The Shunammite’s Land Restored

8 Now Elisha had said to the woman^(A) whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine^(B) in the land that will last seven years.”^{(C) 2} The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

³ At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land. ⁴ The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” ⁵ Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored^(D) the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.

Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” ⁶ The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.

Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

Hazael Murders Ben-Hadad

⁷ Elisha went to Damascus,^(E) and Ben-Hadad^(F) 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,^(G) “Take a gift^(H) with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult^(I) 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.’^(J) Nevertheless,^[a] the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die.” ¹¹ He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed.^(K) Then the man of God began to weep.^(L)

¹² “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael.

“Because I know the harm^(M) you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash^(N) their little children^(O) to the ground, and rip open^(P) their pregnant women.”

¹³ Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog,^(Q) accomplish such a feat?”

“The Lord has shown me that you will become king^(R) of Aram,” answered Elisha.

¹⁴ Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, “What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael replied, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” ¹⁵ But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died.^(S) Then Hazael succeeded him as king.

Jehoram King of Judah^(T)

¹⁶ In the fifth year of Joram^(U) son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram^(V) son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. ¹⁷ He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. ¹⁸ He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter^(W) of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. ¹⁹ Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy^(X) Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp^(Y) for David and his descendants forever.

²⁰ In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king.^{(Z) 21} So Jehoram^[b] went to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night; his army, however, fled back home. ²² To this day Edom has been in rebellion^(AA) against Judah. Libnah^(AB) revolted at the same time.

²³ As for the other events of Jehoram’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? ²⁴ Jehoram rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.

Ahaziah King of Judah^(AC)

²⁵ In the twelfth^(AD) year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. ²⁶ Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah,^(AE) a granddaughter of Omri^(AF) king of Israel. ²⁷ He followed the ways of the house of Ahab^(AG) and did evil^(AH) in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.

²⁸ Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead.^(AI) The Arameans wounded Joram; ²⁹ so King Joram returned to Jezreel^(AJ) to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth^[c] in his battle with Hazael^(AK) king of Aram.

Then Ahaziah^(AL) son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.

The Parable of the Sower^(A)(B)

4 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake.^(C) The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. ² He taught them many things by parables,^(D) and in his teaching said: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.^{(E) 4} As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”^(F)

⁹ Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”^(G)

¹⁰ When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God^(H) has been given to you. But to those on the outside^(I) everything is said in parables ¹² so that,

¹³ Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? ¹⁴ The farmer sows the word.^{(K) 15} Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan^(L) comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶ Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸ Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth^(M) and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰ Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”