And while he was telling the king … behold, the woman …: Like verse 3, this verse begins with the Hebrew verbal transition marker that is sometimes rendered “And it happened.” The coincidence in this story is heightened in this verse by the fact that it is precisely while Gehazi is telling about the woman of Shunem that she appears to make her plea for the restoration of her property. The use of the particle behold is intended to highlight the element of surprise in this correlation. For behold see the comments on 1 Kgs 1.14 and 2 Kgs 2.11.

In the middle of his telling his story, Gehazi addresses the king as My lord, O king. A literal rendering of this expression may not be appropriate in other languages, so translators should look for their own equivalent. See 1 Kgs 20.4 and 2 Kgs 6.12.

Here is the woman, and here is her son …: Both the woman and her son are presented to the king. The fact that there is no mention of the woman’s husband reinforces the belief that he was dead, perhaps even before she left to go to Philistia.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .