Image Details

Leighton House, London

The prophet kneels over the pallid youth in “Elisha Healing the Shunammite Woman’s Son,” by the British painter Lord Leighton (1830–1896).

The painting captures the scene in 2 Kings 4:32–34, “When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door upon the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. Then he went up and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm.”

Elisha has long-received sole credit for this great miracle. Thanks to Burke Long’s new reading of the story, the under-appreciated actions of the Shunammite woman—her hurried journey to Mt. Carmel, her confrontation with Elisha and her insistence that he personally help her son—now get their due.