2 Kings

以利沙帮助一个穷寡妇

1有一个先知门徒的妻哀求以利沙说：「你仆人—我丈夫死了，他敬畏耶和华是你所知道的。现在有债主来，要取我两个儿子作奴仆。」

2以利沙问她说：「我可以为你做什么呢？你告诉我，你家里有什么？」她说：「婢女家中除了一瓶油之外，没有什么。」

3以利沙说：「你去，向你众邻舍借空器皿，不要少借；

4回到家里，关上门，你和你儿子在里面将油倒在所有的器皿里，倒满了的放在一边。」

5于是，妇人离开以利沙去了，关上门，自己和儿子在里面；儿子把器皿拿来，她就倒油。

6器皿都满了，她对儿子说：「再给我拿器皿来。」儿子说：「再没有器皿了。」油就止住了。

7妇人去告诉神人，神人说：「你去卖油还债，所剩的你和你儿子可以靠着度日。」

书念妇人接待以利沙

8一日，以利沙走到书念，在那里有一个大户的妇人强留他吃饭。此后，以利沙每从那里经过就进去吃饭。

9妇人对丈夫说：「我看出那常从我们这里经过的是圣洁的神人。

10我们可以为他在墙上盖一间小楼，在其中安放床榻、桌子、椅子、灯台，他来到我们这里，就可以住在其间。」

11一日，以利沙来到那里，就进了那楼躺卧。

12以利沙吩咐仆人基哈西说：「你叫这书念妇人来。」他就把妇人叫了来，妇人站在以利沙面前。

13以利沙吩咐仆人说：「你对她说：你既为我们费了许多心思，可以为你做什么呢？你向王或元帅有所求的没有？」她回答说：「我在我本乡安居无事。」

14以利沙对仆人说：「究竟当为她做什么呢？」基哈西说：「她没有儿子，她丈夫也老了。」

15以利沙说：「再叫她来。」于是叫了她来，她就站在门口。

16以利沙说：「明年到这时候，你必抱一个儿子。」她说：「神人，我主啊，不要那样欺哄婢女。」

17妇人果然怀孕，到了那时候，生了一个儿子，正如以利沙所说的。

18孩子渐渐长大，一日到他父亲和收割的人那里，

19他对父亲说：「我的头啊，我的头啊！」他父亲对仆人说：「把他抱到他母亲那里。」

20仆人抱去，交给他母亲；孩子坐在母亲的膝上，到晌午就死了。

21他母亲抱他上了楼，将他放在神人的床上，关上门出来，

22呼叫她丈夫说：「你叫一个仆人给我牵一匹驴来，我要快快地去见神人，就回来。」

23丈夫说：「今日不是月朔，也不是安息日，你为何要去见他呢？」妇人说：「平安无事。」

24于是备上驴，对仆人说：「你快快赶着走，我若不吩咐你，就不要迟慢。」

25妇人就往迦密山去见神人。 神人远远地看见她，对仆人基哈西说：「看哪，书念的妇人来了！

26你跑去迎接她，问她说：你平安吗？你丈夫平安吗？孩子平安吗？」她说：「平安。」

27妇人上了山，到神人那里，就抱住神人的脚。基哈西前来要推开她，神人说：「由她吧！因为她心里愁苦，耶和华向我隐瞒，没有指示我。」

28妇人说：「我何尝向我主求过儿子呢？我岂没有说过，不要欺哄我吗？」

29以利沙吩咐基哈西说：「你束上腰，手拿我的杖前去；若遇见人，不要向他问安；人若向你问安，也不要回答；要把我的杖放在孩子脸上。」

30孩子的母亲说：「我指着永生的耶和华，又敢在你面前起誓，我必不离开你。」于是以利沙起身，随着她去了。

31基哈西先去，把杖放在孩子脸上，却没有声音，也没有动静。基哈西就迎着以利沙回来，告诉他说：「孩子还没有醒过来。」

32以利沙来到，进了屋子，看见孩子死了，放在自己的床上。

33他就关上门，只有自己和孩子在里面，他便祈祷耶和华，

34上床伏在孩子身上，口对口，眼对眼，手对手；既伏在孩子身上，孩子的身体就渐渐温和了。

35然后他下来，在屋里来往走了一趟，又上去伏在孩子身上，孩子打了七个喷嚏，就睁开眼睛了。

36以利沙叫基哈西说：「你叫这书念妇人来」；于是叫了她来。以利沙说：「将你儿子抱起来。」

37妇人就进来，在以利沙脚前俯伏于地，抱起她儿子出去了。

两件神迹

38以利沙又来到吉甲，那地正有饥荒。先知门徒坐在他面前，他吩咐仆人说：「你将大锅放在火上，给先知门徒熬汤。」

39有一个人去到田野掐菜，遇见一棵野瓜藤，就摘了一兜野瓜回来，切了搁在熬汤的锅中，因为他们不知道是什么东西；

40倒出来给众人吃，吃的时候，都喊叫说：「神人哪，锅中有致死的毒物！」所以众人不能吃了。

41以利沙说：「拿点面来」，就把面撒在锅中，说：「倒出来，给众人吃吧！」锅中就没有毒了。

42有一个人从巴力·沙利沙来，带着初熟大麦做的饼二十个，并新穗子，装在口袋里送给神人。神人说：「把这些给众人吃。」

43仆人说：「这一点岂可摆给一百人吃呢？」以利沙说：「你只管给众人吃吧！因为耶和华如此说，众人必吃了，还剩下。」

44仆人就摆在众人面前，他们吃了，果然还剩下，正如耶和华所说的。

The Widow’s Oil

1Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves!”

2“How can I help you?” asked Elisha. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”

3“Go,” said Elisha, “borrow empty jars from all your neighbors. Do not gather just a few.

4Then go inside, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these jars, setting the full ones aside.”

5So she left him, and after she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing jars to her, and she kept pouring.

6When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another.” But he replied, “There are no more jars.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

7She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt. Then you and your sons can live on the remainder.”

The Shunammite Woman

8One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal. So whenever he would pass by, he would stop there to eat.

9Then the woman said to her husband, “Behold, now I know that the one who often comes our way is a holy man of God.

10Please let us make a small room upstairs and put in it a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there.”

11One day Elisha came to visit and went to his upper room to lie down.

12And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call the Shunammite woman.” And when he had called her, she stood before him,

13and Elisha said to Gehazi, “Now tell her, ‘Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’” “I have a home among my own people,” she replied.

14So he asked, “Then what should be done for her?” “Well, she has no son,” Gehazi replied, “and her husband is old.”

15“Call her,” said Elisha. So Gehazi called her, and she stood in the doorway.

16And Elisha declared, “At this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord,” she said. “Do not lie to your maidservant, O man of God.”

17But the woman did conceive, and at that time the next year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

Elisha Raises the Shunammite’s Son

18And the child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the harvesters.

19“My head! My head!” he complained to his father. So his father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

20After the servant had picked him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

21And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out.

22And the woman called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may go quickly to the man of God and return.”

23“Why would you go to him today?” he replied. “It is not a New Moon or a Sabbath.” “Everything is all right,” she said.

24Then she saddled the donkey and told her servant, “Drive onward; do not slow the pace for me unless I tell you.”

25So she set out and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman.

26Please run out now to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’” And she answered, “Everything is all right.”

27When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.”

28Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me?’”

29So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tie up your garment,take my staff in your hand, and go! If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him. Then lay my staff on the boy’s face.”

30And the mother of the boy said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.

31Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”

32When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his bed.

33So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.

34Then Elisha got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, and hand to hand. As he stretched himself out over him, the boy’s body became warm.

35Elisha turned away and paced back and forth across the room. Then he got on the bed and stretched himself out over the boy again, and the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

36Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she came. Then Elisha said, “Pick up your son.”

37She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

Elisha Purifies the Poisonous Stew

38When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”

39One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.

40And they poured it out for the men to eat, but when they tasted the stew they cried out, “There is death in the pot, O man of God!” And they could not eat it.

41Then Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

Feeding a Hundred Men

42Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.

43But his servant asked, “How am I to set twenty loaves before a hundred men?” “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha, “for this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’”

44So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.