2 Kings 3-4

Complete Jewish Bible

3 Y’horam the son of Ach’av began his reign over Isra’el in Shomron during the eighteenth year of Y’hoshafat king of Y’hudah, and he ruled for twelve years. ² He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective; but he was not as bad as his father and mother, because he got rid of Ba‘al’s standing-stone which his father had made. ³ Nevertheless, he clung to the sins of Yarov‘am the son of N’vat, with which he had led Isra’el into sin; he never turned away from them.

⁴ Mesha king of Mo’av was a sheep-breeder, and he used to send the king of Isra’el the wool of 100,000 lambs and of 100,000 rams as tribute. ⁵ But after Ach’av died, the king of Mo’av rebelled against the king of Isra’el. ⁶ Y’horam left Shomron and mustered all Isra’el. ⁷ He also went and sent this word to Y’hoshafat king of Y’hudah: “The king of Mo’av has rebelled against me. Will you join me in attacking Mo’av?” He answered, “I will join in the attack — I’m with you all the way; think of my people and horses as yours. ⁸ Which route should we take?” he added. “The road through the desert of Edom,” answered Y’horam.

⁹ So the king of Isra’el set out, along with the king of Y’hudah and the king of Edom. After a roundabout journey of seven days, there was no water for either the army or the animals following them. ¹⁰ “This is terrible!” exclaimed the king of Isra’el. “Has Adonai called these three kings together only to hand them over to Mo’av?” ¹¹ But Y’hoshafat said, “Isn’t there a prophet of Adonai here through whom we can consult Adonai?” One of the servants of the king of Isra’el answered, “Elisha the son of Shafat is here, the one who used to pour water on Eliyahu’s hands.” ¹² Y’hoshafat said, “The word of Adonai is with him.” So the king of Isra’el, Y’hoshafat and the king of Edom went down to consult him.

¹³ Elisha said to the king of Isra’el, “What do you and I have in common? Go, consult your father’s prophets and your mother’s prophets!” But the king of Isra’el answered him, “No, because Adonai has called these three kings together to hand them over to Mo’av.” ¹⁴ Elisha said, “As Adonai-Tzva’ot lives, before whom I stand, if I didn’t respect the fact that Y’hoshafat the king of Y’hudah is here, I wouldn’t even look in your direction or take notice of you. ¹⁵ But now, bring me a musician.” As the musician played, the hand of Adonai fell on Elisha; ¹⁶ and he said, “Adonai says to dig until this valley is full of trenches. ¹⁷ For here is what Adonai says: ‘You won’t see wind, and you won’t see rain. Nevertheless the valley will be filled with water; and you will drink — you, your cattle and your other animals. ¹⁸ That’s an easy thing to do, from Adonai’s perspective. He will also hand Mo’av over to you. ¹⁹ You will conquer every fortified city and every choice town, you will chop down every good tree, stop up every well and ruin every good field with stones.” ²⁰ The next morning, around the time for making the offering, water came from the direction of Edom, and the countryside was filled with water.

²¹ When all Mo’av heard that the kings had come up to attack them, every man was summoned, from the youngest capable of bearing arms to older ones, and stationed on the border. ²² They rose early in the morning, when the sun was shining on the water. Mo’av, when they saw the water in the distance looking as red as blood, ²³ said, “That’s blood! The kings must have quarreled, and their soldiers killed each other. Mo’av! To the plunder!”

²⁴ When they arrived at the camp of Isra’el, Isra’el launched an attack, so that Mo’av fled before them. But they advanced on Mo’av and struck it. ²⁵ They made ruins of the cities. Each man threw his stone on every good field, covering it. They stopped up all the wells. They chopped down all the good trees. Finally, all that remained was Kir-Hareset behind its stone wall, with the slingers surrounding and attacking it. ²⁶ When the king of Mo’av saw that the fighting was too much for him, he took with him 700 men armed with swords and tried to break through to the king of Edom; but they couldn’t do it. ²⁷ Then he took his firstborn son, who was to have succeeded him as king, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. Following this, such great anger came upon Isra’el that they left him and went back to their own land.

4 The wife of one of the guild prophets complained to Elisha. “Your servant my husband died,” she said, “and you know that he feared Adonai. Now a creditor has come to take my two children as his slaves.” ² Elisha asked her, “What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house but a flask of oil.” ³ Then he said, “Go, and borrow containers from all your neighbors, empty containers; and don’t borrow just a few! ⁴ Then go in; shut the door, with you and your sons inside; and pour oil into all those containers; and as they are filled, put them aside.” ⁵ So she left him and shut the door on herself and her sons. They brought her the containers while she poured. ⁶ When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container”; but he answered, “There isn’t another container.” Then the oil stopped flowing. ⁷ She came and told the man of God; and he said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; then you and your sons can live on what’s left.”

⁸ One day Elisha visited Shunem, and a well-to-do woman living there pressed him to stay and eat a meal. After this, whenever he came through, he stopped there for a meal. ⁹ She said to her husband, “I can see that this is a holy man of God who keeps stopping at our place. ¹⁰ Please, let’s build him a little room on the roof. We’ll put a bed and a table in it for him, and a stool and a candlestick. Then, whenever he comes to visit us, he can stay there.”

¹¹ One day Elisha came to visit there, and he went into the upper room to lie down. ¹² He said to Geichazi his servant, “Call this Shunamit.” He called her; and when she arrived, ¹³ he said to him, “Tell her this: ‘You have shown us so much hospitality! What can I do to show my appreciation? Do you want me to say anything to the king for you? or to the commander of the army?” She answered, “I’m happy living as I do, among my own people.” ¹⁴ He said, “What, then, is to be done for her?” Geichazi answered, “There’s one thing — she doesn’t have a son; and her husband is old. ¹⁵ Elisha said, “Call her.” After he called her, she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶ He said, “Next year, when the season comes around, you will be holding a son.” “No, my lord,” she answered. “Man of God, don’t lie to your servant!” ¹⁷ But the woman conceived and gave birth to a son the following year when the season came around, just as Elisha had said to her.

¹⁸ When the child was old enough, he went out one day to be with his father, who was with the reapers. ¹⁹ Suddenly he cried out to his father, “My head! My head hurts!” He said to his servant, “Carry him back to his mother.” ²⁰ When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he lay on her lap until noon; and then he died. ²¹ She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him and went out. ²² She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants with a donkey. I must get to the man of God as fast as I can; I’ll come straight back.” ²³ He asked, “Why are you going to him today? It isn’t Rosh-Hodesh and it isn’t Shabbat.” She said, “It’s all right.” ²⁴ Then she saddled the donkey and ordered her servant, “Drive as fast as you can; don’t slow down for me unless I say so.”

²⁵ She set out and came to the man of God on Mount Karmel. When the man of God saw her in the distance, he said to Geichazi his servant, “Look, here comes that Shunamit. ²⁶ Run now to meet her, and ask her, “Is everything all right with you? with your husband? with the child?” She answered, “Everything is all right.” ²⁷ But when she reached the man of God on the hill, she grabbed his feet. Geichazi came up to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is in great distress, but Adonai has hidden from me what it is, he hasn’t told me.” ²⁸ Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say not to deceive me?” ²⁹ Then Elisha said to Geichazi, “Get dressed for action, take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, don’t greet him; if anyone greets you, don’t answer; and lay my staff on the child’s face.” ³⁰ The mother of the child said, “As Adonai lives, and as you live, I will not leave you. He got up and followed her. ³¹ Geichazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the child’s face, but there was no sound or sign of life. So he went back to Elisha and told him, “The child didn’t wake up.”

³² When Elisha reached the house, there the child was, dead and laid on the bed. ³³ He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to Adonai. ³⁴ Then he got up on the bed and lay on top of the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands. As he stretched himself out on the child, its flesh began to grow warm. ³⁵ Then he went down, walked around in the house awhile, went back up and stretched himself out on the child again. The child sneezed seven times, then opened his eyes. ³⁶ Elisha called Geichazi and said, “Call this Shunamit.” So he called her; and when she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” ³⁷ She entered, fell at his feet and prostrated herself on the floor. Then she picked up her son and went out.

³⁸ Elisha went back to Gilgal. At the time, there was a famine in the land. The guild prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, “Put the big pot on the fire, and boil some soup for the prophets.” ³⁹ One of them went out to the field to gather vegetables and came upon a wild vine, from which he filled the front of his cloak with wild squash. On returning he cut them up and put them into the stew; they didn’t know what they were. ⁴⁰ Then they poured it out for the men to eat; but on tasting it, they cried, “Man of God! There’s death in that pot!” And they couldn’t eat it. ⁴¹ But he said, “Bring some flour.” He threw it in the pot, then said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” This time there was nothing harmful in the pot.

⁴² A man came from Ba‘al-Shalishah bringing the man of God twenty loaves of bread made from the barley firstfruits and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give this to the people to eat.” ⁴³ His servant said, “How am I to serve this to a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people to eat; for Adonai says that they will eat and have some left over.” ⁴⁴ So he served them, and they ate and had some left over, as Adonai had said.