2 Kings 4:8-10

Elisha Gives Life to a Boy

4:8 One day Elisha traveled to Shunem, where a prominent ¹  woman lived. She insisted that he stop for a meal. ²  So whenever he was passing through, he would stop in there for a meal. ³  4:9 She said to her husband, “Look, I’m sure ⁴  that the man who regularly passes through here is a very special prophet. ⁵  4:10 Let’s make a small private upper room ⁶  and furnish it with ⁷  a bed, table, chair, and lamp. When he visits us, he can stay there.”

2 Kings 4:16-17

4:16 He said, “About this time next year ⁸  you will be holding a son.” She said, “No, my master! O prophet, do not lie to your servant!” 4:17 The woman did conceive, and at the specified time the next year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

2 Kings 4:32-37

4:32 When Elisha arrived at the house, there was ⁹  the child lying dead on his bed. 4:33 He went in by himself and closed the door. ¹⁰  Then he prayed to the Lord. 4:34 He got up on the bed and spread his body out over ¹¹  the boy; he put his mouth on the boy’s ¹²  mouth, his eyes over the boy’s eyes, and the palms of his hands against the boy’s palms. He bent down over him, and the boy’s skin ¹³  grew warm. 4:35 Elisha ¹⁴  went back and walked around in the house. ¹⁵  Then he got up on the bed again ¹⁶  and bent down over him. The child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. 4:36 Elisha ¹⁷  called to Gehazi and said, “Get the Shunammite woman.” So he did so ¹⁸  and she came to him. He said to her, “Take your son.” 4:37 She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed down. Then she picked up her son and left.

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¹ tn Heb “great,” perhaps “wealthy.”

² tn Or “she urged him to eat some food.”

³ tn Or “he would turn aside there to eat some food.”

⁴ tn Heb “I know.”

⁵ tn Heb “holy man of God.”

⁶ tn Heb “a small upper room of a wall”; according to HALOT 832 s.v. עֲלִיָּה, this refers to “a fully walled upper room.”

⁷ tn Heb “and let’s put there for him.”

⁸ tn Heb “at this appointed time, at the time [when it is] reviving.” For a discussion of the second phrase see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 57.

⁹ tn Heb “look.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and closed the door behind the two of them.”

¹¹ tn Heb “he went up and lay down over.”

¹² tn Heb “his” (also in the next two clauses).

¹³ tn Or perhaps, “body”; Heb “flesh.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Heb “and he returned and went into the house, once here and once there.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “and he went up.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁸ tn Heb “and he called for her.”