Elijah Ascends to Heaven

2 Now when the Lord was about to take Eli′jah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Eli′jah and Eli′sha were on their way from Gilgal. ² And Eli′jah said to Eli′sha, “Tarry here, I pray you; for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Eli′sha said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. ³ And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Eli′sha, and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?” And he said, “Yes, I know it; hold your peace.”

⁴ Eli′jah said to him, “Eli′sha, tarry here, I pray you; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho. ⁵ The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Eli′sha, and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?” And he answered, “Yes, I know it; hold your peace.”

⁶ Then Eli′jah said to him, “Tarry here, I pray you; for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. ⁷ Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. ⁸ Then Eli′jah took his mantle, and rolled it up, and struck the water, and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground.

⁹ When they had crossed, Eli′jah said to Eli′sha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Eli′sha said, “I pray you, let me inherit a double share^[a] of your spirit.” ¹⁰ And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.” ¹¹ And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Eli′jah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. ¹² And Eli′sha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.

Elisha Succeeds Elijah

Then he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. ¹³ And he took up the mantle of Eli′jah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴ Then he took the mantle of Eli′jah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, “Where is the Lord, the God of Eli′jah?” And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other; and Eli′sha went over.

¹⁵ Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him over against them, they said, “The spirit of Eli′jah rests on Eli′sha.” And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground before him. ¹⁶ And they said to him, “Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men; pray, let them go, and seek your master; it may be that the Spirit of the Lord has caught him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” And he said, “You shall not send.” ¹⁷ But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, “Send.” They sent therefore fifty men; and for three days they sought him but did not find him. ¹⁸ And they came back to him, while he tarried at Jericho, and he said to them, “Did I not say to you, Do not go?”

Elisha Performs Miracles

¹⁹ Now the men of the city said to Eli′sha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” ²⁰ He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. ²¹ Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it, and said, “Thus says the Lord, I have made this water wholesome; henceforth neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” ²² So the water has been wholesome to this day, according to the word which Eli′sha spoke.

²³ He went up from there to Bethel; and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” ²⁴ And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. ²⁵ From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and thence he returned to Samar′ia.

Reign of Amaziah

25 Amazi′ah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jeho-ad′dan of Jerusalem. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a blameless heart. ³ And as soon as the royal power was firmly in his hand he killed his servants who had slain the king his father. ⁴ But he did not put their children to death, according to what is written in the law, in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, or the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall die for his own sin.”

Slaughter of the Edomites

⁵ Then Amazi′ah assembled the men of Judah, and set them by fathers’ houses under commanders of thousands and of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered those twenty years old and upward, and found that they were three hundred thousand picked men, fit for war, able to handle spear and shield. ⁶ He hired also a hundred thousand mighty men of valor from Israel for a hundred talents of silver. ⁷ But a man of God came to him and said, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel, with all these E′phraimites. ⁸ But if you suppose that in this way you will be strong for war,^[a] God will cast you down before the enemy; for God has power to help or to cast down.” ⁹ And Amazi′ah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?” The man of God answered, “The Lord is able to give you much more than this.” ¹⁰ Then Amazi′ah discharged the army that had come to him from E′phraim, to go home again. And they became very angry with Judah, and returned home in fierce anger. ¹¹ But Amazi′ah took courage, and led out his people, and went to the Valley of Salt and smote ten thousand men of Se′ir. ¹² The men of Judah captured another ten thousand alive, and took them to the top of a rock and threw them down from the top of the rock; and they were all dashed to pieces. ¹³ But the men of the army whom Amazi′ah sent back, not letting them go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samar′ia to Beth-hor′on, and killed three thousand people in them, and took much spoil.

¹⁴ After Amazi′ah came from the slaughter of the E′domites, he brought the gods of the men of Se′ir, and set them up as his gods, and worshiped them, making offerings to them. ¹⁵ Therefore the Lord was angry with Amazi′ah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you resorted to the gods of a people, which did not deliver their own people from your hand?” ¹⁶ But as he was speaking the king said to him, “Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be put to death?” So the prophet stopped, but said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.”

Israel Defeats Judah

¹⁷ Then Amazi′ah king of Judah took counsel and sent to Jo′ash the son of Jeho′ahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, “Come, let us look one another in the face.” ¹⁸ And Jo′ash the king of Israel sent word to Amazi′ah king of Judah, “A thistle on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife’; and a wild beast of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle. ¹⁹ You say, ‘See, I have smitten Edom,’ and your heart has lifted you up in boastfulness. But now stay at home; why should you provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?”

²⁰ But Amazi′ah would not listen; for it was of God, in order that he might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought the gods of Edom. ²¹ So Jo′ash king of Israel went up; and he and Amazi′ah king of Judah faced one another in battle at Beth-she′mesh, which belongs to Judah. ²² And Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to his home. ²³ And Jo′ash king of Israel captured Amazi′ah king of Judah, the son of Jo′ash, son of Ahazi′ah, at Beth-she′mesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem for four hundred cubits, from the E′phraim Gate to the Corner Gate. ²⁴ And he seized all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God, and O′bed-e′dom with them; he seized also the treasuries of the king’s house, and hostages, and he returned to Samar′ia.

Death of Amaziah

²⁵ Amazi′ah the son of Jo′ash king of Judah lived fifteen years after the death of Jo′ash the son of Jeho′ahaz, king of Israel. ²⁶ Now the rest of the deeds of Amazi′ah, from first to last, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel? ²⁷ From the time when he turned away from the Lord they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. ²⁸ And they brought him upon horses; and he was buried with his fathers in the city of David.

Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.