2 Kings 2:13-25

Complete Jewish Bible

¹³ Then he picked up Eliyahu’s cloak, which had fallen off him. Standing on the bank of the Yarden, ¹⁴ he took the cloak that had fallen off Eliyahu, struck the water and said, “Where is Adonai, the God of Eliyahu?” But when he actually did strike the water, it divided itself to the left and to the right; then Elisha crossed over.

¹⁵ When the guild prophets of Yericho saw him in the distance, they said, “The spirit of Eliyahu does rest on Elisha.” Advancing to meet him, they prostrated themselves on the ground before him ¹⁶ and said to him, “Here now, your servants include fifty strong men. Please let them go and look for your master, in the event that the Spirit of Adonai has taken him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.” He answered, “Don’t send them.” ¹⁷ But they kept pressing him until finally, embarrassed, he said to send them. So they sent fifty men. For three days they searched, but they didn’t find him. ¹⁸ On returning to him where he was waiting in Yericho, he said to them, “I told you not to go, didn’t I?”

¹⁹ The men of the city said to Elisha, “My lord can see that this is a pleasant city to live in; but the water is bad, so that the ground is causing miscarriages.” ²⁰ “Bring me a new jug,” he said, “and put salt in it.” They brought it to him. ²¹ He went out to the source of the water, threw salt into it and said, “This is what Adonai says: ‘I have healed this water; it will no longer cause death or miscarrying.’” ²² The water was healed and has remained healed to this day, in keeping with Elisha’s spoken word.

²³ Elisha left to go up to Beit-El. As he was on his way up the road, some boys came out of the town and began making fun of him. “Go on up, baldy! Go on up, baldy!” ²⁴ He looked behind him, saw them and put a curse on them in the name of Adonai; whereupon two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.

²⁵ He went on from there to Mount Karmel and then returned to Shomron.