CHAPTER 4
1 Forsooth a woman of the wives of prophets cried to Elisha, and said, Thy servant, mine husband, is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant dreaded God; and lo! the creancer, that is, he to whom debt is owed, cometh to take my two sons to serve him.
2 To whom Elisha said, What wilt thou that I do to thee? say thou to me, what hast thou in thine house? And she answered, I thine handmaid have not anything in mine house, no but a little of oil, with which I shall be anointed.
3 To whom he said, Go thou, and ask by borrowing of all thy neighbours void vessels, not a few.
4 And enter, and close thy door, when thou art within, thou and thy sons; and put ye thereof into all these vessels; and when those [or they] shall be full, thou shalt take away.
5 Therefore the woman went, and closed the door on herself and on her sons, they brought the vessels, and she poured in.
6 And when the vessels were full, she said to her son, Bring yet a vessel to me. And he answered, I have not. And then the oil stood, increasing no more.
7 Forsooth she came, and showed it to the man of God; and he said, Go thou, sell the oil, and yield to thy creancer; and thou and thy children live ye off the remnant, or the residue.
8 Forsooth a day was made, and Elisha passed by a city, Shunem; and a great woman was there, which held him, that he should eat bread, that is, busily prayed him to come to meat or to a meal. And when he passed oft thereby, he turned to her, that he would eat bread with her.
9 And she said to her husband, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, that passeth oft by us;
10 therefore make we a little solar to him, and put we therein a little bed to him, and a board, and a chair, and a candlestick; that when he cometh to us, he dwell there.
11 Therefore a day was made, and Elisha came, and turned in to the solar, and rested there.
12 And he said to Gehazi, his child or servant, Call thou this Shunammite. And when he had called her, and she had stood before him,
13 he said to his child, Speak thou to her, Lo! thou hast ministered to us busily in all things; what wilt thou that I do to thee? Whether thou hast a cause, and wilt that I speak to the king, either to the prince of the chivalry? And she answered, I dwell in the midst of my people. And then she went away.
14 And he said, What then will she that I do to her? [And] Gehazi said to him, Ask thou not, for she hath no son, and her husband is eld [or old].
15 Therefore Elisha commanded, that he should call her. And when she was called, and stood before the door,
16 he said to her, In this time, as in time of life, thou shalt embrace a son*. And she answered, Do not thou, my lord, the man of God, I beseech, do not thou lie to thine handmaid.
17 And the woman conceived, and childed a son in the time, and in the same hour, in which Elisha had said.
18 Soothly the child increased; and when some day was, and the child was gone out, and went to his father, and to the reapers,
19 he said to his father, Mine head acheth, mine head acheth. And his father said to a servant, Take, and lead him to his mother.
20 And when he had taken, and had brought him to his mother, she setted [or put] him on her knees unto midday, and he was dead.
21 Certainly she went up, and laid him on the little bed of the man of God, and closed the door. And she went out,
22 and called her husband, and said, I beseech, send thou with me one of the children or servants, and an ass, and I shall run out unto the man of God, and I shall turn again.
23 And he said to her, For what cause goest thou to him? today be not calends, neither sabbath. And she answered, I shall go.
24 And she saddled the ass, and commanded to the child, Drive thou, and haste thee; make thou no tarrying to me in going, and do thou this thing which I command to thee.
25 Then she went forth, and came to the man of God, into the hill of Carmel. And when the man of God had seen her even against him, he said to Gehazi, his child, Lo! that Shunammite;
26 go thou therefore into the meeting of her, and say thou to her, Whether it is done rightfully about thee, and about thine husband, and about thy son? And when the servant came and asked her, she answered, It is done rightfully.
27 And when she had come to the man of God, into the hill, she took hold of his feet; and Gehazi nighed, that he should remove her. And the man of God said, Suffer thou her; for her soul is in bitterness, and the Lord hath held it privy from me, and showed it not to me.
28 And she said to him, Whether I asked a son of thee, my lord? Whether I said not to thee, Scorn thou not me?
29 And he said to Gehazi, Gird thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go; and if a man meet thee, greet thou not him; and if any man greeteth thee, answer thou not him; and put thou my staff upon the face of the child.
30 Forsooth the mother of the child said, The Lord liveth, and thy soul liveth, I shall not leave thee. Therefore he rose, and pursued [or followed] her.
31 And Gehazi went before them, and putted [or put] the staff upon the face of the child; and there was not voice in him, neither wit. And Gehazi turned again into the meeting of him; and told to him, and said, The child rose not.
32 Therefore Elisha entered into the house, and, lo! the dead child lay in his bed.
33 And he entered, and closed the door on himself, and on the child; and prayed to the Lord.
34 And Elisha went up, and lay upon the child; and he putted [or put] his mouth upon the mouth of the child, and his eyes upon the eyes of the child, and his hands upon the hands of the child. And he bowed himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child was made hot.
35 And he turned again, and walked in the house once hither and thither; and again Elisha went up, and lay upon the child, and the child sobbed seven times, and opened the eyes.
36 And he called Gehazi, and said to him, Call thou this Shunammite. And she was called, and entered to him. And he said, Take thy son.
37 She came, and felled [or fell] down to his feet, and worshipped [or honoured] on the earth; and she took her son, and went out.
38 And Elisha turned again into Gilgal. Forsooth hunger was in the land, and the sons of prophets dwelled before him. And Elisha said to one of his servants, Set thou a great pot on the fire, and seethe thou pottage to the sons of prophets†.
39 And one went out into the field to gather herbs of the field; and he found as it were a wild vine, and he gathered thereof gourds of the field. And he [full-]filled his mantle, and he turned again, and shredded those into the pot of pottage; for he knew not what it was.
40 Therefore they poured in to fellows to eat; and when they had tasted of the seething, they cried out, and said, Death is in the pot! death is in the pot! thou man of God. And they might not eat it.
41 And he said, Bring ye meal. And when they had brought, he put it into the pot, and said, Pour ye out to the company, that they eat; and anything of bitterness was no more in the pot.
42 Forsooth some man came from Baalshalisha, and bare to the man of God loaves of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and thing made of corns, in his scrip. And the man of God said, Give thou to the people, that it eat.
43 And his servant answered to him, What is this, that I set [or put] before an hundred men? Again Elisha said, Give thou to the people, that it eat; for the Lord saith these things, They shall eat, and there shall leave [over].
44 Then he put before them, the which ate; and there was left some meat, after the word of the Lord.
* CHAPTER 4:16 That is, ‘In the year turned about, thou shalt live whole as now, and thou shalt embrace a son born then’, as Rabbi Solomon saith. † CHAPTER 4:38 That is, disciples of him, for they lived religiously.