4:24. And she saddled an ass, and commanded her servant: Drive, and make haste, make no stay in going: And do that which I bid thee.
4:25. So she went forward, and came to the man of God, to mount Carmel: and when the man of God saw her coming towards, he said to Giezi, his servant: Behold that Sunamitess.
4:26. Go, therefore, to meet her, and say to her: Is all well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son? And she answered: Well.
4:27. And when she came to the man of God, to the mount, she caught hold on his feet: and Giezi came to remove her. And the man of God said: Let her alone for her soul is in anguish, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.
4:28. And she said to him: Did I ask a son of my lord? did I not say to thee: Do not deceive me?
4:29. Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him not: and if any man salute thee, answer him not: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.
Salute him not… He that is sent to raise to life the sinner spiritually dead, must not suffer himself to be called off, or diverted from his enterprise, by the salutations or ceremonies of the world.
4:30. But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose, therefore, and followed her.
4:31. But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child, and there was no voice nor sense: and he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: The child is not risen.
St. Augustine considers a great mystery in this miracle wrought by the prophet Eliseus, thus: By the staff sent by his servant is figured the rod of Moses, or the Old Law, which was not sufficient to bring mankind to life then dead in sin. It was necessary that Christ himself should come, and by taking on human nature, become flesh of our flesh, and restore us to life. In this Eliseus was a figure of Christ, as it was necessary that he should come himself to bring the dead child to life and restore him to his mother, who is here, in a mystical sense, a figure of the Church.