The Shunamite's Son Revived

Elisha HaNavi told the Shunamite woman that at that season the next year she would be embracing a son. She answered, "Please, my lord, man of God, do not delude your maidservant." The woman conceived, and bore a son at the very season Elisha had promised.

The child grew. One day he went out to his father among the reapers, and suddenly he cried out, "Oh, my head, my head." His father told a servant to carry him to his mother. The boy sat on his mother's lap until noon, and then he died.

She took him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, closed the door, and went out. She called to her husband and asked him to send her one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so that she could hurry to the man of God and return. He asked, "Why are you going to him today? It is neither Rosh Chodesh nor Shabbos." She answered, "It is all right." She had the donkey saddled and told her servant to urge it on and not to slow down unless she said so.

She came to the man of God on Mount Carmel. When Elisha saw her from afar, he said to his servant Gechazi, "There is that Shunamite woman. Hurry toward her and ask how she is, how her husband is, and how the child is." She replied, "We are well." But when she reached the mountain she clasped Elisha's feet. Gechazi stepped forward to push her away, but Elisha said, "Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and Hashem has hidden it from me and has not told me." She said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn't I say, do not mislead me?"

Elisha told Gechazi to tie up his skirts, take the staff in his hand and go, to greet no one and answer no one on the way, and to place the staff on the face of the boy. But the boy's mother said, "As Hashem lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So Elisha arose and followed her.

Gechazi went ahead and placed the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response. He turned back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened."

Elisha came into the house, and there was the boy, laid out dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to Hashem. Then he mounted the bed and placed himself over the child. He put his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands, and the body of the child became warm. Elisha stepped down, walked once up and down the room, then mounted the bed and bent over him again. The boy sneezed seven times, and he opened his eyes.

Elisha called Gechazi and told him to call the Shunamite woman. When she came, Elisha said, "Pick up your son." She came and fell at his feet and bowed low to the ground. Then she picked up her son and left.