Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,^(A) who has blessed us in the heavenly realms^(B) with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us^(C) in him before the creation of the world^(D) to be holy and blameless^(E) in his sight. In love^{(F) 5} he^[a] predestined^(G) us for adoption to sonship^[b](H) through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure^(I) and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace,^(J) which he has freely given us in the One he loves.^{(K) 7} In him we have redemption^(L) through his blood,^(M) the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches^(N) of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, ⁹ he^[c] made known to us the mystery^(O) of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed^(P) in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment^(Q)—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.^(R)

¹¹ In him we were also chosen,^[d] having been predestined^(S) according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose^(T) of his will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.^{(U) 13} And you also were included in Christ^(V) when you heard the message of truth,^(W) the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal,^(X) the promised Holy Spirit,^{(Y) 14} who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance^(Z) until the redemption^(AA) of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.^(AB)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.^{(A) 20} At his gate was laid a beggar^(B) named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.^(C) Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²² “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham,^(D) have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’^(E)

²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things,^(F) but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.^{(G) 26} And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, ²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them,^(H) so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

²⁹ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses^(I) and the Prophets;^(J) let them listen to them.’

³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’^(K) he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Famine in Besieged Samaria

²⁴ Some time later, Ben-Hadad^(A) king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege^(B) to Samaria. ²⁵ There was a great famine^(C) in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels^[a] of silver, and a quarter of a cab^[b] of seed pods^[c](D) for five shekels.^[d]

²⁶ As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”

²⁷ The king replied, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?” ²⁸ Then he asked her, “What’s the matter?”

She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’ ²⁹ So we cooked my son and ate^(E) him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,’ but she had hidden him.”

³⁰ When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore^(F) his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and they saw that, under his robes, he had sackcloth^(G) on his body. ³¹ He said, “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!”

³² Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders^(H) were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Don’t you see how this murderer^(I) is sending someone to cut off my head?^(J) Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?” ³³ While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him.

The king said, “This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait^(K) for the Lord any longer?”

7 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah^[e] of the finest flour will sell for a shekel^[f] and two seahs^[g] of barley for a shekel^(L) at the gate of Samaria.”

² The officer on whose arm the king was leaning^(M) said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates^(N) of the heavens, could this happen?”

“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat^(O) any of it!”

The Siege Lifted

³ Now there were four men with leprosy^[h](P) at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? ⁴ If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

⁵ At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, ⁶ for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound^(Q) of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired^(R) the Hittite^(S) and Egyptian kings to attack us!” ⁷ So they got up and fled^(T) in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

⁸ The men who had leprosy^(U) reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

⁹ Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”

¹⁰ So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” ¹¹ The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

¹² The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide^(V) in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’”

¹³ One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here—yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”

¹⁴ So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” ¹⁵ They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight.^(W) So the messengers returned and reported to the king. ¹⁶ Then the people went out and plundered^(X) the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel,^(Y) as the Lord had said.

¹⁷ Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died,^(Z) just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. ¹⁸ It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”

¹⁹ The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates^(AA) of the heavens, could this happen?” The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!” ²⁰ And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.