2 Kings 4:29

29 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Get ready, take my staff, and go! If you encounter anyone, don't stop to greet them. If anyone greets you, don't reply. Put my staff on the boy's face."

2 Kings 4:29 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 4:29

Then he said to Gehazi, gird up thy loins
His loose and long garments about him, that he might make quicker dispatch in travelling:

and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way;
not for the sake of travelling with it, but for an end after mentioned:

if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer
him not again;
that so no time may be lost:

and lay my staff upon the face of the child;
he not intending when he said this to go himself, but at the time, as near as he could, when this action was performed, would pray to God to restore life to the child; for he could not imagine that by this bare action it could be done.

2 Kings 4:29 In-Context

27 When she got to the man of God at the mountain, she grabbed his feet. Gehazi came up to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone! She is distraught, but the LORD has hidden the reason from me and hasn't told me why."

28 She said, "Did I ask you for a son, sir? Didn't I say, ‘Don't raise my hopes'?"

29 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Get ready, take my staff, and go! If you encounter anyone, don't stop to greet them. If anyone greets you, don't reply. Put my staff on the boy's face."

30 But the boy's mother said, "I swear by your life and by the LORD's life, I won't leave you!" So Elisha got up and followed her.

31 Gehazi went on ahead of them. He set the staff on the young boy's face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy didn't wake up."