These words imply that Gehazi had expected God to honor the placing of Elisha’s staff upon the lad. Why life was not restored we are not told. Perhaps if the woman had had faith that the Lord would answer her through the agency of Elisha’s staff and his servant Gehazi, the answer would have come that way. Or perhaps there was some weakness in the life of Gehazi that prevented the Lord from using him as a channel for the performance of His wonderful deeds of power. It is not given man to know the reasons why the Lord does or does not choose to work in certain ways.

 This does not mean that the child was only asleep, because the lad had died at noon on his mother’s knee (v. 20), and in v. 32 he is pronounced dead. Death in the Bible is looked upon as a sleep (Deut. 31:16; 1 Kings 2:10; Dan. 12:2; John 11:11-14; Acts 13:36).