¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

² Up! go down to the potter's house, and there I will let my words come to your ears.

³ Then I went down to the potter's house, and he was doing his work on the stones.

⁴ And when the vessel, which he was forming out of earth, got damaged in the hand of the potter, he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁶ O Israel, am I not able to do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. See, like earth in the potter's hand are you in my hands, O Israel.

⁷ Whenever I say anything about uprooting a nation or a kingdom, and smashing it and sending destruction on it;

⁸ If, in that very minute, that nation of which I was talking is turned away from its evil, my purpose of doing evil to them will be changed.

⁹ And whenever I say anything about building up a nation or a kingdom, and planting it;

¹⁰ If, in that very minute, it does evil in my eyes, going against my orders, then my good purpose, which I said I would do for them, will be changed.

¹¹ Now, then, say to the men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am forming an evil thing against you, and designing a design against you: let every man come back now from his evil way, and let your ways and your doings be changed for the better.

¹² But they will say, There is no hope: we will go on in our designs, and every one of us will do what he is moved by the pride of his evil heart to do.

¹³ So this is what the Lord has said: Make search among the nations and see who has had word of such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very shocking thing.

¹⁴ Will the white snow go away from the top of Sirion? will the cold waters flowing from the mountains become dry?

¹⁵ For my people have put me out of their memory, burning perfumes to that which is nothing; and because of this, I will put a cause of falling in their ways, even in the old roads, and will make them go on side-roads, in a way not lifted up;

¹⁶ Making their land a thing of wonder, causing sounds of surprise for ever; everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder, shaking his head.

¹⁷ I will send them in flight, as from an east wind, before the attacker; I will let them see my back and not my face on the day of their downfall.

¹⁸ Then they said, Come, let us make a design against Jeremiah; for teaching will never be cut off from the priest, or wisdom from the wise, or the word from the prophet. Come, let us make use of his words for an attack on him, and let us give attention with care to what he says.

¹⁹ Give thought to me, O Lord, and give ear to the voice of those who put forward a cause against me.

²⁰ Is evil to be the reward of good? for they have made a deep hole for my soul. Keep in mind how I took my place before you, to say a good word for them so that your wrath might be turned away from them.

²¹ For this cause, let their children be without food, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives be without children and become widows; let their men be overtaken by death, and their young men be put to the sword in the fight.

²² Let a cry for help go up from their houses, when you send an armed band on them suddenly: for they have made a hole in which to take me, and have put nets for my feet secretly.

²³ But you, Lord, have knowledge of all the designs which they have made against my life; let not their evil-doing be covered or their sin be washed away from before your eyes: but let it be a cause of falling before you: so do to them in the time of your wrath.

¹ Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves."

² Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil."

³ Then he said, "Go, borrow containers from of all your neighbors, even empty containers. Don't borrow just a few.

⁴ You shall go in, and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour out into all those containers; and you shall set aside that which is full."

⁵ So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons; they brought the containers to her, and she poured out.

⁶ It happened, when the containers were full, that she said to her son, "Bring me another container." He said to her, "There isn't another container." The oil stopped flowing.

⁷ Then she came and told the man of God. He said, "Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest."

⁸ It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, 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.

⁹ She said to her husband, "See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually.

¹⁰ Please let us make a little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there."

¹¹ One day he came there, and he turned into the room and lay there.

¹² He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she stood before him.

¹³ 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 dwell among my own people."

¹⁴ He said, "What then is to be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old."

¹⁵ He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the door.

¹⁶ He said, "At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid."

¹⁷ The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her.

¹⁸ When the child was grown, it happened one day that he went out to his father to the reapers.

¹⁹ He said to his father, "My head! My head!" He said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."

²⁰ When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died.

²¹ She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went out.

²² 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 man of God, and come again."

²³ He said, "Why would you want go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She said, "It's alright."

²⁴ 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."

²⁵ So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. It happened, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, "Behold, there is the Shunammite.

²⁶ Please run now to meet her, and ask her, 'Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?'" She answered, "It is well."

²⁷ When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, "Leave her alone; for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me."

²⁸ Then she said, "Did I desire a son of my lord? Didn't I say, Do not deceive me?"

²⁹ Then he said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff 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 staff on the face of the child."

³⁰ The mother of the child said, "As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." He arose, and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, "The child has not awakened."

³² When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid on his bed.

³³ He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh.

³⁴ He went up, and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child grew warm.

³⁵ Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.

³⁶ He called Gehazi, and said, "Call this Shunammite!" So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, "Take up your son."

³⁷ Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out.

³⁸ 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, "Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."

³⁹ One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of stew; for they didn't recognize them.

⁴⁰ So they poured out for the men to eat. It happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, "Man of God, there is death in the pot!" They could not eat of it.

⁴¹ But he said, "Then bring meal." He cast it into the pot; and he said, "Pour out for the people, that they may eat." There was no harm in the pot.

⁴² A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, "Give to the people, that they may eat."

⁴³ His servant said, "What, should I set this before a hundred men?" But he said, "Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, 'They will eat, and will have some left over.'"

⁴⁴ So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to the word of Yahweh.