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The Blue Letter Bible

2 Kings 4 :: New International Version (NIV)

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The Widow’s Olive Oil

(cf. 1Ki 17:14–16 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:1

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:1 - The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:2

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:2 - Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:3

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:3 - Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:4

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:4 - Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:5

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:5 - She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:6

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:6 - When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:7

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:7 - She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

The Shunammite’s Son Restored to Life

(cf. 1Ki 17:17–24 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:8

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:8 - One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:9

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:9 - She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:10

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:10 - Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:11

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:11 - One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:12

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:12 - He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:13

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:13 - Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’ ” She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:14

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:14 - “What can be done for her?” Elisha asked. Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:15

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:15 - Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:16

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:16 - “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:17

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:17 - But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:18

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:18 - The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:19

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:19 - He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:20

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:20 - After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:21

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:21 - She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:22

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:22 - She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:23

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:23 - “Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.” “That’s all right,” she said.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:24

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:24 - She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:25

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:25 - So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite!

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:26

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:26 - Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’ ” “Everything is all right,” she said.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:27

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:27 - When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:28

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:28 - “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:29

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:29 - Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:30

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:30 - But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:31

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:31 - Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:32

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:32 - When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:33

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:33 - He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:34

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:34 - Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:35

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:35 - Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:36

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:36 - Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:37

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:37 - She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.

Death in the Pot

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:38

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:38 - Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:39

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:39 - One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:40

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:40 - The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:41

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:41 - Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

Feeding of a Hundred

(cf. Mat 14:13–21; 15:32–39 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:42

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:42 - A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:43

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:43 - “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked. But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ ”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 4:44

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 4:44 - Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.
See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NIV

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Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used with permission. All rights reserved worldwide.


See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.

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2 Kings Chapter 4 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras