2 Kings 4:16-26

16 Elisha said, "At this time next spring, you will hold a baby boy in your arms." She answered, "Don't say that, sir. Don't lie to me. You're a man of God."

17 But the woman became pregnant and had a son at that time next year, as Elisha had told her.

18 Several years later the boy went to his father, who was with the harvest workers.

19 [Suddenly,] he said to his father, "My head! My head!" The father told his servant, "Carry him to his mother."

20 The servant picked him up and brought him to his mother. The boy sat on her lap until noon, when he died.

21 She took him upstairs and laid him on the bed of the man of God, left [the room], and shut the door behind her.

22 She called her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys. I will go quickly to the man of God and come back again."

23 Her husband asked, "Why are you going to him today? It isn't a New Moon Festival or a day of worship." But she said goodbye to him.

24 She saddled the donkey. Then she told her servant, "Lead on. Don't slow down unless I tell you."

25 So she came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When he saw her coming at a distance, he told his servant Gehazi, "There is the woman from Shunem.

26 Run to meet her and ask her how she, her husband, and the boy are doing." "Everyone's fine," she answered.

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.