² Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers,^(A) saying to them, “Go and consult Baal-Zebub,^(B) the god of Ekron,^(C) to see if I will recover^(D) from this injury.”

¹⁶ He told the king, “This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers^(A) to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave^(B) the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”

²² And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem^(A) said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul!^(B) By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”^(C)

²⁵ It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul,^(A) how much more the members of his household!

Hazael Murders Ben-Hadad

⁷ Elisha went to Damascus,^(A) and Ben-Hadad^(B) king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, “The man of God has come all the way up here,” ⁸ he said to Hazael,^(C) “Take a gift^(D) with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult^(E) the Lord through him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”

⁹ Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”

¹⁰ Elisha answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’^(F) Nevertheless,^[a] the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die.”

¹⁹ They have thrown their gods into the fire^(A) and destroyed them,^(B) for they were not gods^(C) but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.^(D)

¹⁵ But some of them said, “By Beelzebul,^(A) the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.”^(B)

¹² Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors^(A) deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran,^(B) Rezeph and the people of Eden^(C) who were in Tel Assar?

⁶ “A man came to meet us,” they replied. “And he said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, “This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave^(A) the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”’”