King James Version · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 4
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Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of unto , saying, Thy servant my husband is ; and thou knowest that thy servant did : and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not . And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a . And he said unto her, There is not a more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the . And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. And it fell on a day, that passed to , where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an , which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. 11And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there. And he said to his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I among mine own people. And he said, What then is to be done for her? And answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old. 15And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my , thou , do not lie unto thine handmaid. And the woman conceived, and a son at that season that had said unto her, according to the time of life. And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his to the reapers. And he said unto his , My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then . And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the , and shut the door upon him, and went out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the , and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither , nor . And she said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee. So she went and came unto the to . And it came to pass, when the saw her afar off, that he said to his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite: Run now, I thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. And when she came to the to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but came near to thrust her away. And the said, Let her alone; for her is vexed within her: and hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. Then she said, Did I a son of my ? did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he said to , Gird up thy loins, and take my in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my upon the of the child. And the mother of the child said, As liveth, and as thy liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her. And passed on before them, and laid the upon the of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked. And when was come into the house, behold, the child was , and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and unto . And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his upon his , and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called , and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out. And came again to : and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of . And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild , and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou , there is in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. And there came a man from –shalisha, and brought the bread of the , twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat. And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith , They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. 44So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The divided kingdom, 931 BC to 745 BC ›
Israel in the north and Judah in the south, often at odds, with Aram of Damascus as the immediate threat and Assyria growing in the distance.
- Aram of Damascus
- The immediate enemy for most of two centuries, close enough to raid every campaigning season and strong enough to take territory. Most of the wars in Kings that read like national emergencies are border wars with Damascus.
- Assyria
- Growing steadily in the distance. Shalmaneser III fights a coalition at Qarqar in 853 BC and his own inscription lists King Ahab of Israel among his opponents with two thousand chariots, the earliest Assyrian mention of an Israelite king. A later monument shows Jehu bowing and paying tribute. Assyria is not yet the destroyer, but it is already taking notes.
- Egypt
- Divided and unreliable, capable of the occasional raid, such as Shishak stripping the temple in Rehoboam's fifth year, but no longer an empire that governs the Levant.
- Further afield
- The Greeks adopt the alphabet, hold the first Olympiad by tradition in 776 BC, and begin to compose the Homeric poems. Rome is founded by tradition in 753 BC, a village of huts at this point. This is the century in which the classical world begins.