2 Kings 4:2-7

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. ¹  Get as many as you can. ²  4:4 Go and close the door behind you and your sons. Pour the olive oil into all the containers; ³  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, ⁴  “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. ⁵  He said, “Go, sell the olive oil. Repay your creditor, and then you and your sons can live off the rest of the profit.”

2 Kings 4:42-44

Elisha Miraculously Feeds a Hundred People

4:42 Now a man from Baal Shalisha brought some food for the prophet ⁶  – twenty loaves of bread made from the firstfruits of the barley harvest, as well as fresh ears of grain. ⁷  Elisha ⁸  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?” ⁹  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.’” ¹⁰  4:44 So he set it before them; they ate and had some left over, just as the Lord predicted. ¹¹ 

[4:3]  ¹ tn Heb “Go, ask for containers from outside, from all your neighbors, empty containers.”

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “Do not borrow just a few.”

[4:4]  ³ tn Heb “all these vessels.”

[4:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “to her son.”

[4:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 16, 22, 25, 27 [twice]).

[4:42]  ⁶ tn Heb “man of God.”

[4:42]  ⁷ 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.

[4:42]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:43]  ⁹ tn Heb “How can I set this before a hundred men?”

[4:43]  ¹⁰ tn The verb forms are infinitives absolute (Heb “eating and leaving over”) and have to be translated in light of the context.

[4:44]  ¹¹ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord.”