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2 Kings 4 · a question people ask

Why didn't Elisha's staff wake the child?

In the text

The chapter doesn't say. It tells what Elisha told Gehazi: "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" (4:29). It tells that the mother said, "As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you" (4:30), and that Elisha "arose, and followed her" (4:30). And it tells what happened: Gehazi "laid the staff on the child’s face; but there was no voice and no hearing" (4:31). The chapter gives no reason, and doesn't say whether Elisha expected the staff to wake him. What it tells next is Elisha going in himself, shutting the door "on them both", and praying "to the LORD" (4:33). These notes don't guess beyond that.

The verses

“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.” The child’s mother said, “As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose, and followed her. 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.””
2 Kings 4:29-31 · World English Bible
“He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to the LORD.”
2 Kings 4:33 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Kings 4

2 Kings 4: 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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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions