Text -- 2 Kings 4:1-13 (NET)

Elisha Helps a Widow and Her Sons

4:1 Now a wife of one of the prophets appealed to Elisha for help, saying, “Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord. Now the creditor is coming to take away my two boys to be his servants.” 4:2 Elisha said to her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a small jar of olive oil.” 4:3 He said, “Go and ask all your neighbors for empty containers. Get as many as you can. 4:4 Go and close the door behind you and your sons. Pour the olive oil into all the containers; set aside each one when you have filled it.” 4:5 So she left him and closed the door behind her and her sons. As they were bringing the containers to her, she was pouring the olive oil. 4:6 When the containers were full, she said to one of her sons, “Bring me another container.” But he answered her, “There are no more.” Then the olive oil stopped flowing. 4:7 She went and told the prophet. He said, “Go, sell the olive oil. Repay your creditor, and then you and your sons can live off the rest of the profit.”

Elisha Gives Life to a Boy

4:8 One day Elisha traveled to Shunem, where a prominent woman lived. She insisted that he stop for a meal. So whenever he was passing through, he would stop in there for a meal. 4:9 She said to her husband, “Look, I’m sure that the man who regularly passes through here is a very special prophet. 4:10 Let’s make a small private upper room and furnish it with a bed, table, chair, and lamp. When he visits us, he can stay there.” 4:11 One day Elisha came for a visit; he went into the upper room and rested. 4:12 He told his servant Gehazi, “Ask the Shunammite woman to come here.” So he did so and she came to him. 4:13 Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tell her, ‘Look, you have treated us with such great respect. What can I do for you? Can I put in a good word for you with the king or the commander of the army?’” She replied, “I’m quite secure.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:1

¹ tn Heb “a wife from among the wives of the sons of the prophets.”

² tn Or “cried out.”

³ tn Heb “your servant feared the Lord.” “Fear” refers here to obedience and allegiance, the products of healthy respect for the Lord’s authority.

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:3

¹ tn Heb “Go, ask for containers from outside, from all your neighbors, empty containers.”

² tn Heb “Do not borrow just a few.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:4

¹ tn Heb “all these vessels.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:6

¹ tn Heb “to her son.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:7

¹ tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 16, 22, 25, 27 [twice]).

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:8

¹ tn Heb “great,” perhaps “wealthy.”

² tn Or “she urged him to eat some food.”

³ tn Or “he would turn aside there to eat some food.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:9

¹ tn Heb “I know.”

² tn Heb “holy man of God.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:10

¹ tn Heb “a small upper room of a wall”; according to HALOT 832 s.v. עֲלִיָּה, this refers to “a fully walled upper room.”

² tn Heb “and let’s put there for him.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:11

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “turned aside.”

³ tn Or “slept there.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:12

¹ tn Heb “Call for this Shunammite woman.”

² tn Heb “and he called for her and she stood before him.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:13

¹ tn Heb “he said to him.”

² tn Heb “you have turned trembling to us with all this trembling.” The exaggerated language is probably idiomatic. The point seems to be that she has taken great pains or gone out of her way to be kind to them. Her concern was a sign of her respect for the prophetic office.

³ tn Heb “Among my people I am living.” This answer suggests that she has security within the context of her family.