References (12)
And he said to Gehazi, his servant (Hebr. naar): "Call this Shunammite woman." [The wording emphasizes this specific woman who had given Elisha a room.] And when he called her, she stood before him. [Gehazi was an assistant, cf. Abraham, who had several young men to help him, see .]
And he said, "What shall we do for her?" And Gehazi answered, "She has no son, and her husband is old."
So she went and came to the man of God [Elisha] on Mount Carmel. [Where the confrontation with the prophets of Baal had taken place, see .] When the man of God saw her in the distance, he said to his servant (Hebr. naar) Gehazi, "Look, there is the Shunammite woman.
But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Then Gehazi went forward to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone, for her soul is bitter within her, and the Lord (Yahweh) has hidden it from me and has not told me."
And he said to Gehazi, "Tie up your clothes (literally, your loins/hips) and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet any man on the way, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him, and lay my staff on the face of the young man." [The instruction not to greet anyone may be because greeting someone was a rather long and time-consuming procedure. At that time, one could not simply say hello as we do and move on. The matter is urgent, and therefore Gehazi should not delay himself with this.]
And Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the young man, but there was no sound (no voice; i.e., no response) and no movement (no physical response). Therefore, he returned to meet them and told him, saying, "The young man is not waking up."
And he [Elisha] called Gehazi and said, " Call the Shunammite woman, this one." [Almost the same phrase as , but here the definite form "the Shunammite woman" together with the emphasis "this one," she who had given a room and now also regained her son.] And he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, "Take up your son."
But Gehazi, the servant (Hebr. naar) of Elisha, the man of God, said, "Look, my master has refused to accept anything from the hand of Naaman, the Aramean. As the Lord (Yahweh) lives, I will run after him and take something from him."
And Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him and said, "Is everything all right?"
But he went in and stood before his master.
Then Elisha asked him, "Where did you come from, Gehazi?"
He replied, "Your servant (servant – Hebr. eved) went nowhere."
Now the king spoke with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and said, "Please recount to me all the great things that Elisha has done."
And it came to pass, while he was recounting how he had raised the dead, that behold, the woman whose son he had raised came to plead with the king for her house and her land.
Then Gehazi said, "My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha raised."
