12
He told his servant Gehazi to go and call the woman. When she came,
13
he said to Gehazi, "Ask her what I can do for her in return for all the trouble she has had in providing for our needs. Maybe she would like me to go to the king or the army commander and put in a good word for her." "I have all I need here among my own people," she answered.
14
Elisha asked Gehazi, "What can I do for her then?" He answered, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man."
15
"Tell her to come here," Elisha ordered. She came and stood in the doorway,
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and Elisha said to her, "By this time next year you will be holding a son in your arms."
1 "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Please, sir, don't lie to me. You are a man of God!"
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But, as Elisha had said, at about that time the following year she gave birth to a son.
18
Some years later, at harvest time, the boy went out one morning to join his father, who was in the field with the harvest workers.
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Suddenly he cried out to his father, "My head hurts! My head hurts!" "Carry the boy to his mother," the father said to a servant.
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The servant carried the boy back to his mother, who held him in her lap until noon, at which time he died.
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She carried him up to Elisha's room, put him on the bed and left, closing the door behind her.
22
Then she called her husband and said to him, "Send a servant here with a donkey. I need to go to the prophet Elisha. I'll be back as soon as I can."