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 then had her called again, and told her when she had entered the door: “At this time a year hence (חיּה כּעת, lit., at the time when it revives again; see at Gen 18:10) thou wilt embrace a son.” The same favour was to be granted to the Shunammite as that which Sarah had received in her old age, that she might learn that the God of Abraham still ruled in and for Israel. She replied: “No, my lord, thou man of God,” אל־תּכזּב, I do not excite in thy servant any deceptive hopes.

Verse 17
But however incredible this promise might appear to her, as it had formerly done to Sarah (Gen 18:12-13), it was fulfilled at the appointed time (cf. Gen 21:2).

Verses 18-20
But even the faith of the pious woman was soon to be put to the test, and to be confirmed by a still more glorious revelation of the omnipotence of the Lord, who works through the medium of His prophets. When the child presented to her by God had grown up into a lad, he complained one day to the reapers of the field of a violent headache, saying to his father, “My head, my head!” He was then taken home to his mother, and died at noon upon her knees, no doubt from inflammation of the brain produced by a sunstroke.

Verses 21-23
The mother took the dead child at once up to the chamber built for Elisha, laid it upon the bed of the man of God, and shut the door behind her; she then asked her husband, without telling him of the death of the boy, to send a young man with a she-ass, that she might ride as quickly as possible to the man of God; and when her husband asked her, “Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day, since it is neither new moon nor Sabbath?” she replied, shalom; i.e., either “it is all well,” or “never mind.” For this word, which is used in reply to a question after one’s health (see 2Ki 4:26), is apparently also used, as Clericus has correctly observed, when the object is to avoid giving a definite answer to any one, and yet at the same time to satisfy him.

Verses 24-25
She then rode without stopping, upon the animal