¹⁹ Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold now, the site of the city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land ^[a]is unfruitful.” ²⁰ And he said, “Bring me a new jar, and put salt ^[b]in it.” So they brought it to him. ²¹ Then he went out to the spring of water and ^(A)threw salt ^[c]in it and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have ^[d]purified these waters; there shall not come from there death or ^[e]unfruitfulness any longer.’” ²² So the waters have been ^[f]purified to this day, in accordance with the word of Elisha which he spoke.

²³ Now he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the road, some young boys came out from the city and ^(B)ridiculed him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” ²⁴ When he looked behind him and saw them, he ^(C)cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two ^[g]of the boys. ²⁵ He then went on from there to ^(D)Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

The Widow’s Oil

4 Now a woman of the wives of ^(A)the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord; and ^(B)the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” ² So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except ^(C)a jar of oil.” ³ Then he said, “Go, ^[a]borrow containers ^[b]elsewhere for yourself, empty containers from all your neighbors—do not get too few. ⁴ Then you shall come in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour into all these containers; and you shall set aside what is full.” ⁵ So she left him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they began bringing the containers to her, and she poured the oil. ⁶ When ^(D)the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” But he said to her, “There ^[c]are no more containers.” Then the oil stopped. ⁷ So she came and told ^(E)the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”