2 Kings 4:1–44

4:3–7 Elisha’s instructions emphasize the extravagance of what is about to be done, as he tells the widow to “go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.” There is a sense in which God is not only clearly still at work but if anything ramping up his activities. This act of Yahweh is for the sole benefit of the widow and her family, rather than to make any public statement, which explains why she is told to “go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons” before starting to pour. So Elisha tells her to borrow all the jars she can (which must have set tongues wagging), and then to close the door, and in secret her debt problems are instantly and permanently resolved. The details supplied in verse 6 create a sense of immediacy, as the writer takes us inside the room until the very last jar is filled: “When the vessels were full, she said to her son, ‘Bring me another vessel.’ And he said to her, ‘There is not another.’ Then the oil stopped flowing.” The provision exactly matches the widow’s ability to store the oil.

When she reports this to Elisha, he instructs her, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.” And what happens next? Absolutely nothing! This is the first of a series of miracles that, on the surface at least, seem essentially pointless, beyond the provision for an individual. This woman and her sons do not end up rescuing the Davidic line, let along being part of the Davidic line. This does not trigger a revival in Israel. Yet Yahweh is intervening for the sake of a faithful Israelite woman and her sons. Why? Because he is faithful! The God of Israel is working to take care of his people, even if they are unnamed minor players in the story of the nation. This widow who seeks out the prophet in faith receives more space in the narrative than Omri, the father of this whole dynasty, because God wants us to see his extravagant grace in action for his faithful remnant, even as the gloom gathers in Israel, even as the curses of the covenant are rolled out.

4:8–10 The text shifts focus from a destitute widow to a wealthy but childless woman in Shunem—it is not only the obscure and poor who get Yahweh’s attention. Shunem is 4 miles (6 km) north of Jezreel on the road from Gilgal to Mount Carmel. Elisha’s initial contact with the woman (and her husband, who remains in the background for most of the narrative) is on a passing visit, when she offers the prophet hospitality, “[urging] him to eat some food.” This first visit prompts the woman to say to her husband, “Behold now, I know that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way.” Like the anonymous widow, the anonymous benefactress calls Elisha the “holy man of God.” This recognition links her to the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:24), with whom she will also share the devastating experience of the loss of a son.

This title (“holy man of God”) is not a common biblical expression, but it is used twenty-nine times of Elisha. In this chapter, it is a constant reminder that real faith is not dead. This couple may not be up on the preferred theological terms of Yahwism, but they are evidence that there are still people clinging to Yahweh, looking for him to send his servants to help them stay on track, which is why this woman builds guest accommodation for Elisha. The level of detail is striking: “Let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there.” This speaks of a remarkable degree of care and of a close relationship with the prophet.

4:11–17 Eventually, Elisha starts to make use of this generous provision. Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, makes his first appearance in the narrative in order to call this generous woman to Elisha’s new quarters. Elisha’s concern, as it was with the widow in verse 2, is to help her situation, this time because of his gratitude: “See, you have taken all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you?” The suggestions Elisha makes are a little puzzling: “Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?” It is hard to know why this woman and her husband would need this kind of intercession, particularly with the “commander of the army,” or even what kind of influence Elisha might have in those quarters. Elisha’s uncertainty is in marked contrast to his response to the widow of the sons of the prophets. The woman’s answer may betray some puzzlement on her part: “I dwell among my own people.” This is a rich woman who appears to be well respected and established in the community. The question of verse 14 sums up Elisha’s dilemma: “What then is to be done for her?”

At this moment, Gehazi raises a much bigger—and less easily solved—issue. “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” Suddenly, Elisha springs into action: “He said, ‘Call her.’ And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway.” As the writer loves to do, he slows down the action at the key moment to heighten tension. The woman will not even come in to approach Elisha but maintains propriety by respecting the prophet’s space. Nothing could have prepared her for what comes next, as Elisha says, “At this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son.” One gets the sense that Elisha’s ministry is exceeding that of his mentor.

The woman’s response is entirely understandable: “No, my lord, O man of God; do not lie to your servant.” All the intervening details are passed over as the fulfillment is spelled out, for “the woman conceived, and she bore a son about that time the following spring, as Elisha had said to her.” It is noticeable that the word of Elisha is prominent here rather than the word of Yahweh, but as we have seen from the very beginning of the Elijah narratives (cf. 1 Kings 17:1), the word of the prophet and the word of Yahweh are virtually interchangeable.

There is no shortage of stories of barren women conceiving in the OT, but this one is a little different. We do not know her name. We do not know her backstory. We are not told anything about her longing for, let alone asking for, a son. And it just gets stranger . . .

4:18–20 Only the subtle literary connections with 1 Kings 17 have prepared us for the shock that comes next. The narrative jumps forward to “when the child had grown,” and a day when he visits his father in the fields. Suddenly he cries out, “Oh, my head, my head!” After being rushed back home, he is nursed by his mother “on her lap till noon, and then he died.” The terseness of the account underlines the blunt tragedy and confusion of losing this “miracle child.”

4:21–24 The mother’s actions, however, are, if anything, even more unexpected in verse 21: “She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and went out.” This is clearly not the normal response to bereavement! This is compounded by the fact that she appears not to update her husband but instead commands him to “send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again.” Her husband appears to have no inkling of what is happening. Rather than asking for his son (he may assume that he is sleeping off his sickness) or questioning the rationality of his wife’s actions in her heightened state, he simply asks her why she must travel to Elisha today, as “it is neither new moon nor Sabbath.” This in itself seems strange—there has been nothing in the narrative to date to suggest that visits to prophets were timed to coincide with religious festivals. This however, may simply be the result of the lack of understanding of the husband.³ Her reply is highly misleading: “All is well.” It does reveal that the woman has a specific course of action in mind, reflected in the urgency with which she “saddled the donkey” and her insistence that her servant “urge the animal on; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.” The woman clearly believes that Elisha has the power to remedy her situation.

4:25–30 Elisha is apparently staying at “Mount Carmel,” which further raises the expectations of the reader that Yahweh will intervene. Her appearance raises real concerns for the prophet, who sends Gehazi to ask her, “Is all well with you? Is all well with your husband? Is all well with the child?” This appears to be natural human concern, rather than divinely inspired prescience. Incredibly, the woman tells Gehazi, “All is well.” It seems that she is not happy to talk about this with anyone other than Elisha himself. When she finally “came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet.” The emphasis placed on the mountain again suggests that something spectacular is about to happen (as it did in 1 Kings 18). Gehazi attempts to intervene to rescue his master, but Elisha realizes that something strange is happening, telling his servant to “leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.” Elisha discerns that God is working in this situation.

At this point, the bereft woman finally speaks about the loss of her son (2 Kings 4:28): “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me?’” Given the account in verses 11–17, the woman has a point, which appears to be conceded by Elisha. His first instruction is to tell Gehazi, “Tie up your garment and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not reply. And lay my staff on the face of the child.” It seems that Elisha has a preference to work at a distance (cf. vv. 3–7), although it is hard to fathom the reason why he thought laying his staff on the child’s face would be effective. The Shunammite seems less than impressed with this strategy, vowing, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” Elisha complies with her wishes, and the two set off in pursuit of Gehazi.

4:31–37 Elisha’s first strategy appears to make no difference, as after Gehazi arrives and follows his instructions with the staff, “there was no sound or sign of life.”⁴ On his arrival, Elisha is confronted with the harsh reality of the situation: “He saw the child lying dead on his bed.” At this point, Elisha employs a strategy broadly similar to Elijah’s in 1 Kings 17:20–22. This account is more detailed than the Elijah incident. In 2 Kings 4:33–34, Elisha “shut the door behind the two of them . . . prayed to the Lord . . . went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands.” As with Elijah, no explanation is given for any of these steps, and the focus is firmly on the result: “As he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm.”

Elisha then appears to take a break, “[walking] once back and forth in the house,” before lying on the child again. This time the result is dramatic: “The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.” It is unclear where the woman has gone, for Elisha needs to send Gehazi to get her, and “when she came to him,” he orders her to “pick up your son.”⁵ The woman’s response is similar to that of the sons of the prophets in 2:15: “She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground.” Elisha is clearly the new Elijah. This stunning narrative finishes with the beautifully mundane note, “Then she picked up her son and went out.”

Almost every detail of this story is bizarre. After suffering an acute headache, the miracle son dies. The woman clearly sees this as Elisha’s problem, puts the body on the bed in his quarters, and goes looking for the man of God (4:22). Even though it is a bit strange for women to go wandering around looking for prophets (v. 23), she dissembles to her husband and trots off on her donkey, telling everyone that “all is well” until eventually she finds Elisha, shrugs off Gehazi, and asks in effect, “What are you going to do about this, then?”

Elisha has the spiritual wit to realize that God is doing something significant here, and so he tries the “Moses miracle method” in verses 29–31. But staffs, it seems, are good for seas but not so good for dead sons. So what does Elisha do instead? He faces the fact that he has not a clue. Then, it seems, that Yahweh tells him what to do, and in the manner of Elijah, Elisha stretches out over the boy and, seven sneezes later, the boy opens his eyes, and that is that. Elisha calls the boy’s mom, who picks him up and leaves. And that is that. The story ends here. There is apparently no enduring significance of this double miracle. There is no direct tie-in to the flow of salvation history. This is the sheer unadulterated kindness of the God who works for poor widows and rich childless couples through his word. The message that God is faithful to those who respect his word (and his prophets), however, would have been of deep comfort to the first readers of Kings in exile in Babylon, and to subsequent generations of God’s people.

4:38–41 Immediately the scene shifts again, this time to a strange incident involving accidental poisoning. The fact that there is “famine in the land” when Elisha arrives at Gilgal, the place where God’s people first entered the land, is a reminder that God’s people as a whole are characterized by rebellion rather than by obedience, and that covenant curse dominates their experience rather than covenant blessing. The scene is a mundane one: the “sons of the prophets” are gathered before Elisha, presumably for some kind of teaching session, when Elisha tells his servant (still Gehazi?) to make stew for dinner. However, at this point one over-eager assistant from among their number inadvertently spoils the broth: “One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found . . . wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were.” There has been much discussion about the offending vegetation, and the effects that they may have had,⁶ but the point of the text does not hinge on the level of threat the sons of the prophets actually face.

In verse 40, “while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, ‘O man of God, there is death in the pot!’” One could take this literally, but on balance the added note “and they could not eat it” probably implies that the stew tastes vile, rather than actually being toxic, but nothing is riding on this. The point is made clear by Elisha’s actions in verse 41, as he tells them, “Then bring flour.” After they throw some flour into the stew, the problem is instantly and miraculously resolved: “There was no harm in the pot.” God is acting through Elisha to deal with all manner of threats.

4:42–44 The rapidly shifting episodic nature of this chapter continues as a “man came” to see Elisha “from Baal-shalishah,” probably in northern Ephraim. The idolatrous name of his hometown is not reflected in the man’s actions, as he “[brings] the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack.” This is a throwback to a piety shaped by the Torah (Lev. 23:10–11)—however, as in 2 Kings 4:23, it also reflects the reality of life in idolatrous Israel. Where else is one to go if one’s local priest is a non-Levitical Baal worshiper? This offsets the almost superstitious reverence for Elisha as a prophet, as there appears to be genuine piety here.

“And Elisha said, ‘Give to the men, that they may eat.’” At face value, this appears to be a generous gesture as Elisha shares his fringe benefits with his companions. But in verse 43, his servant points out a very obvious issue: “How can I set this before a hundred men?” There is not enough food to set before the whole company. But Elisha is adamant: “He repeated, ‘Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, “They shall eat and have some left.”’” Suddenly this obscure little incident starts to sound very familiar, as it becomes clear that this is the original “feeding” miracle. The climax to the story (and the chapter) is straightforward: “So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.” It now becomes apparent that Elisha’s actions, like Elijah’s before him, are all performed through the power of the word of God. These twin prophets are servants of the word. And when God speaks, he provides for, protects, guards, and nourishes his people.