2 Kings 4:38

Elisha Gilgal

³⁶ Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she came. Then Elisha said, “Pick up your son.”

³⁷ She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”

³⁹ One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.

⁴⁰ And they poured it out for the men to eat, but when they tasted the stew they cried out, “There is death in the pot, O man of God!” And they could not eat it.

Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”
KJV: And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.
WEB: Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Get the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”
ASV: And Elisha came again to Gilgal. And there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.
DARBY: And Elisha came again to Gilgal. And there was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. And he said to his servant, Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.
BLB: And Elisha returned to Gilgal, and the famine [was] in the land. And the sons of the prophets were sitting before his face, and he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”

ÅB: Elisa vendte tilbake til Gilgal; det var dengang hungersnød i landet, og da profetenes disipler engang satt der hos ham, sa han til sin dreng: Sett den store gryte over og kok en rett mat for profetenes disipler!
OTB: Da Elisja vendte tilbake til Gilgal, var det hungersnød i landet. Mens profetenes disipler satt foran ham, instruerte han sin tjener, "Sett på den store gryten og lag stuing til profetenes disipler."
B1930: Elisa vendte tilbake til Gilgal; det var dengang hungersnød i landet, og da profetenes disipler engang satt der hos ham, sa han til sin dreng: Sett den store gryte over og kok en rett mat for profetenes disipler!

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

2 Kings 8:1
Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed a seven-year famine, and it has already come to the land.”
Read in context
2 Kings 2:3
Then the sons of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” “Yes, I know,” he replied. “Do not speak of it.”
Read in context
2 Kings 2:1
Shortly before the LORD took Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal,
Read in context
Luke 10:39
She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to His message.
Read in context
Acts 22:3
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised in this city. I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel in strict conformity to the law of our fathers. I am just as zealous for God as any of you here today.
Read in context
Leviticus 26:26
When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
Read in context
Luke 4:25
But I tell you truthfully that there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and great famine swept over all the land.
Read in context
1 Samuel 7:16–17
Every year he would go on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all these places.
Read in context