2 Kings 4:31

31 Gehazi went ahead of them and placed the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or sign of life,^[a] so he went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy didn't wake up."

2 Kings 4:31 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 4:31

And Gehazi passed on before them
The prophet and the Shunammite:

and laid the staff upon the face of the child;
as he was ordered:

but there was neither voice nor hearing:
it seems as if he spoke when he laid the staff on the child, but it heard and answered him not, so that there was no sign of life in it:

wherefore he went again to meet him;
upon the road between Carmel and Shunem:

and told him, saying, the child is not awaked;
by which he expresses its being dead; or, if he knew nothing of its death, he supposed it fast asleep, which was the reason of its not hearing and answering, though the former seems best.

2 Kings 4:31 In-Context

29 So Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your mantle under your belt, take my staff with you, and go. If you meet anyone, don't [stop to] greet him, and if a man greets you, don't answer him. Then place my staff on the boy's face."

30 The boy's mother said [to Elisha], "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her.

31 Gehazi went ahead of them and placed the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or sign of life, so he went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy didn't wake up."

32 When Elisha got to the house, he discovered 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.

Footnotes

• [a] 1 Kg 18:29