The Shunammite's Son
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. 9 She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually. 10 Please, let’s make a little room on the roof. Let’s set a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand for him there. When he comes to us, he can stay there.” 11 One day he came there, and he went to the room and lay there. 12 He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him. 13 He said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.” 14 He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.” 15 He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the door. 16 He said, “At this season next year, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.” 17 The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her. 18 When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers. 19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. 21 She went up and laid him on the man of God’s bed, and shut the door on him, and went out. 22 She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come again.” 23 He said, “Why would you want to go to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath.” She said, “It’s all right.” 24 Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward! Don’t slow down for me, unless I ask you to.” 25 So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, there is the Shunammite. 26 Please run now to meet her, and ask her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child?’” She answered, “It is well.” 27 When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me.” 28 Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me’?” 29 Then he said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don’t greet him; and if anyone greets you, don’t answer him again. Then lay my staff on the child’s face.” 30 The child’s mother said, “As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose, and followed her. 31 Gehazi went ahead of them, and laid the staff on the child’s face; but there was no voice and no hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, “The child has not awakened.” 32 When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lying on his bed. 33 He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh. 34 He went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the child’s flesh grew warm. 35 Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth, then went up and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36 He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.” 37 Then she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; then she picked up her son, and went out.
A woman who wants nothing is given a son, loses him, rides seventy miles saying it is well, and will not let the prophet out of her sight.
9 She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually. 10 Please, let’s make a little room on the roof. Let’s set a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand for him there. When he comes to us, he can stay there.”
The hospitality is her initiative, and the inventory of the room is the kind of detail that makes a story stay: a bed, a table, a chair, a lamp. She is a woman of substance at Shunem who has noticed a traveling prophet and decided, without being asked, to build him somewhere to sleep.
He said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”
Offered access to power as thanks, she declines. The answer is not a complaint about being childless and it is not false modesty; it is a woman saying she is content and has no petition. She has done the kindness for its own sake, which is precisely what leaves Elisha with nothing to repay and Gehazi to work out what she actually lacks.
He said, “At this season next year, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.”
Her protest is the sound of a hope she has stopped allowing herself. It is not disbelief in God; it is a woman who has made peace with a settled disappointment and cannot bear to have it reopened. Sarah laughed at the same announcement Genesis 18:12, and the book of a barren woman's son opened this whole history 1 Samuel 1:20.
19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died.
The boy collapses in the harvest field and dies in her lap by midday, and the account gives it three flat clauses. What she does next is extraordinary. She carries him up to the prophet's room, lays him on the prophet's bed, shuts the door — and tells nobody, not even her husband, who is told only that she needs a donkey 2 Kings 4:22–23.
She answered, "It is well" 2 Kings 4:26.
She says it twice: to her husband when he asks why she is going, and to Gehazi when he runs out to ask after her family. Her son is lying dead on a bed and she says it is well. Read as denial it makes no sense of what she does next; read as a refusal to negotiate with anyone below the man who gave the promise, it is the whole passage.
When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
The prophet does not know. It is stated plainly, and it matters: prophetic sight is given, not possessed, and the man who sees Syrian war plans 2 Kings 6:12 is blind to a death in a house he sleeps in. Gehazi's instinct is to protect his master from a distraught woman, and Elisha overrules him — the second time in two chapters that the servant manages access and the prophet refuses to be managed.
Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”
Her grief is an accusation and it is aimed at the right person. She never asked for the gift; it was given, and its loss is worse than never having had it. Nobody rebukes her for saying so.
The child’s mother said, “As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose, and followed her.
Gehazi is sent ahead with the staff and it accomplishes nothing — there was no voice and no hearing 2 Kings 4:31 — and her refusal to accept a proxy is vindicated. Her words are exactly Elisha's own to Elijah on the last day 2 Kings 2:2, which is the narrative's way of saying she has understood something about persistence that the servant has not.
He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh.
The raising is done behind a closed door, with prayer first, and then the strange bodily labor — mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands, twice, with a walk up and down the room between attempts 2 Kings 4:34–35. It is his master's method 1 Kings 17:21 and it is not quick. Then seven sneezes, and open eyes.
36 He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.” 37 Then she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; then she picked up her son, and went out.
She says nothing at all. The woman who has spoken so well throughout — it is well, did I ask you for a son — bows, picks up her boy, and walks out, and the account lets the silence stand.
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