World English Bible · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 4
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Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of cried out to , saying, " my husband is . You know that feared . Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be ." said to her, "What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" She said, " has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil." Then he said, "Go, borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Don't borrow containers. Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full." So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured oil. When the containers were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another container." He said to her, "There isn't another container." Then the oil stopped flowing. Then she came and told the . He said, "Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest." One day went to , 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. She said to her husband, "See now, I perceive that this is a who passes by us continually. 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." 11One day he came there, and he went to the room and lay there. He said to his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she stood before him. 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 among my own people." He said, "What then is to be done for her?" answered, "Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old." 15He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the door. He said, "At this season next year, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my , you , do not lie to ." The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season when the time came around, as had said to her. When the child was grown, one day he went out to his to the reapers. He said to his , "My head! My head!" He said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother." When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then . She went up and laid him on the bed, and shut the door on him, and went out. 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 and come again." He said, "Why would you want to go to him today? It is not a or a ." She said, "It's all right." 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." So she went, and came to the to . When the saw her afar off, he said to his servant, "Behold, there is the Shunammite. 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." When she came to the to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. came near to thrust her away; but the said, "Leave her alone, for her is troubled within her; and has hidden it from me, and has not told me." Then she said, "Did I ask you for a son, my ? Didn't I say, 'Do not deceive me'?" Then he said to , "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my 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 on the child's ." The child's mother said, "As lives, and as your lives, I will not leave you." So he arose, and followed her. went ahead of them, and laid the on the child's ; but there was no voice and no hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, "The child has not awakened." When had come into the house, behold, the child was , and lying on his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and to . He went up and lay on the child, and put his on his , and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the child's grew warm. 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. He called , and said, "Call this Shunammite!" So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, "Take up your son." Then she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; then she picked up her son, and went out. came again to . There was a in the land; and the sons of were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, "Get the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of ." One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild , and gathered a lap full of wild gourds from it, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew; for they didn't recognize them. So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out and said, ", there is in the pot!" And they could not eat it. But he said, "Then bring meal." He threw it into the pot; and he said, " it to the people, that they may eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot. A man from Shalishah came, and brought the some bread of the : twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. said, "Give to the people, that they may eat." His servant said, "What, should I set this before a hundred men?" But he said, "Give it to the people, that they may eat; for says, 'They will eat, and will have some left over.'" 44So he set it before them and they ate and had some left over, according to word.
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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.