The Reading
2 Kings 4
A certain woman from the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead. Now you know that your servant was a fearer of Yahweh, but the creditor came to take two of my children for himself as slaves. Elisha asked her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" Then she said, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of olive oil." Then he said to her, "Go, ask for yourself some containers from the streets, from all your neighbors. You must collect as many empty containers as you can! You must also go and shut the door behind you and your children, and you must pour out oil into all of these containers and set the filled ones aside." So she went from him, and she shut the door behind her and her children. They were bringing containers to her, and she kept pouring. It happened that when the containers were full, she said to her son, "Bring near me another container," but he said to her, "There is not another container." Then the olive oil stopped flowing. So she came and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the olive oil and repay your debt. You and your sons can live on what is left over."

It happened one day that Elisha passed through to Shunem where there was a wealthy woman, and she urged him to eat bread; so it happened each time he passed through, he would stop there to eat. She said to her husband, "Please now, I know that he is a holy man of God who is passing our way regularly; let us make a small enclosed room upstairs and put a bed, table, chair, and lampstand there for him, so that when he comes to us, he can turn and stay there. One day it happened that he came there and went to the upper room and lay down there. He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call to this Shunammite," so he called to her, and she stood before him. He said to him, "Please say to her, 'Look, you took all this trouble, showing care for us; what is there for me to do for you? To speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army?'" She said, "I am living among my people." Then he said, "What may be done for her?" Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is old." And he said, "Call for her," so he called for her and she stood in the doorway. And he said, "At this time next spring, you will be embracing a son." She said, "No, my lord, O man of God! You must not tell a lie to your servant!" But the woman conceived, and she bore a son in the spring, which Elisha had promised to her.

The child grew older, and it happened one day that he went out to his father and to the reapers. Then he said to his father, "My head, my head!" So he said to the servant, "Carry him to his mother." So they carried him and brought him to his mother; he sat on her lap until noon and then died. She went up, laid him on the bed of the man of God, closed the door, and went out behind it. She called to her husband and said, "Please send one of the servants and one of the female donkeys for me, so that I can go quickly up to the man of God and return." And he said, "Why are you going to him today? It is neither the new moon nor the Sabbath!" And she said, "Peace." She saddled the female donkey, and she said to her servant, "Drive along and go; you must not hold me back from riding, unless I tell you." So she went and came to the man of God by Mount Carmel. It happened when the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, "There is this Shunammite. Now, please run to meet her and ask her, 'Is it peace for you? Is it peace for your husband? Is it peace for the boy?'" She said, "Peace." So she came to the man of God at the mountain, and she caught hold of his feet. Then Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, "Let her alone, for her soul is bitter, and Yahweh has hidden it from me and has not told me." Then she said, "Did I ask for a son from my lord? Did I not say that you must not mislead me?"