II Kings 4:1-4:231. Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared יהוה. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”2. Elisha said to her, “What should I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?”She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.”3. Then he said, “Go, borrow empty containers from of all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers. 4. Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full.”5. So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured oil. 6. When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” He said to her, “There isn’t another container.” Then the oil stopped flowing.7. Then she came and told the man of God. He said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”8. One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. 9. She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually. 10. Please let us make a little room on the roof. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. When he comes to us, he can stay there.”11. One day he came there, and he went to the room and lay there. 12. He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him. 13. He said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”14. He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.”15. He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the door. 16. He said, “At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son.”She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.”17. The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her. 18. When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers. 19. He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”20. When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. 21. She went up and laid him on the man of God’s bed, and shut the door on him, and went out. 22. She called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.”23. He said, “Why would you want go to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath.” She said, “It’s alright.”
ETZ CHAIM
It is a tree of life for those who cling to it, and those who uphold it are happy. Its ways are pleasant, and all of its paths peaceful.
Return us to you, Lord, so that we shall return, renew our days as of old.
