1
The widow of a member of a group of prophets went to Elisha and said, "Sir, my husband has died! As you know, he was a God-fearing man, but now a man he owed money to has come to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband's debt."
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"What shall I do for you?" he asked. "Tell me, what do you have at home?" "Nothing at all, except a small jar of olive oil," she answered.
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"Go to your neighbors and borrow as many empty jars as you can," Elisha told her.
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"Then you and your sons go into the house, close the door, and start pouring oil into the jars. Set each one aside as soon as it is full."
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So the woman went into her house with her sons, closed the door, took the small jar of olive oil, and poured oil into the jars as her sons brought them to her.
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When they had filled all the jars, she asked if there were any more. "That was the last one," one of her sons answered. And the olive oil stopped flowing.
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She went back to Elisha, the prophet, who said to her, "Sell the olive oil and pay all your debts, and there will be enough money left over for you and your sons to live on."
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One day Elisha went to Shunem, where a rich woman lived. She invited him to a meal, and from then on every time he went to Shunem he would have his meals at her house.
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She said to her husband, "I am sure that this man who comes here so often is a holy man.
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Let's build a small room on the roof, put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it, and he can stay there whenever he visits us."
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One day Elisha returned to Shunem and went up to his room to rest.
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He told his servant Gehazi to go and call the woman. When she came,
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he said to Gehazi, "Ask her what I can do for her in return for all the trouble she has had in providing for our needs. Maybe she would like me to go to the king or the army commander and put in a good word for her." "I have all I need here among my own people," she answered.
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Elisha asked Gehazi, "What can I do for her then?" He answered, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man."
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"Tell her to come here," Elisha ordered. She came and stood in the doorway,
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and Elisha said to her, "By this time next year you will be holding a son in your arms." "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Please, sir, don't lie to me. You are a man of God!"
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But, as Elisha had said, at about that time the following year she gave birth to a son.
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Some years later, at harvest time, the boy went out one morning to join his father, who was in the field with the harvest workers.
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Suddenly he cried out to his father, "My head hurts! My head hurts!" "Carry the boy to his mother," the father said to a servant.
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The servant carried the boy back to his mother, who held him in her lap until noon, at which time he died.
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She carried him up to Elisha's room, put him on the bed and left, closing the door behind her.
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Then she called her husband and said to him, "Send a servant here with a donkey. I need to go to the prophet Elisha. I'll be back as soon as I can."
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"Why do you have to go today?" her husband asked. "It's neither a Sabbath nor a New Moon Festival." "Never mind," she answered.
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Then she had the donkey saddled, and ordered the servant, "Make the donkey go as fast as it can, and don't slow down unless I tell you to."
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So she set out and went to Mount Carmel, where Elisha was. Elisha saw her coming while she was still some distance away, and he said to his servant Gehazi, "Look, there comes the woman from Shunem!
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Hurry to her and find out if everything is all right with her, her husband, and her son." She told Gehazi that everything was all right,
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but when she came to Elisha, she bowed down before him and took hold of his feet. Gehazi was about to push her away, but Elisha said, "Leave her alone. Can't you see she's deeply distressed? And the LORD has not told me a thing about it."
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The woman said to him, "Sir, did I ask you for a son? Didn't I tell you not to get my hopes up?"
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Elisha turned to Gehazi and said, "Hurry! Take my walking stick and go. Don't stop to greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, don't take time to answer. Go straight to the house and hold my stick over the boy."
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The woman said to Elisha, "I swear by my loyalty to the living LORD and to you that I will not leave you!" So the two of them started back together.
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Gehazi went on ahead and held Elisha's stick over the child, but there was no sound or any other sign of life. So he went back to meet Elisha and said, "The boy didn't wake up."
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When Elisha arrived, he went alone into the room and saw the boy lying dead on the bed.
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He closed the door and prayed to the LORD.
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Then he lay down on the boy, placing his mouth, eyes, and hands on the boy's mouth, eyes, and hands. As he lay stretched out over the boy, the boy's body started to get warm.
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Elisha got up, walked around the room, and then went back and again stretched himself over the boy. The boy sneezed seven times and then opened his eyes.
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Elisha called Gehazi and told him to call the boy's mother. When she came in, he said to her, "Here's your son."
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She fell at Elisha's feet, with her face touching the ground; then she took her son and left.
38
Once, when there was a famine throughout the land, Elisha returned to Gilgal. While he was teaching a group of prophets, he told his servant to put a big pot on the fire and make some stew for them.
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One of them went out in the fields to get some herbs. He found a wild vine and picked as many gourds as he could carry. He brought them back and sliced them up into the stew, not knowing what they were.
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The stew was poured out for the men to eat, but as soon as they tasted it they exclaimed to Elisha, "It's poisoned!"---and wouldn't eat it.
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Elisha asked for some meal, threw it into the pot, and said, "Pour out some more stew for them." And then there was nothing wrong with it.
42
Another time, a man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing Elisha twenty loaves of bread made from the first barley harvested that year, and some freshly-cut heads of grain. Elisha told his servant to feed the group of prophets with this,
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but he answered, "Do you think this is enough for a hundred men?" Elisha replied, "Give it to them to eat, because the LORD says that they will eat and still have some left over."
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So the servant set the food before them, and as the LORD had said, they all ate, and there was still some left over.
1
Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, was highly respected and esteemed by the king of Syria, because through Naaman the LORD had given victory to the Syrian forces. He was a great soldier, but he suffered from a dreaded skin disease.
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In one of their raids against Israel, the Syrians had carried off a little Israelite girl, who became a servant of Naaman's wife.
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One day she said to her mistress, "I wish that my master could go to the prophet who lives in Samaria! He would cure him of his disease."
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When Naaman heard of this, he went to the king and told him what the girl had said.
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The king said, "Go to the king of Israel and take this letter to him." So Naaman set out, taking thirty thousand pieces of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of fine clothes.
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The letter that he took read: "This letter will introduce my officer Naaman. I want you to cure him of his disease."
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When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and exclaimed, "How can the king of Syria expect me to cure this man? Does he think that I am God, with the power of life and death? It's plain that he is trying to start a quarrel with me!"
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When the prophet Elisha heard what had happened, he sent word to the king: "Why are you so upset? Send the man to me, and I'll show him that there is a prophet in Israel!"
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So Naaman went with his horses and chariot and stopped at the entrance to Elisha's house.
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Elisha sent a servant out to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan River, and he would be completely cured of his disease.
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But Naaman left in a rage, saying, "I thought that he would at least come out to me, pray to the LORD his God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and cure me!
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Besides, aren't the rivers Abana and Pharpar, back in Damascus, better than any river in Israel? I could have washed in them and been cured!"
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His servants went up to him and said, "Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can't you just wash yourself, as he said, and be cured?"
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So Naaman went down to the Jordan, dipped himself in it seven times, as Elisha had instructed, and he was completely cured. His flesh became firm and healthy like that of a child.
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He returned to Elisha with all his men and said, "Now I know that there is no god but the God of Israel; so please, sir, accept a gift from me."
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Elisha answered, "By the living LORD, whom I serve, I swear that I will not accept a gift." Naaman insisted that he accept it, but he would not.
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So Naaman said, "If you won't accept my gift, then let me have two mule-loads of earth to take home with me, because from now on I will not offer sacrifices or burnt offerings to any god except the LORD.
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So I hope that the LORD will forgive me when I accompany my king to the temple of Rimmon, the god of Syria, and worship him. Surely the LORD will forgive me!"
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"Go in peace," Elisha said. And Naaman left. He had gone only a short distance,
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when Elisha's servant Gehazi said to himself, "My master has let Naaman get away without paying a thing! He should have accepted what that Syrian offered him. By the living LORD I will run after him and get something from him."
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So he set off after Naaman. When Naaman saw a man running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him, and asked, "Is something wrong?"
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"No," Gehazi answered. "But my master sent me to tell you that just now two members of the group of prophets in the hill country of Ephraim arrived, and he would like you to give them three thousand pieces of silver and two changes of fine clothes."
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"Please take six thousand pieces of silver," Naaman replied. He insisted on it, tied up the silver in two bags, gave them and two changes of fine clothes to two of his servants, and sent them on ahead of Gehazi.
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When they reached the hill where Elisha lived, Gehazi took the two bags and carried them into the house. Then he sent Naaman's servants back.
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He went back into the house, and Elisha asked him, "Where have you been?" "Oh, nowhere, sir," he answered.
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But Elisha said, "Wasn't I there in spirit when the man got out of his chariot to meet you? This is no time to accept money and clothes, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and cattle, or servants!
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And now Naaman's disease will come upon you, and you and your descendants will have it forever!" When Gehazi left, he had the disease---his skin was as white as snow.
1
O God, do not keep silent; do not be still, do not be quiet!
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Look! Your enemies are in revolt, and those who hate you are rebelling.
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They are making secret plans against your people; they are plotting against those you protect.
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"Come," they say, "let us destroy their nation, so that Israel will be forgotten forever."
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They agree on their plan and form an alliance against you:
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the people of Edom and the Ishmaelites; the people of Moab and the Hagrites;
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the people of Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, and of Philistia and Tyre.
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Assyria has also joined them as a strong ally of the Ammonites and Moabites, the descendants of Lot.
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Do to them what you did to the Midianites, and to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River.
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You defeated them at Endor, and their bodies rotted on the ground.
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Do to their leaders what you did to Oreb and Zeeb; defeat all their rulers as you did Zebah and Zalmunna,
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who said, "We will take for our own the land that belongs to God."
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Scatter them like dust, O God, like straw blown away by the wind.
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As fire burns the forest, as flames set the hills on fire,
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chase them away with your storm and terrify them with your fierce winds.
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Cover their faces with shame, O LORD, and make them acknowledge your power.
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May they be defeated and terrified forever; may they die in complete disgrace.
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May they know that you alone are the LORD, supreme ruler over all the earth.
1
First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, requests, and thanksgivings be offered to God for all people;
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for kings and all others who are in authority, that we may live a quiet and peaceful life with all reverence toward God and with proper conduct.
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This is good and it pleases God our Savior,
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who wants everyone to be saved and to come to know the truth.
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For there is one God, and there is one who brings God and human beings together, the man Christ Jesus,
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who gave himself to redeem the whole human race. That was the proof at the right time that God wants everyone to be saved,
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and that is why I was sent as an apostle and teacher of the Gentiles, to proclaim the message of faith and truth. I am not lying; I am telling the truth!
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In every church service I want the men to pray, men who are dedicated to God and can lift up their hands in prayer without anger or argument.
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I also want the women to be modest and sensible about their clothes and to dress properly; not with fancy hair styles or with gold ornaments or pearls or expensive dresses,
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but with good deeds, as is proper for women who claim to be religious.
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Women should learn in silence and all humility.
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I do not allow them to teach or to have authority over men; they must keep quiet.
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For Adam was created first, and then Eve.
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And it was not Adam who was deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and broke God's law.
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But a woman will be saved through having children, if she perseveres in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.
