2 Kings 4:11-21

11 One day he came there and turned in to the upper chamber and rested *.

12 Then he said to ¹Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." And when he had called her, she stood before him.

13 He said to him, "Say now to her, 'Behold, you have been careful for us with all this care; what can I do for you? Would you be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the army?' " And she answered, "I live among my own people."

14 So he said, "What then is to be done for her?" And Gehazi answered, "Truly she has no son and her husband is old."

15 He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.

16 Then he said, "²At this season next year you will embrace a son." And she said, "No, my lord, O man of God, ³do not lie to your maidservant."

17 The woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had said to her.

The Shunammite's Son

18 When the child was grown, the day came that he went out to his father to the reapers.

19 He said to his father, "My head, my head." And he said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."

20 When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and then died.

21 She went up and ⁴laid him on the bed of ⁵the man of God, and shut the door behind him and went out.

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2 Kings 4:11-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 4

This chapter treats of the miracles of Elisha, of his multiplying a poor widow's pot of oil for the payment of her husband's debts, 2Ki 4:1-7 of obtaining a son for a Shunamitish woman, who had been very hospitable to him, 2Ki 4:8-17, of his raising up her son to life when dead, 2Ki 4:18-37, of his curing the deadly pottage made of wild gourds, 2Ki 4:38-41, and of his feeding one hundred men with twenty barley loaves, 2Ki 4:42-44.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 5

1. 2 Kings 4:29-31; 2 Kings 5:20-27; 2 Kings 8:4, 5
2. Genesis 18:14
3. 2 Kings 4:28
4. 2 Kings 4:32
5. 2 Kings 4:7

Footnotes 9

[a]. Lit "Now a day came that"
[b]. Lit "lay there"
[c]. Lit "fearful"
[d]. Lit "fear"
[e]. Lit "said"
[f]. Lit "said"
[g]. Lit "when the time revives"
[h]. Lit "when the time revived"
[i]. Lit "knees"