31Gehazi had gone on before them and had placed the staff on the boy’s face; but there was no sound or response. He turned back to meet him and told him, “The boy has not awakened.” 32Elisha came into the house, and there was the boy, laid out dead on his couch. 33He went in, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD. 34Then he mounted [the bed] and placed himself over the child. He put his mouth on its mouth, his eyes on its eyes, and his hands on its hands, as he bent over it. And the body of the child became warm. 35He stepped down, walked once up and down the room, then mounted and bent over him. Thereupon, the boy sneezed seven times, and the boy opened his eyes. 36[Elisha] called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman,” and he called her. When she came to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” 37She came and fell at his feet and bowed low to the ground; then she picked up her son and left.
38Elisha returned to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land, and the disciples of the prophets were sitting before him. He said to his servant, “Set the large pot [on the fire] and cook a stew for the disciples of the prophets.” 39So one of them went out into the fields to gather sprouts. He came across a wild vine and picked from it wild gourds, as many as his garment would hold. Then he came back and sliced them into the pot of stew, for they did not know [what they were]; 40and they served it for the men to eat. While they were still eating of the stew, they began to cry out: “O man of God, there is death in the pot!”e And they could not eat it. 41“Fetch some flour,” [Elisha] said. He threw it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people and let them eat.” And there was no longer anything harmful in the pot.
42A man came from Baal-shalishah and he brought the man of God some bread of the first reaping—twenty loaves of barley bread, and some fresh grain f-in his sack.-f And [Elisha] said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” 43His attendant replied, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people and let them eat. For thus said the LORD: They shall eat and have some left over.” 44So he set it before them; and when they had eaten, they had some left over, as the LORD had said.
5 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was important to his lord and high in his favor, for through him the LORD had granted victory to Aram. But the man, though a great warrior, was a leper.a 2Once, when the Arameans were out raiding, they carried off a young girl from the land of Israel, and she became an attendant to Naaman’s wife. 3She said to her mistress, “I wish Master could come before the prophet in Samaria; he would cure him of his leprosy.” 4[Naaman] went and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5And the king of Aram said, “Go to the king of Israel, and I will send along a letter.”
He set out, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. 6He brought the letter to the king of Israel. It read: “Now, when this letter reaches you, know that I have sent my courtier Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” 7When the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and cried, “Am I God, to deal death or give life, that this fellow writes to me to cure a man of leprosy? Just see for yourselves that he is seeking a pretext against me!”
8When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent a message to the king: “Why have you rent your clothes? Let him come to me, and he will learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”
9So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and halted at the door of Elisha’s house. 10Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” 11But Naaman was angered and walked away. “I thought,” he said, “he would surely come out to me, and would stand and invoke the LORD his God by name, and would wave his hand toward the spot, and cure the affected part. 12Are not the Amanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? I could bathe in them and be clean!” And he stalked off in a rage.
13But his servants came forward and spoke to him. “Sir,”b they said, “if the prophet told you to do something difficult, would you not do it? How much more when he has only said to you, ‘Bathe and be clean.”’ 14So he went down and immersed himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had bidden; and his flesh became like a little boy’s, and he was clean. 15Returning with his entire retinue to the man of God, he stood before him and exclaimed, “Now I know that there is no God in the whole world except in Israel! So please accept a gift from your servant.” 16But he replied, “As the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will not accept anything.” He pressed him to accept, but he refused. 17And Naaman said, “Then at least let your servant be given two mule-loads of earth; for your servant will never again offer up burnt offering or sacrifice to any god, except the LORD. 18But may the LORD pardon your servant for this: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow low in worship there, and he is leaning on my arm so that I must bow low in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow low in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD pardon your servant in this.” 19And he said to him, “Go in peace.”
When he had gone some distance from him, 20Gehazi, the attendant of Elisha the man of God, thought: “My master c-has let that Aramean Naaman off without accepting what he brought!-c As the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him.” 21So Gehazi hurried after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he alighted from his chariot to meet him and said, “Is all well?” 22“All is well,” he replied. “My master has sent me to say: Two youths, disciples of the prophets, have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.” 23Naaman said, “Please take two talents.” He urged him, and he wrapped the two talents of silver in two bags and gave them, along with two changes of clothes, to two of his servants, who carried them ahead of him. 24When [Gehazi] arrived at the citadel, he took [the things] from them and deposited them in the house. Then he dismissed the men and they went their way.
25He entered and stood before his master; and Elisha said to him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” He replied, “Your servant has not gone anywhere.” 26Then [Elisha] said to him, “Did not my spiritd go along when a man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this a time to take money in order to buy clothing and olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves? 27Surely, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.” And as [Gehazi] left his presence, he was snow-white with leprosy.
6 The disciples of the prophets said to Elisha, “See, the place where we live under your direction is too cramped for us. 2Let us go to the Jordan, and let us each get a log there and build quarters there for ourselves to live in.” “Do so,” he replied. 3Then one of them said, “Will you please come along with your servants?” “Yes, I will come,” he said; 4and he accompanied them. So they went to the Jordan and cut timber. 5As one of them was felling a trunk, the iron ax head fell into the water. And he cried aloud, “Alas, master, it was a borrowed one!” 6“Where did it fall?” asked the man of God. He showed him the spot; and he cut off a stick and threw it in, and he made the ax head float. 7“Pick it up,” he said; so he reached out and took it.
8While the king of Aram was waging war against Israel, he took counsel with his officers and said, a-“I will encamp-a in such and such a place.” 9But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, “Take care not to pass through that place, for the Arameans are encamped there.” 10So the king of Israel sent word to the place of which the man of God had told him. b-Time and again-b he alerted c-such a place-c and took precautions there. 11Greatly agitated about this matter, the king of Aram summoned his officers and said to them, “Tell me! Who of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” 12“No
