17. But a few months later, the woman got pregnant. She gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had promised.
18. One day while the boy was still young, he was out in the fields with his father, where the workers were harvesting the crops.
19. Suddenly he shouted, “My head hurts. It hurts a lot!”“Carry him back to his mother,” the father said to his servant.
20. The servant picked up the boy and carried him to his mother. The boy lay on her lap all morning, and by midday he was dead.
21. She carried him upstairs to Elisha's room and laid him across the bed. Then she walked out and shut the door behind her.
22. The woman called to her husband, “I need to see the prophet. Let me use one of the donkeys. Send a servant along with me, and let me leave now, so I can get back quickly.”
23. “Why do you need to see him today?” her husband asked. “It's not the Sabbath or time for the New Moon Festival.”“That's all right,” she answered.
24. She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Let's go. And don't slow down unless I tell you to.”
25. She left at once for Mount Carmel to talk with Elisha.When Elisha saw her coming, he said, “Gehazi, look! It's the woman from Shunem.
26. Run and meet her. And ask her if everything is all right with her and her family.”“Everything is fine,” she answered Gehazi.
27. But as soon as she got to the top of the mountain, she went over and grabbed Elisha by the feet.Gehazi started towards her to push her away, when Elisha said, “Leave her alone! Don't you see how sad she is? But the Lord hasn't told me why.”
28. The woman said, “Sir, I begged you not to get my hopes up, and I didn't even ask you for a son.”
29. “Gehazi, get ready and go to her house,” Elisha said. “Take along my walking stick, and when you get there, lay it on the boy's face. Don't stop to talk to anyone, even if they try to talk to you.”
30. But the boy's mother said to Elisha, “I swear by the living Lord and by your own life that I won't leave without you.” So Elisha got up and went with them.
31. Gehazi ran on ahead and laid Elisha's walking stick on the boy's face, but the boy didn't move or make a sound. Gehazi ran back to Elisha and said, “The boy didn't wake up.”
32. Elisha arrived at the woman's house and went straight to his room, where he saw the boy's body on his bed.