Text -- 2 Kings 4:18-44 (NET)

4:18 The boy grew and one day he went out to see his father who was with the harvest workers. 4:19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 4:20 So he picked him up and took him to his mother. He sat on her lap until noon and then died. 4:21 She went up and laid him down on the prophet’s bed. She shut the door behind her and left. 4:22 She called to her husband, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can go see the prophet quickly and then return.” 4:23 He said, “Why do you want to go see him today? It is not the new moon or the Sabbath.” She said, “Everything’s fine.” 4:24 She saddled the donkey and told her servant, “Lead on. Do not stop unless I say so.” 4:25 So she went to visit the prophet at Mount Carmel. When he saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, it’s the Shunammite woman. 4:26 Now, run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you well? Are your husband and the boy well?’” She told Gehazi, “Everything’s fine.” 4:27 But when she reached the prophet on the mountain, she grabbed hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the prophet said, “Leave her alone, for she is very upset. upset. The Lord has kept the matter hidden from me; he didn’t tell me about it.” 4:28 She said, “Did I ask my master for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t mislead me?’” 4:29 Elisha told Gehazi, “Tuck your robes into your belt, take my staff, and go! Don’t stop to exchange greetings with anyone! Place my staff on the child’s face.” 4:30 The mother of the child said, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So Elisha got up and followed her back. 4:31 Now Gehazi went on ahead of them. He placed the staff on the child’s face, but there was no sound or response. When he came back to Elisha he told him, “The child did not wake up.” 4:32 When Elisha arrived at the house, there was the child lying dead on his bed. 4:33 He went in by himself and closed the door. Then he prayed to the Lord. 4:34 He got up on the bed and spread his body out over the boy; he put his mouth on the boy’s mouth, his eyes over the boy’s eyes, and the palms of his hands against the boy’s palms. He bent down over him, and the boy’s skin grew warm. 4:35 Elisha went back and walked around in the house. Then he got up on the bed again and bent down over him. The child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. 4:36 Elisha called to Gehazi and said, “Get the Shunammite woman.” So he did so and she came to him. He said to her, “Take your son.” 4:37 She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed down. Then she picked up her son and left.

Elisha Makes a Meal Edible

4:38 Now Elisha went back to Gilgal, while there was famine in the land. Some of the prophets were visiting him and he told his servant, “Put the big pot on the fire and boil some stew for the prophets.” 4:39 Someone went out to the field to gather some herbs and found a wild vine. He picked some of its fruit, enough to fill up the fold of his robe. He came back, cut it up, and threw the slices into the stew pot, not knowing they were harmful. 4:40 The stew was poured out for the men to eat. When they ate some of the stew, they cried out, “Death is in the pot, O prophet!” They could not eat it. 4:41 He said, “Get some flour.” Then he threw it into the pot and said, “Now pour some out for the men so they may eat.” There was no longer anything harmful in the pot.

Elisha Miraculously Feeds a Hundred People

4:42 Now a man from Baal Shalisha brought some food for the prophet– twenty loaves of bread made from the firstfruits of the barley harvest, as well as fresh ears of grain. Elisha said, “Set it before the people so they may eat.” 4:43 But his attendant said, “How can I feed a hundred men with this?” He replied, “Set it before the people so they may eat, for this is what the Lord says, ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” 4:44 So he set it before them; they ate and had some left over, just as the Lord predicted.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:18

¹ tn Heb “to his father, to the harvesters.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:19

¹ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the boy’s father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:20

¹ tn Heb “knees.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:21

¹ tn Heb “man of God’s.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:23

¹ sn The new moon was a time of sacrifice and special feasts (Num 28:14; 1 Sam 20:5). Apparently it was a convenient time to visit a prophet. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 57.

² tn Heb “peace.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:24

¹ tn Heb “lead [the donkey on] and go.”

² tn Heb “do not restrain for me the riding unless I say to you.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:25

¹ tn Heb “went and came.”

² tn Heb “the man of God.” The phrase has been replaced by the relative pronoun “he” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:26

¹ tn Heb “she said.” The narrator streamlines the story at this point, omitting any reference to Gehazi running to meet her and asking her the questions.

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:27

¹ tn Heb “her soul [i.e., ‘disposition’] is bitter.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:29

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

² tn Heb “take my staff in your hand.”

³ tn Heb “If you meet a man, do not greet him with a blessing; if a man greets you with a blessing, do not answer.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:30

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The referent must be Elisha here, since the following verse makes it clear that Gehazi had gone on ahead of them.

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:31

¹ tn Heb “to meet him.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:32

¹ tn Heb “look.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:33

¹ tn Heb “and closed the door behind the two of them.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:34

¹ tn Heb “he went up and lay down over.”

² tn Heb “his” (also in the next two clauses).

³ tn Or perhaps, “body”; Heb “flesh.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:35

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

² tn Heb “and he returned and went into the house, once here and once there.”

³ tn Heb “and he went up.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:36

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

² tn Heb “and he called for her.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:38

¹ tn Heb “the sons of the prophets were sitting before him.”

² tn The words “the fire” are added for clarification.

³ tn Heb “sons of the prophets.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:39

¹ tn Heb “a vine of the field.”

² tn Heb “[some] of the gourds of the field.”

³ tn Heb “he came and cut [them up].”

⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads, “for they did not know” (יָדָעוּ, yada’u) but some emend the final shureq (וּ, indicating a third plural subject) to holem vav (וֹ, a third masculine singular pronominal suffix on a third singular verb) and read “for he did not know it.” Perhaps it is best to omit the final vav as dittographic (note the vav at the beginning of the next verb form) and read simply, “for he did not know.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:40

¹ tn Heb “and they poured out [the stew].” The plural subject is probably indefinite.

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:41

¹ tn Or “and let them eat.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:42

¹ tn Heb “man of God.”

² tn On the meaning of the word צִקְלוֹן (tsiqlon), “ear of grain,” see HALOT 148 s.v. בָּצֵק and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 59.

³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:43

¹ tn Heb “How can I set this before a hundred men?”

² tn The verb forms are infinitives absolute (Heb “eating and leaving over”) and have to be translated in light of the context.

NET Notes: 2Ki 4:44

¹ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord.”