2 Kings 2-8

Good News Translation

Elijah Is Taken Up to Heaven

2 The time came for the Lord to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha set out from Gilgal, ² and on the way Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to Bethel.”

But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on to Bethel.

³ A group of prophets who lived there went to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”

“Yes, I know,” Elisha answered. “But let's not talk about it.”

⁴ Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to Jericho.”

But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on to Jericho.

⁵ A group of prophets who lived there went to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”

“Yes, I know,” Elisha answered. “But let's not talk about it.”

⁶ Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to the Jordan River.”

But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on, ⁷ and fifty of the prophets followed them to the Jordan. Elijah and Elisha stopped by the river, and the fifty prophets stood a short distance away. ⁸ Then Elijah took off his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water with it; the water divided, and he and Elisha crossed to the other side on dry ground. ^9 (A)There, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what you want me to do for you before I am taken away.”

“Let me receive the share of your power that will make me your successor,”^[a] Elisha answered.

¹⁰ “That is a difficult request to grant,” Elijah replied. “But you will receive it if you see me as I am being taken away from you; if you don't see me, you won't receive it.”

¹¹ They kept talking as they walked on; then suddenly a chariot of fire pulled by horses of fire came between them, and Elijah was taken up to heaven by a whirlwind. ^12 (B)Elisha saw it and cried out to Elijah, “My father, my father! Mighty defender of Israel! You are gone!” And he never saw Elijah again.

In grief Elisha tore his cloak in two. ¹³ Then he picked up Elijah's cloak that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴ He struck the water with Elijah's cloak and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Then he struck the water again, and it divided, and he walked over to the other side. ¹⁵ The fifty prophets from Jericho saw him and said, “The power of Elijah is on Elisha!” They went to meet him, bowed down before him, ¹⁶ and said, “There are fifty of us here, all strong men. Let us go and look for your master. Maybe the spirit of the Lord has carried him away and left him on some mountain or in some valley.”

“No, you must not go,” Elisha answered.

¹⁷ But they insisted until he gave in and let them go. The fifty of them went and looked high and low for Elijah for three days, but didn't find him. ¹⁸ Then they returned to Elisha, who had waited at Jericho, and he said to them, “Didn't I tell you not to go?”

Miracles of Elisha

¹⁹ Some men from Jericho went to Elisha and said, “As you know, sir, this is a fine city, but the water is bad and causes miscarriages.”

²⁰ “Put some salt in a new bowl and bring it to me,” he ordered. They brought it to him, ²¹ and he went to the spring, threw the salt in the water, and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I make this water pure, and it will not cause any more deaths or miscarriages.’” ²² And that water has been pure ever since, just as Elisha said it would be.

²³ Elisha left Jericho to go to Bethel, and on the way some boys came out of a town and made fun of him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they shouted.

²⁴ Elisha turned around, glared at them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys to pieces.

²⁵ Elisha went on to Mount Carmel and later returned to Samaria.

War between Israel and Moab

3 In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for twelve years. ² He sinned against the Lord, but he was not as bad as his father or his mother Jezebel; he pulled down the image his father had made for the worship of Baal. ³ Yet, like King Jeroboam son of Nebat before him, he led Israel into sin and would not stop.

⁴ King Mesha of Moab raised sheep, and every year he gave as tribute to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool from 100,000 sheep. ⁵ But when King Ahab of Israel died, Mesha rebelled against Israel. ⁶ At once King Joram left Samaria and gathered all his troops. ⁷ He sent word to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you join me in war against him?”

“I will,” King Jehoshaphat replied. “I am at your disposal, and so are my men and my horses. ⁸ What route shall we take for the attack?”

“We will go the long way through the wilderness of Edom,” Joram answered.

⁹ So King Joram and the kings of Judah and Edom set out. After marching seven days, they ran out of water, and there was none left for the men or the pack animals. ¹⁰ “We're done for!” King Joram exclaimed. “The Lord has put the three of us at the mercy of the king of Moab!”

¹¹ King Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there a prophet here through whom we can consult the Lord?”

An officer of King Joram's forces answered, “Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He was Elijah's assistant.”

¹² “He is a true prophet,” King Jehoshaphat said. So the three kings went to Elisha.

¹³ “Why should I help you?” Elisha said to the king of Israel. “Go and consult those prophets that your father and mother consulted.”

“No!” Joram replied. “It is the Lord who has put us three kings at the mercy of the king of Moab.”

¹⁴ Elisha answered, “By the living Lord, whom I serve, I swear that I would have nothing to do with you if I didn't respect your ally, King Jehoshaphat of Judah. ¹⁵ Now get me a musician.”

As the musician played his harp, the power of the Lord came on Elisha, ¹⁶ and he said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Dig ditches all over this dry stream bed. ¹⁷ Even though you will not see any rain or wind, this stream bed will be filled with water, and you, your livestock, and your pack animals will have plenty to drink.’” ¹⁸ And Elisha continued, “But this is an easy thing for the Lord to do; he will also give you victory over the Moabites. ¹⁹ You will conquer all their beautiful fortified cities; you will cut down all their fruit trees, stop all their springs, and ruin all their fertile fields by covering them with stones.”

²⁰ The next morning, at the time of the regular morning sacrifice, water came flowing from the direction of Edom and covered the ground.

²¹ When the Moabites heard that the three kings had come to attack them, all the men who could bear arms, from the oldest to the youngest, were called out and stationed at the border. ²² When they got up the following morning, the sun was shining on the water, making it look as red as blood. ²³ “It's blood!” they exclaimed. “The three enemy armies must have fought and killed each other! Let's go and loot their camp!”

²⁴ But when they reached the camp, the Israelites attacked them and drove them back. The Israelites kept up the pursuit,^[b] slaughtering the Moabites ²⁵ and destroying their cities. As they passed by a fertile field, every Israelite would throw a stone on it until finally all the fields were covered; they also stopped up the springs and cut down the fruit trees. At last only the capital city of Kir Heres^[c] was left, and the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

²⁶ When the king of Moab realized that he was losing the battle, he took seven hundred swordsmen with him and tried to force his way through the enemy lines and escape to the king of Syria,^[d] but he failed. ²⁷ So he took his oldest son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him on the city wall as a sacrifice to the god of Moab. The Israelites were terrified^[e] and so they drew back from the city and returned to their own country.

Elisha Helps a Poor Widow

4 The widow of a member of a group of prophets went to Elisha and said, “Sir, my husband has died! As you know, he was a God-fearing man, but now a man he owed money to has come to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband's debt.”

² “What shall I do for you?” he asked. “Tell me, what do you have at home?”

“Nothing at all, except a small jar of olive oil,” she answered.

³ “Go to your neighbors and borrow as many empty jars as you can,” Elisha told her. ⁴ “Then you and your sons go into the house, close the door, and start pouring oil into the jars. Set each one aside as soon as it is full.”

⁵ So the woman went into her house with her sons, closed the door, took the small jar of olive oil, and poured oil into the jars as her sons brought them to her. ⁶ When they had filled all the jars, she asked if there were any more. “That was the last one,” one of her sons answered. And the olive oil stopped flowing. ⁷ She went back to Elisha, the prophet, who said to her, “Sell the olive oil and pay all your debts, and there will be enough money left over for you and your sons to live on.”

Elisha and the Rich Woman from Shunem

⁸ One day Elisha went to Shunem, where a rich woman lived. She invited him to a meal, and from then on every time he went to Shunem he would have his meals at her house. ⁹ She said to her husband, “I am sure that this man who comes here so often is a holy man. ¹⁰ Let's build a small room on the roof, put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it, and he can stay there whenever he visits us.”

¹¹ One day Elisha returned to Shunem and went up to his room to rest. ¹² He told his servant Gehazi to go and call the woman. When she came, ¹³ he said to Gehazi, “Ask her what I can do for her in return for all the trouble she has had in providing for our needs. Maybe she would like me to go to the king or the army commander and put in a good word for her.”

“I have all I need here among my own people,” she answered.

¹⁴ Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can I do for her then?”

He answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man.”

¹⁵ “Tell her to come here,” Elisha ordered. She came and stood in the doorway, ^16 (C)and Elisha said to her, “By this time next year you will be holding a son in your arms.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Please, sir, don't lie to me. You are a man of God!”

¹⁷ But, as Elisha had said, at about that time the following year she gave birth to a son.

¹⁸ Some years later, at harvest time, the boy went out one morning to join his father, who was in the field with the harvest workers. ¹⁹ Suddenly he cried out to his father, “My head hurts! My head hurts!”

“Carry the boy to his mother,” the father said to a servant. ²⁰ The servant carried the boy back to his mother, who held him in her lap until noon, at which time he died. ²¹ She carried him up to Elisha's room, put him on the bed and left, closing the door behind her. ²² Then she called her husband and said to him, “Send a servant here with a donkey. I need to go to the prophet Elisha. I'll be back as soon as I can.”

²³ “Why do you have to go today?” her husband asked. “It's neither a Sabbath nor a New Moon Festival.”^[f]

“Never mind,” she answered. ²⁴ Then she had the donkey saddled, and ordered the servant, “Make the donkey go as fast as it can, and don't slow down unless I tell you to.” ²⁵ So she set out and went to Mount Carmel, where Elisha was.

Elisha saw her coming while she was still some distance away, and he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there comes the woman from Shunem! ²⁶ Hurry to her and find out if everything is all right with her, her husband, and her son.”

She told Gehazi that everything was all right, ²⁷ but when she came to Elisha, she bowed down before him and took hold of his feet. Gehazi was about to push her away, but Elisha said, “Leave her alone. Can't you see she's deeply distressed? And the Lord has not told me a thing about it.”

²⁸ The woman said to him, “Sir, did I ask you for a son? Didn't I tell you not to get my hopes up?”

²⁹ Elisha turned to Gehazi and said, “Hurry! Take my walking stick and go. Don't stop to greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, don't take time to answer. Go straight to the house and hold my stick over the boy.”

³⁰ The woman said to Elisha, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you!” So the two of them started back together. ³¹ Gehazi went on ahead and held Elisha's stick over the child, but there was no sound or any other sign of life. So he went back to meet Elisha and said, “The boy didn't wake up.”

³² When Elisha arrived, he went alone into the room and saw the boy lying dead on the bed. ³³ He closed the door and prayed to the Lord. ^34 (D)Then he lay down on the boy, placing his mouth, eyes, and hands on the boy's mouth, eyes, and hands. As he lay stretched out over the boy, the boy's body started to get warm. ³⁵ Elisha got up, walked around the room, and then went back and again stretched himself over the boy. The boy sneezed seven times and then opened his eyes. ³⁶ Elisha called Gehazi and told him to call the boy's mother. When she came in, he said to her, “Here's your son.” ³⁷ She fell at Elisha's feet, with her face touching the ground; then she took her son and left.

Two More Miracles

³⁸ Once, when there was a famine throughout the land, Elisha returned to Gilgal. While he was teaching a group of prophets, he told his servant to put a big pot on the fire and make some stew for them. ³⁹ One of them went out in the fields to get some herbs. He found a wild vine and picked as many gourds as he could carry. He brought them back and sliced them up into the stew, not knowing what they were. ⁴⁰ The stew was poured out for the men to eat, but as soon as they tasted it they exclaimed to Elisha, “It's poisoned!”—and wouldn't eat it. ⁴¹ Elisha asked for some meal, threw it into the pot, and said, “Pour out some more stew for them.” And then there was nothing wrong with it.

⁴² Another time, a man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing Elisha twenty loaves of bread made from the first barley harvested that year, and some freshly-cut heads of grain. Elisha told his servant to feed the group of prophets with this, ⁴³ but he answered, “Do you think this is enough for a hundred men?”

Elisha replied, “Give it to them to eat, because the Lord says that they will eat and still have some left over.” ⁴⁴ So the servant set the food before them, and as the Lord had said, they all ate, and there was still some left over.

Naaman Is Cured

5 ^(E)Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, was highly respected and esteemed by the king of Syria, because through Naaman the Lord had given victory to the Syrian forces. He was a great soldier, but he suffered from a dreaded skin disease. ² In one of their raids against Israel, the Syrians had carried off a little Israelite girl, who became a servant of Naaman's wife. ³ One day she said to her mistress, “I wish that my master could go to the prophet who lives in Samaria! He would cure him of his disease.” ⁴ When Naaman heard of this, he went to the king and told him what the girl had said. ⁵ The king said, “Go to the king of Israel and take this letter to him.”

So Naaman set out, taking thirty thousand pieces of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of fine clothes. ⁶ The letter that he took read: “This letter will introduce my officer Naaman. I want you to cure him of his disease.”

⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and exclaimed, “How can the king of Syria expect me to cure this man? Does he think that I am God,^[g] with the power of life and death? It's plain that he is trying to start a quarrel with me!”

⁸ When the prophet Elisha heard what had happened, he sent word to the king: “Why are you so upset? Send the man to me, and I'll show him that there is a prophet in Israel!”

⁹ So Naaman went with his horses and chariot and stopped at the entrance to Elisha's house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a servant out to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan River, and he would be completely cured of his disease. ¹¹ But Naaman left in a rage, saying, “I thought that he would at least come out to me, pray to the Lord his God, wave his hand over the diseased spot,^[h] and cure me! ¹² Besides, aren't the rivers Abana and Pharpar, back in Damascus, better than any river in Israel? I could have washed in them and been cured!”

¹³ His servants went up to him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can't you just wash yourself, as he said, and be cured?” ¹⁴ So Naaman went down to the Jordan, dipped himself in it seven times, as Elisha had instructed, and he was completely cured. His flesh became firm and healthy like that of a child. ¹⁵ He returned to Elisha with all his men and said, “Now I know that there is no god but the God of Israel; so please, sir, accept a gift from me.”

¹⁶ Elisha answered, “By the living Lord, whom I serve, I swear that I will not accept a gift.”

Naaman insisted that he accept it, but he would not. ¹⁷ So Naaman said, “If you won't accept my gift, then let me have two mule-loads of earth to take home with me,^[i] because from now on I will not offer sacrifices or burnt offerings to any god except the Lord. ¹⁸ So I hope that the Lord will forgive me when I accompany my king to the temple of Rimmon, the god of Syria, and worship him. Surely the Lord will forgive me!”

¹⁹ “Go in peace,” Elisha said. And Naaman left.

He had gone only a short distance, ²⁰ when Elisha's servant Gehazi said to himself, “My master has let Naaman get away without paying a thing! He should have accepted what that Syrian offered him. By the living Lord I will run after him and get something from him.” ²¹ So he set off after Naaman. When Naaman saw a man running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him, and asked, “Is something wrong?”

²² “No,” Gehazi answered. “But my master sent me to tell you that just now two members of the group of prophets in the hill country of Ephraim arrived, and he would like you to give them three thousand pieces of silver and two changes of fine clothes.”

²³ “Please take six thousand pieces of silver,” Naaman replied. He insisted on it, tied up the silver in two bags, gave them and two changes of fine clothes to two of his servants, and sent them on ahead of Gehazi. ²⁴ When they reached the hill where Elisha lived, Gehazi took the two bags and carried them into the house. Then he sent Naaman's servants back. ²⁵ He went back into the house, and Elisha asked him, “Where have you been?”

“Oh, nowhere, sir,” he answered.

²⁶ But Elisha said, “Wasn't I there in spirit when the man got out of his chariot to meet you? This is no time to accept money and clothes, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and cattle, or servants! ²⁷ And now Naaman's disease will come upon you, and you and your descendants will have it forever!”

When Gehazi left, he had the disease—his skin was as white as snow.

The Recovery of the Ax Head

6 One day the group of prophets that Elisha was in charge of complained to him, “The place where we live is too small! ² Give us permission to go to the Jordan and cut down some trees, so that we can build a place to live.”

“All right,” Elisha answered.

³ One of them urged him to go with them; he agreed, ⁴ and they set out together. When they arrived at the Jordan, they began to work. ⁵ As one of them was cutting down a tree, suddenly his iron ax head fell in the water. “What shall I do, sir?” he exclaimed to Elisha. “It was a borrowed ax!”

⁶ “Where did it fall?” Elisha asked.

The man showed him the place, and Elisha cut off a stick, threw it in the water, and made the ax head float. ⁷ “Take it out,” he ordered, and the man reached down and picked it up.

The Syrian Army Is Defeated

⁸ The king of Syria was at war with Israel. He consulted his officers and chose a place to set up his camp. ⁹ But Elisha sent word to the king of Israel, warning him not to go near that place, because the Syrians were waiting in ambush there. ¹⁰ So the king of Israel warned the people who lived in that place, and they were on guard. This happened several times.

¹¹ The Syrian king became greatly upset over this; he called in his officers and asked them, “Which one of you is on the side of the king of Israel?”

¹² One of them answered, “No one is, Your Majesty. The prophet Elisha tells the king of Israel what you say even in the privacy of your own room.”

¹³ “Find out where he is,” the king ordered, “and I will capture him.”

When he was told that Elisha was in Dothan, ¹⁴ he sent a large force there with horses and chariots. They reached the town at night and surrounded it. ¹⁵ Early the next morning Elisha's servant got up, went out of the house, and saw the Syrian troops with their horses and chariots surrounding the town. He went back to Elisha and exclaimed, “We are doomed, sir! What shall we do?”

¹⁶ “Don't be afraid,” Elisha answered. “We have more on our side than they have on theirs.” ¹⁷ Then he prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord answered his prayer, and Elisha's servant looked up and saw the hillside covered with horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

¹⁸ When the Syrians attacked, Elisha prayed, “O Lord, strike these men blind!” The Lord answered his prayer and struck them blind. ¹⁹ Then Elisha went to them and said, “You are on the wrong road; this is not the town you are looking for. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are after.” And he led them to Samaria.

²⁰ As soon as they had entered the city, Elisha prayed, “Open their eyes, Lord, and let them see.” The Lord answered his prayer; he restored their sight, and they saw that they were inside Samaria.

²¹ When the king of Israel saw the Syrians, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, sir? Shall I kill them?”

²² “No,” he answered. “Not even soldiers you had captured in combat would you put to death. Give them something to eat and drink, and let them return to their king.” ²³ So the king of Israel provided a great feast for them; and after they had eaten and drunk, he sent them back to the king of Syria. From then on the Syrians stopped raiding the land of Israel.

The Siege of Samaria

²⁴ Some time later King Benhadad of Syria led his entire army against Israel and laid siege to the city of Samaria. ²⁵ As a result of the siege the food shortage in the city was so severe that a donkey's head cost eighty pieces of silver, and half a pound of dove's dung^[j] cost five pieces of silver.

²⁶ The king of Israel was walking by on the city wall when a woman cried out, “Help me, Your Majesty!”

²⁷ He replied, “If the Lord won't help you, what help can I provide? Do I have any wheat or wine? ²⁸ What's your trouble?”

She answered, “The other day this woman here suggested that we eat my child, and then eat her child the next day. ^29 (F)So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I told her that we would eat her son, but she had hidden him!”

³⁰ Hearing this, the king tore his clothes in dismay, and the people who were close to the wall could see that he was wearing sackcloth under his clothes. ³¹ He exclaimed, “May God strike me dead if Elisha is not beheaded before the day is over!” ³² And he sent a messenger to get Elisha.

Meanwhile Elisha was at home with some elders who were visiting him. Before the king's messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “That murderer is sending someone to kill me! Now, when he gets here, shut the door and don't let him come in. The king himself will be right behind him.” ³³ He had hardly finished saying this, when the king^[k] arrived and said, “It's the Lord who has brought this trouble on us! Why should I wait any longer for him to do something?”

7 Elisha answered, “Listen to what the Lord says! By this time tomorrow you will be able to buy in Samaria ten pounds of the best wheat or twenty pounds of barley for one piece of silver.”

² The personal attendant of the king said to Elisha, “That can't happen—not even if the Lord himself were to send grain^[l] at once!”

“You will see it happen, but you won't get to eat any of the food,” Elisha replied.

The Syrian Army Leaves

³ Four men who were suffering from a dreaded skin disease were outside the gates of Samaria, and they said to each other, “Why should we wait here until we die? ⁴ It's no use going into the city, because we would starve to death in there; but if we stay here, we'll die also. So let's go to the Syrian camp; the worst they can do is kill us, but maybe they will spare our lives.” ⁵ So, as it began to get dark, they went to the Syrian camp, but when they reached it, no one was there. ⁶ The Lord had made the Syrians hear what sounded like the advance of a large army with horses and chariots, and the Syrians thought that the king of Israel had hired Hittite and Egyptian kings and their armies to attack them. ⁷ So that evening the Syrians had fled for their lives, abandoning their tents, horses, and donkeys, and leaving the camp just as it was.

⁸ When the four men reached the edge of the camp, they went into a tent, ate and drank what was there, grabbed the silver, gold, and clothing they found, and went off and hid them; then they returned, entered another tent, and did the same thing. ⁹ But then they said to each other, “We shouldn't be doing this! We have good news, and we shouldn't keep it to ourselves. If we wait until morning to tell it, we are sure to be punished. Let's go right now and tell the king's officers!” ¹⁰ So they left the Syrian camp, went back to Samaria, and called out to the guards at the gates: “We went to the Syrian camp and didn't see or hear anybody; the horses and donkeys have not been untied, and the tents are just as the Syrians left them.”

¹¹ The guards announced the news, and it was reported in the palace. ¹² It was still night, but the king got out of bed and said to his officials, “I'll tell you what the Syrians are planning! They know about the famine here, so they have left their camp to go and hide in the countryside. They think that we will leave the city to find food, and then they will take us alive and capture the city.”

¹³ One of his officials said, “The people here in the city are doomed anyway, like those that have already died. So let's send some men with five of the horses that are left, so that we can find out what has happened.”^{[m] 14} They chose some men, and the king sent them in two chariots with instructions to go and find out what had happened to the Syrian army. ¹⁵ The men went as far as the Jordan, and all along the road they saw the clothes and equipment that the Syrians had abandoned as they fled. Then they returned and reported to the king. ¹⁶ The people of Samaria rushed out and looted the Syrian camp. And as the Lord had said, ten pounds of the best wheat or twenty pounds of barley were sold for one piece of silver.

¹⁷ It so happened that the king of Israel had put the city gate under the command of the officer who was his personal attendant. The officer was trampled to death there by the people and died, as Elisha had predicted when the king went to see him. ¹⁸ Elisha had told the king that by that time the following day ten pounds of the best wheat or twenty pounds of barley would be sold in Samaria for one piece of silver, ¹⁹ to which the officer had answered, “That can't happen—not even if the Lord himself were to send grain^[n] at once!” And Elisha had replied, “You will see it happen, but you won't get to eat any of the food.” ²⁰ And that is just what happened to him—he died, trampled to death by the people at the city gate.

The Woman from Shunem Returns

8 ^(G)Now Elisha had told the woman who lived in Shunem, whose son he had brought back to life, that the Lord was sending a famine on the land, which would last for seven years, and that she should leave with her family and go and live somewhere else. ² She had followed his instructions and had gone with her family to live in Philistia for the seven years.

³ At the end of the seven years she returned to Israel and went to the king to ask that her house and her land be restored to her. ⁴ She found the king talking with Gehazi, Elisha's servant; the king wanted to know about Elisha's miracles. ⁵ While Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had brought a dead person back to life, the woman made her appeal to the king. Gehazi said to him, “Your Majesty, here is the woman and here is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!” ⁶ In answer to the king's question, she confirmed Gehazi's story, and so the king called an official and told him to give back to her everything that was hers, including the value of all the crops that her fields had produced during the seven years she had been away.

Elisha and King Benhadad of Syria

⁷ Elisha went to Damascus at a time when King Benhadad of Syria was sick. When the king was told that Elisha was there, ⁸ he said to Hazael, one of his officials, “Take a gift to the prophet and ask him to consult the Lord to find out whether or not I am going to get well.” ⁹ So Hazael loaded forty camels with all kinds of the finest products of Damascus and went to Elisha. When Hazael met him, he said, “Your servant King Benhadad has sent me to ask you whether or not he will recover from his sickness.”

¹⁰ Elisha answered, “The Lord has revealed to me that he will die; but go to him and tell him that he will recover.” ¹¹ Then Elisha stared at him with a horrified look on his face until Hazael became ill at ease. Suddenly Elisha burst into tears. ¹² “Why are you crying, sir?” Hazael asked.

“Because I know the horrible things you will do against the people of Israel,” Elisha answered. “You will set their fortresses on fire, slaughter their finest young men, batter their children to death, and rip open their pregnant women.”

^13 (H)“How could I ever be that powerful?” Hazael asked. “I'm a nobody!”

“The Lord has shown me that you will be king of Syria,” Elisha replied.

¹⁴ Hazael went back to Benhadad, who asked him, “What did Elisha say?”

“He told me that you would certainly get well,” Hazael answered. ¹⁵ But on the following day Hazael took a blanket, soaked it in water, and smothered the king.

And Hazael succeeded Benhadad as king of Syria.

King Jehoram of Judah^(I)

¹⁶ In the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab as king of Israel,^[o] Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah ¹⁷ at the age of thirty-two, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. ¹⁸ His wife was Ahab's daughter, and like the family of Ahab he followed the evil ways of the kings of Israel. He sinned against the Lord, ^19 (J)but the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, because he had promised his servant David that his descendants would always continue to rule.

^20 (K)During Jehoram's reign Edom revolted against Judah and became an independent kingdom. ²¹ So Jehoram set out with all his chariots to Zair, where the Edomite army surrounded them. During the night he and his chariot commanders managed to break out and escape, and his soldiers scattered to their homes. ²² Edom has been independent of^[p] Judah ever since. During this same period the city of Libnah also revolted.

²³ Everything else that Jehoram did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ²⁴ Jehoram died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.

King Ahaziah of Judah^(L)

²⁵ In the twelfth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab as king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah ²⁶ at the age of twenty-two, and he ruled in Jerusalem for one year. His mother was Athaliah, the daughter of King Ahab and granddaughter of King Omri of Israel. ²⁷ Since Ahaziah was related to King Ahab by marriage, he sinned against the Lord, just as Ahab's family did.

²⁸ King Ahaziah joined King Joram of Israel in a war against King Hazael of Syria. The armies clashed at Ramoth in Gilead, and Joram was wounded in battle. ²⁹ He returned to the city of Jezreel to recover from his wounds, and Ahaziah went there to visit him.