Chapter Four

1–7. The miraculous multiplication of oil for a prophet’s widow. 8–37. The birth of a son to a pious Shunammite woman by the prophet’s word and his resurrection by the latter. 38–41. The prophet renders poisonous food harmless. 42–44. He miraculously feeds a large number of people with a small amount of bread.

2 Kings 4:1. One of the wives of the prophets’ sons cried out to Elisha: “Your servant, my husband, has died; and you know that your servant feared the Lord. Now the creditor has come to take both of my children as slaves. 2 Kings 4:2. Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil. 2 Kings 4:3. He said, “Go, borrow vessels for yourself from all your neighbors, empty vessels; gather many. 2 Kings 4:4. “Go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these vessels. Set aside the full ones. 2 Kings 4:5. She went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. They brought the vessels to her, and she poured. 2 Kings 4:6. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” He said to her, “There are no more vessels.” And the oil stopped. 2 Kings 4:7. She came and told the man of God. He said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. With what remains, you and your sons shall live. From this account it is evident that the “sons of the prophets” included not only young unmarried men, but also married men and fathers of families; consequently this institution was not like monastic orders. Not living together with other members of the society of “sons of the prophets,” such family men were united with others by the person of the prophet-leader. In the deceased “son of the prophet,” the “God-fearing man,” tradition (the rabbis, Josephus, cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 14) pointed to the well-known Obadiah from the history of the prophet Elijah, the God-fearing man (1 Kgs 18:3 and further), steward of Ahab, who devoted great care to providing for the prophets and subsequently fell into debt. The creditor’s intention to sell the widow’s children into slavery was justified by the letter of the law (Lev 25:39; Exod 21:2) and the harsh practice of life (Matt 18:25). The miracle of the multiplication of oil by Elisha, certainly, bears similarity to the miraculous provision of the prophet Elijah for the Zarephath widow (1 Kgs 17:8-16), but does not at all compel us to see in the account of Elisha’s miracle an unsuccessful duplicate of the Elijah story, especially since each account, besides the general features, has its own distinctive characteristics.

2 Kings 4:8. One day Elisha passed through Shunem. There a wealthy woman urged him to have a meal; and whenever he passed that way, he stopped there to eat. 2 Kings 4:9. She said to her husband, “I know that this man who constantly passes by us is a holy man of God. 2 Kings 4:10. “Let us make a small room on the roof and set up a bed for him there, a table, a chair, and a lamp. When he comes to us, he can turn in there. 2 Kings 4:11. One day he came there and turned into the room and lay down there. 2 Kings 4:12. He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call this Shunammite.” He called her, and she stood before him. 2 Kings 4:13. He said, “Tell her, ‘You have taken all this trouble for us; what can be done for you? Would you like me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the military commander?’” She replied, “I dwell among my own people. 2 Kings 4:14. He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son and her husband is old. 2 Kings 4:15. He said, “Call her.” He called her, and she stood in the doorway. 2 Kings 4:16. He said, “In due season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son.” But she said, “No, my lord, man of God, do not mislead your servant. 2 Kings 4:17. The woman became pregnant and bore a son at the same season the following year, as Elisha had promised her. 2 Kings 4:18. The child grew, and one day he went out to his father among the reapers. 2 Kings 4:19. He said to his father, “My head, my head!” The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother. 2 Kings 4:20. He picked him up and carried him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon, and then died. 2 Kings 4:21. She went up, laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him, and left. 2 Kings 4:22. She called to her husband and said, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so that I may quickly go to the man of God and return. 2 Kings 4:23. He said, “Why go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.” But she said, “It will be all right. 2 Kings 4:24. She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; do not slow down unless I tell you. 2 Kings 4:25. She went and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her from afar, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Here comes the Shunammite. 2 Kings 4:26. “Run at once to meet her and say to her, ‘Are you well? Is your husband well? Is the child well?’” And she answered, “It is well. 2 Kings 4:27. When she came to the man of God at the mountain, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away; but the man of God said, “Let her alone, for she is in deep distress; the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. 2 Kings 4:28. Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not mislead me’? 2 Kings 4:29. He said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet them; and if anyone greets you, do not answer; and lay my staff on the face of the child. 2 Kings 4:30. Then the mother of the child said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he rose and followed her. 2 Kings 4:31. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was no sound or response. He came back to meet him and told him, “The child has not awakened. 2 Kings 4:32. When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. 2 Kings 4:33. He went in, closed the door on the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. 2 Kings 4:34. Then he got up on the bed and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. 2 Kings 4:35. He got down, walked once to and fro in the room, got up on the bed and stretched himself upon him; the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 2 Kings 4:36. He summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” He called her. When she came to him, he said, “Take your son. 2 Kings 4:37. She came in and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground; then she took her son and left. Indeed, the account of the birth of the Shunammite’s son, his death, and his resurrection shows obvious similarity to the parallel account (1 Kgs 17:17 and further) of the resurrection of the Zarephath widow’s son by the prophet Elijah, and once again each account has its own distinctive features, and one cannot be regarded as a repetition of the other. The prophet Elisha came from Gilgal to Mount Carmel (2 Kgs 2:25), the beloved dwelling place of the prophet Elijah (cf. v. 25), and from there comes to nearby Shunem (v. 8; regarding the location of Shunem, see the commentaries to 1 Kgs 1:3). The account of the Shunammite, apart from other things, is interesting for its account of domestic, social-civic, and religious peculiarities of ancient Hebrew life from that era. In the domestic regard, the description of furnishings or furniture even of a well-to-do ancient Hebrew house is characteristic: in the room arranged by the pious Shunammite for the prophet Elisha (v. 10) – “a small room on the roof” (a kind of mezzanine, frequently built on the flat roofs of the East (cf. 1 Sam 9:25; 2 Sam 16:22)), were to be things evidently customary in an ancient Hebrew house: a bed (Heb. mittah), a table (Heb. shulchan, often in the Bible means, as it still does among Bedouins, a simple cloth or skin spread on the floor for a meal), but equally a table in our sense (cf. 1 Kgs 13:20; Num 4:7. See Gesemi. Thesaurus linguae hebr, p. 1417), a chair (Heb. kisseh), a lamp (menorah). In the civil-legal sense, the answer given by the Shunammite to the prophet Elisha’s offer to intercede for her with the king or the military commander (the power the prophet Elisha had with both Hebrew kings is evident from (2 Kgs 3:12) and following), that she had no need for this because she “dwells among her own people” (v. 13; Cf. the blessed Theodoret, Question 15), is typical, that is, she belonged to quite a strong and distinguished clan. This sheds some light on the power and significance of kinship bonds and relations in ancient Israel. “If we knew more about these clans, probably many events in the history of Israel would appear before us in a different and clearer light. For example, it is highly probable that the continual revolutions and changing politics in the Israelite kingdom – now friendly to Assyria, now to Egypt – are connected with these clans, which had their representatives in cities” (Buhl. Die Sociale Verhaltnisse des Israel, 1899, s. 39). Finally, in the religious-liturgical regard, the present account is instructive in that it bears witness (v. 25) that Sabbaths and new moons were celebrated in the Israelite kingdom not only with sacrifices, as prescribed in the law (Num 28:9), but also with special assemblies (cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 16), and that the center of these religious-edifying assemblies in the ten-tribe kingdom, in the absence of a lawful temple, served the houses of the prophets. All the Shunammite’s relations to the prophet in the account are pervaded with deep reverence (v. 9, 15, 22, 27, 37); she directly calls (v. 9) the prophet “holy” (Heb. kadosh, Gr. ἄγιος, Lat. Sanctus: this is the first time in the Bible that a living person is called holy not merely in concept, as in (Lev 11:44) and many others, but in reality). Regarding why and when the prophet Elisha chose Gehazi as his servant (v. 12 and following), he who did not distinguish himself by moral qualities (2 Kgs 5:20 and following), nothing is known. The prophet’s prophecy regarding the birth of a son to the Shunammite (v. 16) is entirely similar to the promise to Abraham regarding the birth of Isaac (Gen 18:10; cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 16). The illness of the son of the pious woman (verse 19) was apparently sunstroke (Jdt 8:2-3; Ps 120:6). From the words of the prophet (v. 27): “The Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me,” it is evident that “not all prophets foresaw everything, but only what God’s grace revealed to them” (the blessed Theodoret, question 17); the same is shown in the sending of the prophet Elisha of Gehazi instead of himself (verse 29), which proved fruitless (verse 31). As the woman distressed with grief hastily avoided long conversations (v. 23, 26), so the prophet commands Gehazi to value time (perhaps suspecting merely apparent death of the child) and to avoid the usually long Eastern greetings at meetings (verse 29, cf. Luke 10:4); moreover, “the prophet knew” that Gehazi was ambitious and vain and that those he met on the way would tell him the reason for his journey, and vanity hinders miracle-working (the blessed Theodoret, question 17); according to the Talmudists (Pirke Elieser, 33), Gehazi did not obey the prophet’s command, and therefore could not revive the Shunammite’s son (v. 31). The actions of the prophet himself in raising the dead child (v. 35–36) are closely similar in essence to the actions of the prophet Elijah in raising the Zarephath widow’s son (1 Kgs 17:19-23), the particular difference being: a) a more vivid depiction in this case of the gestures of the prophet Elisha (v. 34–35): “the prophet himself applied his own sense organs to the sense organs of the dead; eyes to eyes, mouth to mouth, hands to hands, so that the dead might partake of the life of the living, evidently through the action of spiritual grace that bestows life” (the blessed Theodoret, question 18); b) there is no mention of words of calling upon God, as in the prophet Elijah (1 Kgs 17:21); but, without doubt, the prophet Elisha likewise prayed when performing the miracle along with other things, prefiguring the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ ((2 Kgs 4:8-37) is read as the 12th paremia at the services of Great Saturday).

2 Kings 4:38. When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets sat before him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets. 2 Kings 4:39. One of them went out into the field to gather herbs; he found a wild vine and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were. 2 Kings 4:40. Then they poured out some for the men to eat. But as they were eating the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. 2 Kings 4:41. He said, “Then bring some flour.” He threw it into the pot, and said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot. Gilgal, the dwelling place of the “sons of the prophets” (cf. 2 Kgs 2:1 and further), was one of the usual places where the prophet Elisha dwelt, the leader of the society of sons of the prophets; the latter (v. 38) “sat before him” – as pupils, at his feet (cf. Acts 22:3): they gathered to the prophet Elisha to listen to him (cf. Ezek 8:1; Zech 3:3), but did not necessarily live in one house (cf. 2 Kgs 6:1). The famine mentioned here was probably the same as the seven-year famine during the time of the prophet Elisha (2 Kgs 8:1). Caring for the sustenance of his pupils, the prophet orders his servant to prepare them food from vegetables (Heb. orot, LXX: ἀριωθ, Vulg.: herbas agrestes, Slav.: “wild herbs”). “Those who gathered them unknowingly mixed in poisonous fruits. But the prophet, commanding flour to be poured into the pot, destroyed thereby the effect of the poison. This was accomplished not by the property of the flour, but by the grace of the prophet” (the blessed Theodoret, question 19). The poisonous fruits in the Hebrew text are called pakkuot – “wild cucumbers” (cf. ornaments 1 Kgs 6:18), cucumeres agresti, asiuini, by appearance mixed with the cucumbers beloved by the Hebrews (Num 11:5).

2 Kings 4:42. A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley bread, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat. 2 Kings 4:43. But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’ 2 Kings 4:44. He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord. Baal-shalishah (cf. 1 Sam 9:4) – a city, supposedly in the tribe of Ephraim, according to Eusebius – Βαιθσαρισάθ, according to Jerome – Betsarisa – fifteen miles from Diospolis (Onomast. 206), now identified with Kafr-Sils. According to the Law of Moses, all grain firstfruits the Hebrews were to deliver to the sanctuary, from where priests and Levites received them (Num 18:13; Deut 18:4). In the absence in the Israelite kingdom of legitimate priests and Levites (1 Kgs 12:31), a certain pious man brought the grain firstfruits to the prophet of God. The latter, invoking the name of God (v. 43), miraculously multiplies the food for one hundred people (cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 19): this miracle was probably caused by the famine mentioned above in Israel.