The Widow's Oil Multiplied
2 Kings 4:1-7 · Berean Standard Bible
In 2 Kings 4:1-7, a widow in debt, about to lose her sons to creditors, cries out to the prophet Elisha. He tells her to gather empty jars and pour out her only small jar of oil — and it keeps flowing until every jar is full, enough to sell, pay her debts, and live on the rest. It's a powerful narrative of God multiplying the little you have to meet a financial crisis.
1Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves!”
2“How can I help you?” asked Elisha. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
3“Go,” said Elisha, “borrow empty jars from all your neighbors. Do not gather just a few.
4Then go inside, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these jars, setting the full ones aside.”
5So she left him, and after she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing jars to her, and she kept pouring.
6When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another.” But he replied, “There are no more jars.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt. Then you and your sons can live on the remainder.”
Read the wider context: 2 Kings 4.
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