Discovery Box2 Kings 4:1-12
Context4:1 Now a wife of one of the prophets 1 appealed 2 to Elisha for help, saying, “Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord. 3 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. 4 Get as many as you can. 5 4:4 Go and close the door behind you and your sons. Pour the olive oil into all the containers; 6 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, 7 “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. 8 He said, “Go, sell the olive oil. Repay your creditor, and then you and your sons can live off the rest of the profit.”
4:8 One day Elisha traveled to Shunem, where a prominent 9 woman lived. She insisted that he stop for a meal. 10 So whenever he was passing through, he would stop in there for a meal. 11 4:9 She said to her husband, “Look, I’m sure 12 that the man who regularly passes through here is a very special prophet. 13 4:10 Let’s make a small private upper room 14 and furnish it with 15 a bed, table, chair, and lamp. When he visits us, he can stay there.”
4:11 One day Elisha 16 came for a visit; he went 17 into the upper room and rested. 18 4:12 He told his servant Gehazi, “Ask the Shunammite woman to come here.” 19 So he did so and she came to him. 20
[4:1] 1 tn Heb “a wife from among the wives of the sons of the prophets.”
[4:1] 3 tn Heb “your servant feared the
[4:3] 4 tn Heb “Go, ask for containers from outside, from all your neighbors, empty containers.”
[4:3] 5 tn Heb “Do not borrow just a few.”
[4:4] 6 tn Heb “all these vessels.”
[4:7] 8 tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 16, 22, 25, 27 [twice]).
[4:8] 9 tn Heb “great,” perhaps “wealthy.”
[4:8] 10 tn Or “she urged him to eat some food.”
[4:8] 11 tn Or “he would turn aside there to eat some food.”
[4:9] 13 tn Heb “holy man of God.”
[4:10] 14 tn Heb “a small upper room of a wall”; according to HALOT 832 s.v. עֲלִיָּה, this refers to “a fully walled upper room.”
[4:10] 15 tn Heb “and let’s put there for him.”
[4:11] 16 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[4:11] 17 tn Heb “turned aside.”
[4:11] 18 tn Or “slept there.”
[4:12] 19 tn Heb “Call for this Shunammite woman.”
[4:12] 20 tn Heb “and he called for her and she stood before him.”
