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2 Kings 4 Bible study: It is well
With her son dead on the man of God's bed, the Shunammite told her husband "It’s all right" (4:23) and Gehazi "It is well" (4:26): in Hebrew both are shalom. And Elisha's "At this season next year" (4:16) uses, in Hebrew, words from the LORD's promise of a son to Sarah (Genesis 18:14).
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“He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to the LORD.”
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“In 2 Kings 4, the Shunammite says to Elisha, "As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you."”
Is that in 2 Kings 4, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Behind a shut door
Three times in this chapter a door is shut. The widow is told, "Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons" (4:4), and "she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons" (4:5); behind it the oil pours until "There isn’t another container" (4:6). The Shunammite, with her son dead, "laid him on the man of God’s bed, and shut the door on him, and went out" (4:21). And Elisha, when he comes, "went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to the LORD" (4:33) (tap shut). The widow's story ends with "Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest" (4:7) (tap live). The Shunammite's ends with "Take up your son" (4:36).
Where it leads to Jesus
The Father raises the dead
2 Kings 4:33leads toJohn 5:21
The Shunammite's son "sat on her knees until noon, and then died" (4:20). Elisha "shut the door on them both, and prayed to the LORD" (4:33), and "the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes" (4:35). Jesus said, "For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires" (John 5:21). Jesus doesn't mention Elisha or 2 Kings 4, and no New Testament verse cites this chapter, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear them together: here a child the narrator calls dead (4:20, 4:32) opens his eyes after the prophet prays to the LORD, and Jesus says it is the Father who raises the dead, and that the Son also gives life. Others read John 5:21 in its own setting, where Jesus answers those who "sought all the more to kill him" (John 5:18) and speaks of what the Father shows the Son (John 5:19-20), and don't set Elisha beside it.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 2 Kings 4
That was a taste
The rest of 2 Kings 4 is waiting in Favor
- A woman who asked for nothing
- "It is well"
- Death in the pot, and some left over
- "At this season next year"
- "Did I ask you for a son?"
- 16 questions as you read
- 14 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach 2 Kings 4 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
שָׁלוֹםshalomsay sha-LOHM
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "completeness, soundness, welfare, peace". Strong's: "safe, i.e. (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace". Elisha sends Gehazi to ask, "Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child?", and she answers, "It is well" (4:26): in Hebrew each well is shalom, four times in one verse. When her husband asked why she would go to the man of God today, her answer, "It’s all right" (4:23), was the same one word. The chapter has it only in these two verses. Five chapters on, King Joram's horsemen ask Jehu, "Is it peace?" (9:18, 9:19), with the same word.
For your group
2 Kings 4 Bible study questions
- 1Elisha asked the widow, "what do you have in the house?" (4:2), and began with her one pot of oil. What small thing do you have that you've been treating as nothing?
- 2The Shunammite made "a little room on the roof" for Elisha (4:10) and, when offered something in return, said, "I dwell among my own people" (4:13). Who could you make room for this week, without asking anything back?
- 3With her son dead on the man of God's bed, the Shunammite said, "It is well" (4:26), and at Elisha's feet said, "Did I ask you for a son, my lord?" (4:28). Where do you take what's really wrong, and who is it hard to tell?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 2 Kings 4 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
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Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home