17. But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.
18. One day when her child was older, he went out to help his father, who was working with the harvesters.
19. Suddenly he cried out, “My head hurts! My head hurts!”His father said to one of the servants, “Carry him home to his mother.”
20. So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died.
21. She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there.
22. She sent a message to her husband: “Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back.”
23. “Why go today?” he asked. “It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath.”But she said, “It will be all right.”
24. So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, “Hurry! Don’t slow down unless I tell you to.”
25. As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, “Look, the woman from Shunem is coming.
26. Run out to meet her and ask her, ‘Is everything all right with you, your husband, and your child?’”“Yes,” the woman told Gehazi, “everything is fine.”
27. But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is deeply troubled, but the lord has not told me what it is.”
28. Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? And didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me and get my hopes up’?”
29. Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready to travel; take my staff and go! Don’t talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child’s face.”
30. But the boy’s mother said, “As surely as the lord lives and you yourself live, I won’t go home unless you go with me.” So Elisha returned with her.
31. Gehazi hurried on ahead and laid the staff on the child’s face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, “The child is still dead.”