 28 Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me?’” 29 So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tie up your garment, take my staff in your hand, and go! If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him. Then lay my staff on the boy’s face.” 30 And the mother of the boy said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her. 31 Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.” 32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his bed. 33 So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD. 34 Then Elisha got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, and hand to hand. As he stretched himself out over him, the boy’s body became warm. 35 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. 36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she came. Then Elisha said, “Pick up your son.” 37 She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

D.Death in the pot, cured with a handful of mealvv. 38-41

38 When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.” 39 One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. 40 And they poured it out for the men to eat, but when they tasted the stew they cried out, “There is death in the pot, O man of God!” And they could not eat it. 41 Then Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

E.Twenty loaves for a hundred men, and some left overvv. 42-44

42 Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha. 43 But his servant asked, “How am I to set twenty loaves before a hundred men?” “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha, “for this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” 44 So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.

Commentary on this chapter: read the Exposition

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Chapter summary

Four miracles of ordinary life, small beside Carmel and greater in their tenderness.

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Four miracles of ordinary life, small beside Carmel and greater in their tenderness. A prophet's widow whose creditor is coming for her two children has nothing but a pot of oil, and borrowed vessels fill until there is not one more. A woman of Shunem builds a walled chamber for the man of God and is promised a son; when the boy cries 'My head, my head' in the harvest field and dies on her knees, she rides for Elisha and will not let him go, and the child sneezes seven times. Death in the pot of wild gourds is cured with meal; twenty barley loaves feed a hundred men: 'They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.'

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary and John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament.

Context

History · Jeremiah — 2 Kings overview

A. 1–7 Borrow vessels not a few — oil until the last jar
B. 8–17 A little chamber on the wall, and the promise of a son
C. 18–37 My head, my head — the Shunammite rides to Carmel
D. 38–41 Death in the pot, cured with a handful of meal
E. 42–44 Twenty loaves for a hundred men, and some left over

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

2 Kings 411 verses
- 2 Kings 4:4Then go inside, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these jars, setting the full ones aside.”
- 2 Kings 4:7She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt. Then you and your sons can live on the remainder.”
- 2 Kings 4:10Please 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.”
- 2 Kings 4:16And 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.”
- 2 Kings 4:23“Why would you go to him today?” he replied. “It is not a New Moon or a Sabbath.” “Everything is all right,” she said.
- 2 Kings 4:24Then she saddled the donkey and told her servant, “Drive onward; do not slow the pace for me unless I tell you.”
- Read 2 Kings 4: 5 more there →
2 Kings 27 verses
- 2 Kings 2:1Shortly before the LORD took Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal,
- 2 Kings 2:2and Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.
- 2 Kings 2:3Then the sons of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” “Yes, I know,” he replied. “Do not speak of it.”
- 2 Kings 2:14Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the waters. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. And when he had struck the waters, they parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over.
- 2 Kings 2:15When the sons of the prophets who were facing him from Jericho saw what had happened, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.
- 2 Kings 2:21and Elisha went out to the spring, cast the salt into it, and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘I have healed this water. No longer will it cause death or unfruitfulness.’”
- Read 2 Kings 2: 1 more there →
1 Kings 177 verses
- 1 Kings 17:12But she replied, “As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”
- 1 Kings 17:15So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and there was food every day for Elijah and the woman and her household.
- 1 Kings 17:17Later, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill, and his sickness grew worse and worse, until no breath remained in him.
- 1 Kings 17:19But Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.
- 1 Kings 17:21Then he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, please let this boy’s life return to him!”
- 1 Kings 17:23Then Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. “Look, your son is alive,” Elijah declared.
- Read 1 Kings 17: 1 more there →
John 115 verses
- John 11:3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”
- John 11:5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
- John 11:11After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”
- John 11:17When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb.
- John 11:43After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
- Read John 11 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

2 Kings 83 verses
- 2 Kings 8:1Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed a seven-year famine, and it has already come to the land.”
- 2 Kings 8:4Now the king had been speaking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Please relate to me all the great things Elisha has done.”
- 2 Kings 8:5And 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.”
- Read 2 Kings 8 →
Luke 13 verses
- Luke 1:7But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years.
- Luke 1:13But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.
- Luke 1:36Look, even Elizabeth your relative has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month.
- Read Luke 1 →
Luke 73 verses
- Luke 7:12As He approached the town gate, He saw a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.
- Luke 7:14Then He went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. “Young man,” He said, “I tell you, get up!”
- Luke 7:15And the dead man sat up and began to speak! Then Jesus gave him back to his mother.
- Read Luke 7 →
Hebrews 112 verses
- Hebrews 11:7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
- Hebrews 11:35Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused their release, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
- Read Hebrews 11 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.