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2 Kings 4

Chapter Text

Elisha's Miracles

The Shunammite's Son

Death in the Pot

Feeding of a Hundred

Summary

Elisha performs a series of miracles demonstrating God's compassion for ordinary people. He multiplies a widow's oil to save her sons from slavery. He promises a son to a wealthy Shunammite woman who has shown him hospitality, and when the child later dies, Elisha raises him from the dead.

Elisha also purifies a poisoned pot of stew and multiplies twenty loaves of barley to feed a hundred men, with leftovers remaining. Each miracle meets a specific human need through the power of God.

Meaning

These miracles reveal that God's power is not reserved for grand national crises but extends to the daily struggles of widows, mothers, and hungry prophets. The multiplication of oil and bread foreshadows Christ's own multiplication miracles, connecting the two ministries across centuries.

The raising of the Shunammite's son, like Elijah's similar miracle, demonstrates that the God of Israel is Lord over death itself. These intimate acts of compassion balance the dramatic public confrontations of Elijah's ministry, showing that prophetic power serves human need.

Background

The Shunammite woman's provision of a room for Elisha, called a prophet's chamber, established a pattern of hospitality that continued in Israelite and later Jewish culture. Shunem was a village in the Jezreel Valley near Mount Moreh.

The multiplication of twenty loaves to feed a hundred people directly parallels Jesus feeding the five thousand, a connection noted by early Christian interpreters.

Chapter Outline

  1. vv. 1-7The widow's oil multiplied
  2. vv. 8-17The Shunammite's hospitality and promised son
  3. vv. 18-28The child's death and the mother's resolve
  4. vv. 29-37Elisha raises the child to life
  5. vv. 38-41Death in the pot healed at Gilgal
  6. vv. 42-44Twenty loaves feed a hundred men

Key Verses

And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually.4:9

The Shunammite's spiritual discernment models hospitality toward God's servants, a theme echoed in the New Testament's call to entertain strangers and prophets.

Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.4:26

Her confession of peace amid devastating loss has become a touchstone of resilient faith, immortalized in Spafford's hymn 'It Is Well with My Soul.'

And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.4:34

Elisha's intimate, embodied prayer prefigures resurrection power and parallels Elijah's earlier raising of the widow's son in 1 Kings 17.

And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.4:43

This miraculous multiplication of barley loaves directly anticipates Christ's feeding of the five thousand, where bread is multiplied and fragments remain.

People & Places

People

  • ElishaProphet and successor to Elijah, performing four miracles of provision and life in this chapter.
  • GehaziElisha's servant who assists him and mediates between the prophet and the Shunammite woman.
  • The widow of a son of the prophetsA destitute prophet's widow whose oil is miraculously multiplied to pay her debts.
  • The Shunammite womanA wealthy, hospitable woman who builds Elisha a chamber and receives a promised son who is later raised from death.
  • The Shunammite's sonThe child miraculously given and then restored to life after dying of a sudden head ailment.

Places

  • ShunemA town in the territory of Issachar where the hospitable woman lived.
  • Mount CarmelThe mountain where Elisha was lodging when the Shunammite came seeking him, also associated with Elijah.
  • GilgalA prophetic community center where Elisha purified the poisoned pottage during a famine.
  • BaalshalishaA locality from which a man brought firstfruits of barley loaves to feed Elisha's company.

Prophecy & Fulfillment

The chapter foreshadows the ministry of Christ in striking ways. Elisha's multiplication of oil (vv. 1-7) and barley loaves (vv. 42-44) directly prefigure Jesus' feeding miracles in the Gospels, with the explicit detail that some was left over (v. 44; cf. Matthew 14:20). The raising of the Shunammite's son (vv. 32-37) anticipates Christ's resurrection ministry, particularly the raising of Jairus' daughter and the widow of Nain's son (Luke 7), where Jesus likewise restores an only child to a grieving mother.

Devotional

This chapter shows a God who meets people in their most desperate places — crushing debt, childlessness, sudden death, hunger, and poisoned food. Elisha never turns anyone away, and God works through ordinary things: a pot of oil, a borrowed room, a handful of meal, twenty loaves of barley.

The Shunammite's quiet confession, "It is well," rises from a heart that refuses to let go of God even when everything has gone wrong. Faith here is not denial of pain but stubborn trust that God remains good. What empty vessel are you holding out today? Bring it, and watch what He pours in.

Literary Style

Hebrew historical narrative arranged as a cycle of four prophetic miracle stories. The episodes are linked by repetition, vivid dialogue, and concrete domestic detail, with deliberate parallels to Elijah's ministry creating a typological echo within the Deuteronomistic History.