2 Kings 4:16-26

16 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!"

17 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.

19 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.

20 The servant carried the boy back to his mother, who held him in her lap until noon, at which time he died.

21 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."

23 "Why do you have to go today?" her husband asked. "It's neither a Sabbath nor a New Moon Festival." "Never mind," she answered.

24 Then she had the donkey saddled, and ordered the servant, "Make the donkey go as fast as it can, and don't slow down unless I tell you to."

25 So she set out and went to Mount Carmel, where Elisha was. Elisha saw her coming while she was still some distance away, and he said to his servant Gehazi, "Look, there comes the woman from Shunem!

26 Hurry to her and find out if everything is all right with her, her husband, and her son." She told Gehazi that everything was all right,

2 Kings 4:16-26 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.

Cross References

• 1. 4.16Genesis 18.4.

Footnotes

• [a]. sabbath . . . new moon festival: [Such holy days were thought to be the best time to consult a prophet.]