The Shunammite Woman

A woman in Shunem receives Elisha regularly and, recognizing his holiness, persuades her husband to prepare a small furnished room for his visits.

O⁸ne day Elisha went to Shunem, and a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal. So whenever he would pass by, he would stop there to eat. ⁹Then the woman said to her husband, “Behold, now I know that the one who often comes our way is a holy man of God. ¹⁰Please let us make a small room upstairs and put in it a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there.”

When Elisha stays there again, he has Gehazi call the woman and asks what may be done for her in return, even offering access to royal or military help.

¹¹One day Elisha came to visit and went to his upper room to lie down. ¹²And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call the Shunammite woman.” ¹³And when he had called her, she stood before him, and Elisha said to Gehazi, “Now tell her, ‘Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’”

Learning that she has no son, Elisha calls her and promises that she will hold a son the next year. Though she resists the word at first, she conceives and bears the child as he said.

¹⁴So he asked, “Then what should be done for her?” ¹⁵“Call her,” said Elisha. ¹⁶So Gehazi called her, and she stood in the doorway. And Elisha declared, “At this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” ¹⁷But the woman did conceive, and at that time the next year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.