The Widow's Jar of Oil

Biblical Account

The account appears in 2 Kings 4:1-7. The wife of one of the sons of the prophets, having lost her husband, appeals to Elisha. Because of a debt her husband left behind, a creditor intends to take her two sons as slaves. Elisha asks her, "Tell me, what hast thou in the house?" (2 Kings 4:2). The woman answers that she has nothing but a pot of oil.

Elisha tells her to borrow plenty of empty vessels from her neighbors. He then instructs her to go into her house with her two sons, shut the door, and pour the oil into those vessels. When she does so, each vessel is filled, and when no vessels remain to be filled, the oil stops. Elisha tells her to sell the oil, pay the debt, and live with her sons on what remains.

Background

• The sons of the prophets: A company of people who gathered around the prophets in the time of Elijah and Elisha. This woman's husband is described as a man who feared the LORD.
• Debt and servitude: In ancient Israel, a person who could not repay a debt, or that person's children, could be made a slave. The Law restricted this practice by requiring that fellow Israelite slaves be released after a set period (Exodus 21:2; Leviticus 25:39-41; Deuteronomy 15:12). Nehemiah 5:5 also depicts children being given over into bondage because of debt.
• Oil: The oil is understood to be olive oil. It was widely used for food, for lamps, and for anointing the body, and it was a basic commodity that could be sold.

Significance in the Broader Biblical Context

This story parallels the miracle in which Elijah kept the flour and oil of the widow of Zarephath from running out (1 Kings 17:8-16), and it is commonly read as showing that Elisha inherited Elijah's ministry. The same chapter goes on to recount the story of the Shunammite woman and the miracle in which twenty barley loaves fed a hundred men (2 Kings 4:42-44). Christian interpreters have compared these miracles with Jesus' miracles in which a small amount met the needs of many, such as the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand. The Old Testament teaching to care for widows and orphans carries over into the New Testament in the church's care for widows (Acts 6:1; James 1:27).

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• The meaning of the empty vessels: Many interpreters, noting that the oil filled as many vessels as had been borrowed, emphasize the measure of faith and obedience. A symbolic reading that takes the oil as the Holy Spirit and the empty vessels as believers who have emptied themselves is also common in preaching. The text itself, however, offers no such interpretation, and some interpreters in the Reformed tradition caution against this kind of allegorical reading.
• Prosperity and provision: In response to sermons that apply this miracle as a promise of material abundance, critics of prosperity theology point out that the miracle in the text did no more than pay off a debt and sustain a livelihood.
• Additional traditions: Josephus and some Jewish traditions identify this widow as the wife of Obadiah, Ahab's official who hid and fed the prophets in 1 Kings 18, and hold that her husband's debt arose from that undertaking. The text gives neither her name nor her husband's.

In the Korean Church

The question "What hast thou in the house?" and the instruction "borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few" (2 Kings 4:3) are frequently quoted in Korean church preaching. They are used mainly to encourage faith that offers to God what one has, a sense of stewardship that begins with small things, and prayer offered in expectant preparation.