dignation at the bloody sight, put an end to their expedition, and returned to their own country.

After this the aid of the prophet was entreated by a poor widow, whose two sons were about to be seized and made slaves by a creditor for a debt she owed, and could not pay. And Eliseus said to her: What wilt thou have me to do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? And she answered: I thy handmaid have nothing in my house but a little oil to anoint me. And he said to her: Go, borrow of all thy neighbours empty vessels not a few. And go in, and shut thy door, when thou art within, and thy sons; and pour out thereof into all those vessels: and when they are full, take them away. So the woman went, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons: they brought her the vessels, and she poured in. And when the vessels were full, she said to her son: Bring me yet a vessel. And he answered: I have no more. And the oil stood. And she came, and told the man of God. And he said: Go, sell the oil, and pay thy creditor: and thou and thy sons live of the rest.

CHAP. XXIII. Eliseus raises a dead child to life.

In the course of his journeys the prophet often passed through the town of Sunam, and was there entertained by a pious woman and her husband, who at length fitted up a small room for his use, that whenever he pleased he might lodge there. At last, in return for the devout woman's attentions, he asked her what he could do for her in return; and finding what it was she most desired, he promised her that though she was now advanced in years, and childless, a son should be born to her. And the child was born, and grew up; and on a certain day, when he went out to his father, to the reapers, he said to his father: My head acheth: my head acheth. But he said to his servant: Take him, and carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, she set him on

her knees until noon: and then he died. And she went up, and laid him upon the bed of the man of God, and shut the door: and going out, she called her husband, and said: Send with me, I beseech thee, one of thy servants, and an ass, that I may run to the man of God, and come again. And he said to her: Why dost thou go to him? to-day is neither new moon nor Sabbath. She answered: I will go. And she saddled an ass, and commanded her servant: Drive, and make haste; make no stay in going. And do that which I bid thee. So she went forward, and came to the man of God to mount Carmel: and when the man of God saw her coming towards him, he said to Giezi his servant: Behold that Sunamitess. Go therefore to meet her, and say to her: Is all well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son? And she answered: Well. And when she came to the man of God to the mount, she caught hold on his feet: and Giezi came to remove her. And the man of God said: Let her alone; for her soul is in anguish and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. And she said to him: Did I ask a son of my lord? did I not say to thee: Do not deceive me? Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him not and if any man salute thee, answer him not: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose, therefore, and followed her. But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child: and there was no voice nor sense: and he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: The child is not risen. Eliseus therefore went into the house: and behold, the child lay dead on his bed.

And he went in, and shut the door, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the child : and he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he bowed himself upon him; and the child's flesh grew warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house,

N

once to and fro: and he went up, and lay upon him: and the child gaped seven times, and opened his eyes. And he called Giezi, and said to him: Call this Sunamitess. And when she came, he said: Take up thy son and she came and fell at his feet, and worshipped on the ground and took her son, and went out.

And Eliseus returned to Galgal; and there was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets dwelt before him. And he said to one of his servants: Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather wild herbs: and he found something like a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds of the field, and filled his mantle; and coming back, he shred them into the pot of pottage: for he knew not what it was. And they poured it out for their companions to eat and when they had tasted of the pottage, they cried out, saying: Death is in the pot, O man of God. And they could not eat thereof. But he said: Bring some meal. And when they had brought it, he cast it into the pot, and said: Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was now no bitterness in the pot. And a certain man came from Baalsalisa, bringing to the man of God bread of the first-fruits, twenty loaves of barley and new corn in his scrip. And he said: Give to the people, that they may eat. And his servant answered him: How much is this, that I should set it before a hundred men? He said again: Give to the people, that they may eat for thus saith the Lord: They shall eat; and there shall be left. So he set it before them: and they ate ; and there was left according to the word of the Lord.

CHAP. XXIV. Naaman the Syrian.

NAAMAN, general of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable: for by him the Lord gave deliverance to Syria; and he was a valiant man, and rich, but a leper. Now there had gone out robbers from Syria, and had led away captive

out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited upon Naaman's wife. And she said to her mistress : I wish my master had been with the prophet that is in Samaria; he would certainly have healed him of the leprosy which he hath. Then Naaman went into his lord, and told him, saying: Thus and thus saith the girl from the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said to him: Go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed; and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment; and brought the letter to the king of Israel, in these words: When thou shalt receive this letter, know that I have sent to thee Naaman my servant, that thou mayest heal him of his leprosy. And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he rent his garments, and said: Am I God, to be able to kill and give life, that this man hath sent to me, to heal a man of his leprosy? mark, and see how he seeketh occasions against me. And when Eliseus the man of God had heard this, to wit, that the king of Israel had rent his garments, he sent to him, saying: Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus. And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan: and thy flesh shall recover health; and thou shalt be clean. Naaman was angry, and went away saying: I thought he would have come out to me, and standing would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me. Are not the Abana, and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean? So as he turned, and was going away with indignation, His servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, surely thou shouldst have done it how much rather what he now hath said to thee Wash, and thou shalt be clean? Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times, according

:

:

to the word of the man of God: and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child; and he was made clean. And returning to the man of God with all his train, he came, and stood before him, and said: In truth I know there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel: I beseech thee therefore take a blessing of thy servant. But he answered: As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And when he pressed him, he still refused. And Naaman said: As thou wilt; but I beseech thee, grant to me thy servant, to take from hence two mules burden of earth: for thy servant will not henceforth offer holocaust, or victim to other gods, but to the Lord. But there is only this, for which thou shalt entreat the Lord for thy servant; when my master goeth into the temple of Remmon, to worship, and he leaneth upon my hand, if I bow down in the temple of Remmon, when he boweth down in the same place, that the Lord pardon me thy servant for this thing. And he said to him: Go in peace. Not that we are to understand that the prophet permitted Naaman to offer idolatrous worship to the false god of his master, nor to perform any act which might even seem to be such. What he permitted was merely that public attendance upon the king, as his king, which was exacted from him because of the office he held. When the king leaned on Naaman's arm, and bowed himself before the idol, the posture in which he stood might compel him to bow also, in order to support his master from falling. And this it was which Eliseus permitted, knowing, doubtless, that as Naaman would be known to be a worshipper of the true God, no scandal would be caused, and his conduct would be understood in its true light.

As soon as the devout and faithful Naaman was gone, about to witness for the true faith in the midst of the heathen, the prophet's own house displayed an awful instance of the sin which can be found in the closest proximity to the greatest of God's saints. Giezi, the servant of Eliseus, said to himself: My master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving of him that