The Shunammite’s Land Restored

8 Now Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life saying, “Arise and go with your household, and stay wherever you can stay, because Adonai has called for a famine—indeed it has already come—on the land for seven years.” ² So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. She and her household went and stayed in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

³ Now at the end of seven years the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, and she went to the king to appeal for her house and her farm. ⁴ Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, “Please tell me,” he was saying, “all the great things that Elisha has done.” ⁵ Then it came to pass, just as he was telling the king how he had revived someone who was dead, behold, there was the woman whose son he had revived, appealing to the king for her house and her farm. So Gehazi said, “My Lord the king, this is the woman and this is her son whom Elisha revived.”

⁶ When the king asked the woman, she told him the story. So the king assigned to her a court official, saying, “Restore all that was hers, and all the revenue of the field since the day that she left the land until now.”

Elisha Weeps in Damascus

⁷ Then Elisha went to Damascus. At the time King Ben-hadad of Aram was sick, and he was told, “The man of God has come all the way here.” ⁸ So the king said to Hazael, “Take an offering in your hand and go meet the man of God, and inquire of Adonai by him saying: ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”

⁹ So Hazael went to meet him and took an offering in his hand, of every good thing of Damascus—forty camel-loads—then came and stood before him and said, “Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to you saying: ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”

¹⁰ Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him: ‘You will surely recover.’ However, Adonai has also shown me that he will surely die.” ¹¹ Then he fixed his gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed, and then the man of God wept. ¹² When Hazael asked, “Why is my lord weeping?” he answered, “Because I know the evil that you will inflict on the men of Israel: their strongholds you will set on fire, their young men you will slay with the sword, their little ones you will dash into pieces, and their pregnant ones you will rip open.”

¹³ Then Hazael said, “But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do anything of such magnitude?”

Elisha answered, “Adonai has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”

¹⁴ Then he departed from Elisha and went to his master, who asked him, “What did Elisha say to you?”

He answered, “He told me that you would surely recover.” ¹⁵ But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it on his face, so that he died. Then Hazael became king in his place.

Edom Revolts Against Jehoram

¹⁶ Now in the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel—Jehoshaphat had been king of Judah—Jehoram the son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah became king. ¹⁷ He was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. ¹⁸ But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab did—for Ahab’s daughter was his wife—and he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes. ¹⁹ Nevertheless, Adonai was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David His servant, since He had promised to give him a lamp for his children all days.

²⁰ In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and set up their own king. ²¹ Then Joram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. It came about that he rose by night and struck the Edomites who had surrounded him and the chariot commanders, but his troops fled to their tents. ²² So Edom kept rebelling from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then Libnah also revolted at the same time.

²³ Now the rest of the acts of Joram and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁴ Then Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. Then his son Ahaziah became king in his place.

²⁵ In the twelfth year of Joram son of King Ahab of Israel, Ahaziah son of King Jehoram of Judah began to reign. ²⁶ Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter of King Omri of Israel. ²⁷ Now he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, as the house of Ahab had done—for he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab. ²⁸ He marched with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramot-gilead, but the Arameans wounded Joram. ²⁹ So King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against King Hazael of Aram. Ahaziah son of King Jehoram of Judah went down to see Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.

Jehu Avenges Naboth

9 Then Elisha the prophet summoned one of the sons of the prophets and told him, “Strap up your cloak, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. ² When you arrive there, look out there for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi. Then go in, get him to rise up from among his fellows, and bring him to an inner room. ³ Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, thus says Adonai: ‘I have anointed you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee—don’t wait around.”

⁴ So the young man, a young prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. ⁵ Now when he arrived, behold, the army commanders were sitting. So he said, “I have a word for you, commander.”

Jehu asked, “For which one of us?”

He replied, “For you, commander.” ⁶ Then he rose and went inside the house, and the prophet poured the oil on his head and said to him, “Thus says Adonai, God of Israel: I have anointed you king over the people of Adonai, over Israel. ⁷ So you will strike down the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Adonai shed by Jezebel. ⁸ For the whole house of Ahab will perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, slave or free, in Israel. ⁹ I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasa son of Ahijah. ¹⁰ The dogs will eat Jezebel in the field of Jezreel, and there will be none to bury her.” Then he opened the door and fled.

¹¹ Then Jehu came out to the officers of his master, and one asked him, “Is everything all right? Why did this crazy fellow come to you?”

He said to them, “You know the man and his babbling.”

¹² But they said, “It’s a lie! Tell us now.”

So he said, “He said something like this to me, saying ‘Thus says Adonai, I have anointed you king over Israel.’”

¹³ Then they hurried and every man took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and blew the shofar, saying, “Jehu is king!”

¹⁶ It so happened that as we were going to prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination, who was bringing her masters much profit from her fortune-telling. ^{[a] 17} Following after Paul and us, she kept shouting, saying, “These men are servants of El Elyon, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ She kept doing this for many days. But Paul was irritated and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Messiah Yeshua to come out of her!” And it came out of her that very moment.

¹⁹ But when her masters saw that the hope of profit was gone, they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. ²⁰ And when they brought them to the chief authorities, they said, “These men are throwing our city into an uproar! Being Jewish, ²¹ they advocate customs which are not permitted for us to accept or practice,^[b] being Romans.”

²² Then the crowd joined in the attack on them. So the chief authorities ripped their clothes off them and commanded them to be beaten with rods. ²³ After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to guard them securely. ²⁴ Having received this charge, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.^[c]

Salvation for a Jailer’s Household

²⁵ But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶ Suddenly there was such a great earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors were unlocked, and everyone’s chains came loose.

²⁷ When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself! We’re all here!”

²⁹ The jailer called for lights and rushed in; and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ After he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹ They said, “Put your trust in the Lord Yeshua^[d] and you will be saved—you and your household!”

³² Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him, along with everyone in his household. ³³ He took them that very hour and washed their wounds, and at once he was immersed—he and all his household. ³⁴ The jailer brought them to his house and set food before them, and he was overjoyed that he with his entire household had put their trust in God.

³⁵ When day came, the chief authorities sent their police officers, saying, “Release those men.”

³⁶ But the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The chief authorities have sent orders to release you. So come out now, and go in shalom.”

³⁷ But Paul said to the officers, “They have beaten us publicly without a trial—men who are Roman citizens—and have thrown us into prison. And now they are sending us away secretly? No! Let them come themselves and lead us out!”

³⁸ The police officers reported these words to the chief authorities. They became afraid when they heard they were Romans, ³⁹ so they came and apologized to them. After they escorted them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. ⁴⁰ When Paul and Silas went out of the prison, they visited Lydia’s house. And when they saw the brothers, they encouraged them and then departed.

Hide Not Your Face from Me

Psalm 143