The Widow’s Oil 1 UDB One day, the widow of one of Yahweh's prophets came to Elisha and cried out to him, "My husband, who worked with you, is dead. You know that he revered Yahweh very much. But now someone to whom he owed a lot of money has come to me. I cannot pay him back, so he is threatening to take away my two sons to be his slaves as payment!" BSB BSB: Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves!”
2 UDB Elisha replied, "What can I do to help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?" She replied, "We have only a container of olive oil. We have nothing else." BSB BSB: “How can I help you?” asked Elisha. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
3 UDB Elisha said, "Go to your neighbors and borrow from them as many empty jars as you can. BSB BSB: “Go,” said Elisha, “borrow empty jars from all your neighbors. Do not gather just a few.
4 UDB Then take the jars into your house with your sons. Shut the door. Then pour olive oil from your container into the other jars. When each jar is full, set it aside and fill another jar. Keep doing that until all the jars are full." BSB BSB: Then go inside, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these jars, setting the full ones aside.”
5 UDB So she did what Elisha told her to do. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she kept filling them. BSB BSB: So she left him, and after she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing jars to her, and she kept pouring.
6 UDB Soon all the jars were full. So she said to one of her sons, "Bring me another jar!" But he replied, "There are no more jars!" Right then the olive oil stopped flowing. BSB BSB: When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another.” But he replied, “There are no more jars.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 UDB When she told Elisha what had happened, he said to her, "Now sell the oil. And with the money you get, pay what you owe, and there will be enough extra money to keep buying food for yourself and your sons." So she did that. BSB BSB: She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt. Then you and your sons can live on the remainder.”
The Shunammite Woman (Matthew 10:40–42)
8 UDB One day, Elisha went to the city of Shunem. There was a wealthy woman who lived there with her husband. One day she invited Elisha to her house for a meal. Elisha went there, and from then on every time Elisha was in Shunem he went to their house to eat a meal. BSB BSB: One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal. So whenever he would pass by, he would stop there to eat.
9 UDB One day, the woman said to her husband, "I am sure that this man who often comes here is a prophet who brings messages from God. BSB BSB: Then the woman said to her husband, “Behold, now I know that the one who often comes our way is a holy man of God.
10 UDB I think we should make a small room for him on our flat roof and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it. If we do that, whenever he comes here, he will have a place to stay." So they did that. BSB BSB: Please let us make a small room upstairs and put in it a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there.”
11 UDB One day, Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to that room to rest. BSB BSB: One day Elisha came to visit and went to his upper room to lie down.
12 UDB He said to his servant Gehazi, "Tell the woman that I want to speak to her." So the servant went and told her. When she came to the doorway of Elisha's room, BSB BSB: And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call the Shunammite woman.” And when he had called her, she stood before him,
13 UDB Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tell her that we are both grateful for all the kind things that she has done for us. Then ask her what we can do for her. Ask, 'Do you want me to go to the king or the army commander to request something for you?'" Gehazi gave her this message. She replied, "No, your master does not need to do that, because my family is able to give me what I need." BSB BSB: and Elisha said to Gehazi, “Now tell her, ‘Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’” “I have a home among my own people,” she replied.
14 UDB Later, Elisha asked Gehazi, "What do you think that we can do for that woman?" He replied, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man." BSB BSB: So he asked, “Then what should be done for her?” “Well, she has no son,” Gehazi replied, “and her husband is old.”
15 UDB Elisha told Gehazi, "Call her back again." So Gehazi went and called her. And when the woman returned, as she stood in the doorway, BSB BSB: “Call her,” said Elisha. So Gehazi called her, and she stood in the doorway.
16 UDB Elisha said to her, "About this time next year, you will be holding your infant son in your arms." But she protested, "Oh sir, you are a prophet who brings messages from God, so please do not deceive me by saying things like that!" BSB BSB: And Elisha declared, “At this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord,” she said. “Do not lie to your maidservant, O man of God.”
17 UDB But a few months later, the woman became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son at that time the following year, just as Elisha had predicted. BSB BSB: But the woman did conceive, and at that time the next year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
Elisha Raises the Shunammite’s Son (Acts 20:7–12)
18 UDB When the child was growing up, one day he went out to the fields to see his father, who was working with the men who were harvesting grain. BSB BSB: And the child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the harvesters.
19 UDB Suddenly the boy exclaimed, "My head hurts! My head hurts!" His father said to one of the servants, "Carry him home to his mother!" BSB BSB: “My head! My head!” he complained to his father. So his father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
20 UDB So the servant carried him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But at noontime the boy died. BSB BSB: After the servant had picked him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.
21 UDB She carried him up the steps to the prophet's room and laid him on the bed. She left him there and went out and shut the door. BSB BSB: And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out.
22 UDB She then called out to her husband, saying, "Send to me one of the servants and a donkey so that I can ride on it quickly to the prophet and then come back!" But she did not tell her husband that their son had died. BSB BSB: And the woman called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may go quickly to the man of God and return.”
23 UDB Her husband called out to her and said, "Why do you want to go today? This is not the day when we celebrate the festival of the new moon, and it is not a Sabbath day!" But she only replied, "Just do what I requested and everything will be all right." BSB BSB: “Why would you go to him today?” he replied. “It is not a New Moon or a Sabbath.” “Everything is all right,” she said.
24 UDB So she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, "Lead the donkey! Do not slow down for me unless I tell you to do so!" BSB BSB: Then she saddled the donkey and told her servant, “Drive onward; do not slow the pace for me unless I tell you.”
25 UDB As they approached Mount Carmel where Elisha was, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, "Look, the woman from Shunem is coming! BSB BSB: So she set out and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman.
26 UDB Run to her, and ask her if everything is all right with her and her husband and with her child!" So Gehazi ran to her and asked her, but she said nothing to Gehazi except, "Yes, everything is fine." BSB BSB: Please run out now to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’” And she answered, “Everything is all right.”
27 UDB But when she came to where Elisha was, she prostrated herself on the ground in front of Elisha and took hold of his feet. Gehazi started to push her away, but Elisha said, "Do not push her away! Something is troubling her very much, but Yahweh has not told me what it is." BSB BSB: When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.”
28 UDB Then she said to Elisha, "O sir, I did not request you to enable me to give birth to a son, but I did say, 'Do not lie to me.'" BSB BSB: Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me?’”
29 UDB Then Elisha realized that something must have happened to her son. So he said to Gehazi, "Get ready to leave immediately. Take my walking stick and go to her home. Do not stop to talk to anyone on the way. Go quickly to where her son is and lay the staff on the child's face. If you do that, perhaps Yahweh will cause him to live again." BSB BSB: So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tie up your garment, take my staff in your hand, and go! If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him. Then lay my staff on the boy’s face.”
30 UDB But the boy's mother said, "Just as certain as Yahweh lives and you live, I will not go home if you do not go with me." So Elisha returned with her to her home. BSB BSB: And the mother of the boy said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.
31 UDB But Gehazi hurried quickly ahead. When he got to the woman's home, he laid the staff on the child's face, but the child did not move or say anything. So Gehazi returned to meet Elisha along the road and told him, "The child is still dead." BSB BSB: Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”
32 UDB When Elisha reached the house, he saw that the boy was lying dead on his bed. BSB BSB: When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his bed.
33 UDB Elisha went into the room by himself and shut the door and prayed to Yahweh. BSB BSB: So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.
34 UDB Then he lay down on the boy's body and put his mouth on the boy's mouth and put his eyes on the boy's eyes and put his hands on the boy's hands. Then the boy's body started to become warm! BSB BSB: Then Elisha got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, and hand to hand. As he stretched himself out over him, the boy’s body became warm.
35 UDB Elisha got up and walked back and forth in the room several times. Then he stretched his body on the boy's body again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes! BSB BSB: Elisha turned away and paced back and forth across the room. Then he got on the bed and stretched himself out over the boy again, and the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
36 UDB Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. He said, "Call the boy's mother." So Gehazi went and called her, and when she came in, Elisha said, "Here, take your son." BSB BSB: Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she came. Then Elisha said, “Pick up your son.”
37 UDB She gratefully prostrated herself at Elisha's feet. Then she picked up her son and carried him downstairs. BSB BSB: She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.
Elisha Purifies the Poisonous Stew 38 UDB Then Elisha returned to Gilgal. But at that time there was a famine in that area. One day, as the association of prophets was sitting in front of Elisha listening to what he was teaching, he said to his servant, "Put a large pot on the fire and make some stew for these men." BSB BSB: When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”
39 UDB One of the prophets went out to the fields to gather some vegetables. But he gathered only some wild gourds and put them in his cloak and brought them back. He shredded them and put them in the pot, but he did not know that the gourds were poisonous. BSB BSB: One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.
40 UDB He served the stew to the prophets, but after the men had eaten only a couple bites, they cried out, "Our master, there is something in the pot that will kill us!" So they would not eat it. BSB BSB: And they poured it out for the men to eat, but when they tasted the stew they cried out, “There is death in the pot, O man of God!” And they could not eat it.
41 UDB Elisha said, "Bring me some flour." They brought him some, and he threw it in the pot and he said, "It is all right now. You can eat it." And they ate it, and it did not harm them. BSB BSB: Then Elisha said, “Get 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.
Feeding a Hundred Men (Matthew 15:29–39; Mark 8:1–10)
42 UDB One day, a man from the city of Baal Shalishah brought to Elisha a sack of freshly cut grain and twenty loaves of barley bread, made from the first grain that they had harvested that year. Elisha said to his servant, "Give it to the group of prophets so that they can eat it." BSB BSB: Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.
43 UDB But his servant exclaimed, "Do you think that we can feed a hundred of us prophets with only that much? How can I place this before them all?" But Elisha replied, "Give it to the prophets so that they can eat it, because Yahweh says that there will be plenty for all of them, and there will be some left over!" BSB BSB: But his servant asked, “How am I to set twenty loaves before a hundred men?” “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha, “for this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’”
44 UDB After his servant gave it to the prophets, they ate all that they wanted, and there was food left over, just as Yahweh had promised. BSB BSB: So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.
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