Shunammite

A "Shunammite" is a woman from the town of Shunem in Issachar's allotment. Two such women dominate the narrative: Abishag, the beautiful young woman who attends the aged David and becomes the pretext for Adonijah's death; and the unnamed wealthy hostess of Elisha, whose son the prophet raises from the dead.

Abishag the Shunammite

When David is old and "could not get warm," his servants comb the country for a young attendant: "So they sought for a beautiful damsel throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king" (1Ki 1:3).

After David's death the question of Abishag becomes lethally political. Adonijah approaches Bathsheba and asks her to petition Solomon: "Speak, I pray you, to Solomon the king (for he will not say no to you), that he give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife" (1Ki 2:17). When Bathsheba relays the request — "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife" (1Ki 2:21) — Solomon hears it as a play for the throne: "And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother" (1Ki 2:22). On that reading Solomon swears Adonijah's death and dispatches Benaiah to execute him (1Ki 2:23-25). Abishag the Shunammite is the test case in which inheriting a former king's woman is treated as inheriting his crown.

The Shunammite Hostess of Elisha

The other Shunammite is unnamed and "great" — wealthy and weighty enough in her town to host the prophet whenever he passes through: "And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread" (2Ki 4:8). Her household becomes Elisha's regular Shunem stop, and Gehazi summons her on the prophet's behalf: "Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him" (2Ki 4:12).

Elisha promises her the son she has not been given: "At this season, when the time comes round, you will embrace a son. And she said, No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your slave" (2Ki 4:16). The boy is born and grows; one day in the field he collapses and is brought home: "he sat on her knees until noon, and then died" (2Ki 4:20).

The Shunammite carries her grief straight to Carmel and to Elisha. When Gehazi tries to push her back, the prophet stops him: "Leave her alone: for her soul is vexed inside her; and Yahweh has hid it from me, and has not told me" (2Ki 4:27). Elisha returns with her, raises the child, and sends Gehazi to fetch her: "Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, Take up your son" (2Ki 4:36). The Shunammite hostess is the figure on whom the resurrection word lands: a woman of Shunem who fed a prophet and received her son back from death.