The Shunammite Woman in the Bible

What does the name The Shunammite Woman mean?

The Bible does not give her personal name: she is called the Shunammite, that is, the woman of Shunem, a town in Israel (2 Kings 4:8, 12). Her identity is therefore tied to the place where she lived, not to a proper name.

The world of The Shunammite Woman

The story of the Shunammite takes place in the kingdom of Israel, the northern kingdom, in the days of the prophet Elisha. By the usual reckoning, she is placed in the ninth century before Christ, shortly after the ministry of Elijah, whom Elisha succeeded. The people are living through a time of great spiritual confusion: Ahab introduced the worship of Baal, and yet God keeps prophets in the midst of his people who speak in his name. Elisha travels the land, and the Bible often shows him on the move, received here and there. The account begins at Shunem, a town in Israel, then leads the woman to Mount Carmel, where the man of God is (2 Kings 4:25). In this farming world, the life of a household rests on the house, the field, the husband and the children. The text suggests that a son mattered greatly in this home, since Gehazi points out that she has no son and that her husband is old (2 Kings 4:14). Famine, finally, is a recurring reality in the book: chapter 4 mentions one at Gilgal, and chapter 8 announces one of seven years. To understand this story, we should remember that the Shunammite is neither a prophet nor a queen, but an ordinary woman whose faith shows itself in hospitality, perseverance and obedience.

The story of The Shunammite Woman

1. A prominent woman at Shunem

   2 Kings 4:8-10

   Elisha passes through Shunem. A prominent woman urges him to stay and eat, and every time he passes by, he turns in to her house to eat. What began as a meal becomes a habit. She observes this man and tells her husband she perceives that the man who passes by them continually is a holy man of God. She does not settle for an occasional welcome: she proposes to make a little room on the roof, and to set in it a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp stand. The plan is made with her husband, it is simple and concrete, and it is wholly directed toward serving the man of God.

2. A promise she dared not hope for

   2 Kings 4:11-17

   Elisha, back at Shunem, goes to the room on the roof and lies down there. He has the Shunammite called by Gehazi and wants to thank her: should he speak for her to the king or to the captain of the army? She asks for nothing and answers, “I dwell among my own people.” Gehazi then points out that she has no son and that her husband is old. Elisha has her called to the door and announces that at this season next year she will embrace a son. Her reaction is strong: “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.” Yet the promise is fulfilled, at that same season the next year, as Elisha had told her.

3. The death of the child

   2 Kings 4:18-21

   The child grows. One day he goes out to his father among the reapers and says, “My head! My head!” The father tells a servant to carry him to his mother. The servant takes him, and the child sits on his mother’s knees until noon, then dies. The text gives neither a cause nor any explanation. What the mother does next is remarkable: she goes up, lays her son on the bed of the man of God, shuts the door on him and goes out. No lament is reported at this moment. She places her dead son in the room she had prepared for the man of God.

4. It is well, and the road to Carmel

   2 Kings 4:22-27

   She calls her husband and asks him for a servant and a donkey so that she can hurry to the man of God. He is puzzled: it is neither a new moon nor a Sabbath. She answers, “It’s all right.” She has the donkey saddled and tells her servant not to slow down for her unless she says so. On Carmel, Elisha sees her from afar and sends Gehazi to ask whether she, her husband and the child are well. She answers again, “It is well.” Only when she reaches the man of God does she catch hold of his feet. Elisha then recognizes that her soul is troubled within her and that Yahweh has hidden it from him.

5. I will not leave you

   2 Kings 4:28-31

   In her distress she speaks plainly: “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me’?” Elisha sends Gehazi with his staff, but the mother declares: “As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” Elisha rises and follows her. Gehazi goes ahead of them and lays the staff on the child’s face, but there is no voice and no hearing. He returns to meet Elisha and tells him that the child has not awakened. The mother’s perseverance has brought the man of God himself all the way to the house.

6. Prayer in the room on the roof

   2 Kings 4:32-35

   When Elisha comes into the house, the child is dead, lying on his bed. He goes in, shuts the door on the two of them and prays to Yahweh. He goes up and lies on the child, mouth on mouth, eyes on eyes, hands on hands, and the child’s flesh grows warm. Elisha steps away, walks once back and forth in the house, then goes up again and stretches himself out on the child. The child sneezes seven times and opens his eyes. The account stays restrained: it describes the actions, the prayer, then the return to life, without a long explanation.

7. Take up your son

   2 Kings 4:36-37

   Elisha calls Gehazi and tells him to call the Shunammite. When she comes in, he simply says, “Take up your son.” The mother’s answer is not a speech. She goes in, falls at his feet and bows herself to the ground, then picks up her son and goes out. The text reports no word of thanks, only these actions. The woman who had laid her dead son on the bed of the man of God takes him back alive. The chapter then goes on with other signs worked by Elisha for the people, in the time of the famine at Gilgal.

8. The warning of famine

   2 Kings 8:1-2

   Further on in the account, Elisha speaks to “the woman whose son he had restored to life.” He tells her to arise, to go with her household and to stay wherever she can, for Yahweh has called for a famine, which will come on the land for seven years. The Bible does not say what this departure costs her, but it notes what matters: the woman arises and does according to the man of God’s word. She goes with her household and lives in the land of the Philistines for seven years. The woman who believed Elisha in her grief obeys him again when he asks her to leave everything.

9. Before the king, at the right moment

   2 Kings 8:3-6

   At the end of the seven years, the woman returns from the land of the Philistines and goes to beg the king for her house and her land. At that very moment the king is talking with Gehazi and asking him to tell all the great things Elisha has done. While Gehazi speaks of the child brought back to life, the woman arrives, and Gehazi says, “this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.” The king questions her, and she tells him. He appoints an officer for her with orders to restore all that was hers, with all the fruits of the field since the day she left the land.

What The Shunammite Woman teaches us

• A generous and quiet welcome can become the place where God works, long before anyone expects it.
• In distress, bring your pain to God instead of shutting yourself in with it: the Shunammite goes up to the man of God and will not let go of him.
• Saying “It is well” does not deny suffering. It means going to look for the Lord’s help instead of collapsing.
• God hears prayer and can restore life where there is no human hope left.
• Obeying God’s word, even when it means leaving everything, does not stop God from watching over what belongs to us.

Key verses

Bible verses to meditate on

• 20 Bible Verses on the Will of God
• 25 Bible Verses on Prayer

Sermons about The Shunammite Woman

• 2 Kings 4: It Is Well, Even in the Midst of TrialsThe preacher starts from the Shunammite’s answer in 2 Kings 4:26, which inspired the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul,” to show that hope remains even in mourning.
• Pain Won't Have the Last WordJust as the Shunammite carries her son to the room on the roof prepared for Elisha, he invites us to bring our situation into God’s presence rather than let it die far from him.
• Accepting the Unacceptable When God Explains NothingHe sees in the Shunammite’s “It is well” not denial but the trust of a woman who knows that God remains in control.
• 2 Kings 8: The Goodness and Severity of GodFrom 2 Kings 8:1-6, he shows the Lord’s kindness toward this faithful woman of Shunem, who recovers her house and her field after seven years away.

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