2 Kings 4:29

29 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your coat into your belt. Take my wooden staff and run to Shunem. Don't say hello to anyone you see. If anyone says hello to you, don't answer. Lay 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 She came to the man of God at the mountain. Then she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away. But the man of God said, "Leave her alone! She is suffering terribly. But the LORD hasn't told me the reason for it. He has hidden it from me."

28 "My master, did I ask you for a son?" she said. "Didn't I tell you, 'Don't get my hopes up'?"

29 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your coat into your belt. Take my wooden staff and run to Shunem. Don't say hello to anyone you see. If anyone says hello to you, don't answer. Lay my staff on the boy's face."

30 But the child's mother said, "I won't leave you. And that's just as sure as the LORD and you are alive." So Elisha got up and followed her.

31 Gehazi went on ahead. He laid Elisha's wooden staff on the boy's face. But there wasn't any sound. The boy didn't move at all. So Gehazi went back to Elisha. He told him, "The boy hasn't awakened."