Beginning

Another miracle that Elisha did

6 One day, the group of prophets said to Elisha, ‘The place where we meet with you is too small for us. ² We must go to the Jordan River to cut down some trees. Each one of us can bring back some wood to build a new place for us to meet in.’ Elisha agreed and he told them to go.

³ One of the prophets said, ‘Please come with us, sir.’ Elisha replied, ‘I will come with you.’ ⁴ So he went with them. They arrived at the Jordan River. They started to cut down some trees. ⁵ While one of them was cutting down a tree, his iron axe fell into the water. He shouted, ‘Oh! My master! The axe did not belong to me!’ ⁶ Elisha asked him, ‘Where did it fall in the water?’ He showed Elisha the place. Then Elisha cut a branch from a tree. He threw it in the water at that place. It caused the iron axe to come to the top of the water. ⁷ Elisha told the prophet, ‘Lift it out of the water.’ So the man took hold of it with his hand.

Elisha stops the Syrian army

⁸ There was a war between the king of Syria and Israel. The king of Syria talked with his officers. He said to them, ‘I will attack Israel at a certain place.’ ⁹ But Elisha, the man of God, sent a message to the king of Israel. He said, ‘Do not travel through that place. The Syrian army is going there to attack us.’ ¹⁰ So the king of Israel warned the people in that place to be careful. Several times Elisha told the king where the Syrian army would attack so that the king would be careful.

¹¹ This made the king of Syria very angry. He asked his officers to come to him. He said to them, ‘One of you is helping the king of Israel. Who is it?’ ¹² One of his officers said, ‘None of us is helping him, my master the king. There is a prophet who lives in Israel. His name is Elisha. He tells the king of Israel every word that you speak secretly, even what you say in your bedroom!’ ¹³ The king of Syria said, ‘Go and find the place where he is. Then I will send some men there to catch him.’

A report came back to the king of Syria, ‘Elisha is in Dothan.’ ¹⁴ So the king sent a big army of soldiers there, with horses and chariots. They arrived during the night and they made their camp all around the city.

¹⁵ The servant of Elisha, the man of God, got up early the next morning. He went out and he saw an army with horses and chariots all around the city. He said to Elisha, ‘Oh! My master! What can we do?’ ¹⁶ Elisha replied, ‘Do not be afraid. There are more men to fight for us than there are for them.’ ¹⁷ Then Elisha prayed, ‘Lord, please open my servant's eyes so that he can see clearly.’ The Lord opened the servant's eyes. Now he could see lots of horses and chariots that burned with fire. They were on the hill all around Elisha.

¹⁸ When the enemy soldiers came towards Elisha, he prayed, ‘Lord, please make these people become blind.’ The Lord did what Elisha had asked. He made the enemy soldiers become blind. ¹⁹ Elisha said to them, ‘You are on the wrong road. You have come to the wrong city. Follow me! I will lead you to the man that you are looking for.’ Elisha led them to Samaria.

²⁰ After they had gone into the city of Samaria, Elisha prayed again, ‘Lord, please open the eyes of these men so that they can see again.’ The Lord opened their eyes. Now they could see that they were in the middle of Samaria! ²¹ When the king of Israel saw the Syrian army in his city, he asked Elisha, ‘My master, what should I do? Should I kill them?’ ²² Elisha answered, ‘You must not kill them. That would not be right. You did not win a fight against them with your weapons. Give them some food and water. Then they can eat and drink before they go back to their master.’

²³ So the king of Israel made a big feast for them. They had a lot of food and drink. Then he sent them back to their master, the king of Syria. After this happened, no more groups of Syrian soldiers came to attack Israel.

The Syrian army attacks Samaria

²⁴ But later, King Ben-Hadad of Syria sent his whole army to attack Samaria. His soldiers made their camp all around the city. ²⁵ As a result, there was a famine in the city. The Syrian army were all around the city for a long time. Food in the city was very expensive. A donkey's head cost 80 pieces of silver. A small cup of dove's dung cost five pieces of silver.^[a]

²⁶ While the king of Israel was walking on the wall of the city, a woman shouted to him, ‘Please help me, my master the king!’ ²⁷ The king replied, ‘Why do you ask me? Only the Lord can help you. I have no wheat or wine to give you.’ ²⁸ Then the king asked her, ‘What is your problem?’ She answered, ‘This woman here said to me, “Let us take your son today, so that we can eat him. Tomorrow we will eat my son.” ²⁹ So we cooked my son and we ate him. The next day I said to her, “Now we will take your son, so that we can eat him.” But she has hidden him somewhere!’

³⁰ When the king heard the woman's words, he was very upset. He tore his clothes. As he walked along the wall, people could see what he was wearing. They saw that he was wearing sackcloth under his other clothes.^{[b] 31} He said, ‘I will certainly cut off Elisha's head today! May God punish me with death if Elisha still has his head by the end of the day!’

³² Elisha was sitting in his house. The leaders of the city were with him. The king sent a man to Elisha with a message. But before he arrived, Elisha said to the leaders, ‘I tell you this. That murderer, the king, has sent someone to cut off my head. When the king's man arrives, shut the door. Stop him from coming in here. We will soon hear the sound of his master as he arrives too.’

³³ While Elisha was still talking to the city's leaders, the king's man arrived with this message: ‘The Lord has caused this terrible trouble to happen to us. I cannot wait any longer for the Lord to help us.’^[c]

7 Elisha said, ‘Now listen to the Lord's message! This is what the Lord says: “About this time tomorrow, five kilograms of good flour will cost only one piece of silver. Ten kilograms of barley will also cost one piece of silver. You will be able to buy this food at the gate of Samaria.” ’^[d]

² The special officer who was near to the king said to the man of God, ‘That will never happen! Even if the Lord opens the skies and sends us rain, it could not happen so soon.’ Elisha said, ‘You yourself will see this happen, but you will not eat any of the food!’

How the war finished

³ At this time, there were four men who had leprosy. They were at Samaria's gate where people went in to the city. They said to each other, ‘We should not stay here. If we wait here we will die. ⁴ There is no food in the city. If we go in there we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So we will go out to the camp of the Syrian army. We will ask them to be kind to us. They may let us stay alive, or they may kill us. But we would have died anyway.’

⁵ At evening time, the men went towards the Syrian army's camp. When they reached the edge of the camp, they saw that there was nobody there! ⁶ The Lord God had caused the Syrian soldiers to hear the sound of horses, chariots and a very big army. So they said among themselves, ‘Listen! The king of Israel has paid the king of the Hittites and the king of Egypt to come here and attack us!’

⁷ So, that evening, the Syrian soldiers all ran away. They left their tents, their horses and their donkeys. They did not take anything with them. They ran away to save their lives. ⁸ When the four men reached the edge of the camp, they went into one of the tents. They ate and they drank what was there. They carried away silver and gold and clothes. They went away and they hid those things. Then they came back and they went into another tent. They took the valuable things from there too and they hid them.

⁹ Then they said to each other, ‘We should not be doing this. It is not right! This is a day of good news and we have not told anyone. If we wait until the morning, we will be in trouble. We must go now and tell the king's officers what has happened.’ ¹⁰ So they went back to the city's gate and they called out to the guards. They said to them, ‘We went out to the camp of the Syrian army. There was nobody there! We did not hear anyone at all. The horses and donkeys are still there, where the soldiers had tied them. The tents are still there, as they were before.’

¹¹ The guards at the city gate then shouted the news. People in the king's palace heard the news. ¹² The king got up in the middle of the night. He said to his officers, ‘I will tell you what the Syrian soldiers have done to deceive us. They know that we have no food. So they have left their tents and they have hidden in the fields. They are thinking, “The Israelites will surely come out of the city. Then we will catch them while they are still alive. We will then get into their city.” ’

¹³ One of the king's officers answered him, ‘Send some men with five of the horses that are still in our city. We will see what happens to them. All of us Israelites in the city will soon die. If the Syrian soldiers kill those men, they would have died anyway. So send them out of the city to find out what is happening.’ ¹⁴ So they prepared two chariots with their horses. The king sent the men to see what had happened to the Syrian army. He commanded the men, ‘Go and look for them.’

¹⁵ The king's men followed the Syrian soldiers as far as the Jordan River. They saw many things that the soldiers had dropped along the road. They had dropped clothes and weapons because they were in a hurry to run away. So the men returned to the king. They told him what they had seen.

¹⁶ Then the people in Samaria went out of the city. They took all the valuable things from the Syrian soldiers' tents. So then people could buy five kilograms of good flour for one piece of silver. They could also buy ten kilograms of barley for one piece of silver. That is what the Lord had said would happen.

¹⁷ The king had told his special officer to stand at the gate of the city. When the people ran out of the city, they knocked him down. He fell under their feet and he died. The man of God had already said that this would happen, when the king had come to his house.

¹⁸ Elisha had said to the king, ‘This time tomorrow, five kilograms of good flour will cost only one piece of silver. Ten kilograms of barley will also cost one piece of silver. You will be able to buy this food at the gate of Samaria.’ ¹⁹ But the officer had replied to the man of God, ‘That will never happen! Even if the Lord opens the skies and sends us rain, it could not happen so soon.’ Elisha had said, ‘You yourself will see this happen, but you will not eat any of the food!’

²⁰ That is what really happened to him! At the city gate, the people ran over the king's officer and he died.

Elisha helps the woman from Shunem

8 Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had made alive again, ‘Go away from here.^[e] The Lord says that there will be a famine in this country for seven years. So you and your family should go to live somewhere else during that time.’ ² The woman had done what the man of God had told her to do. She and her family went to live in the country of the Philistines for seven years. ³ After seven years, she came back from there. She went to the king to ask for her house and her land.^[f]

⁴ The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. The king said to Gehazi, ‘Tell me about all the great things that Elisha has done.’ ⁵ So Gehazi was telling the king that Elisha had made dead people alive again. While Gehazi was saying this, the woman from Shunem came in to ask the king for her house and her fields. It was her son that Elisha had made alive again. Gehazi said, ‘My master the king, this is the woman! And this is her son that Elisha made alive again!’

⁶ The king asked the woman about it. She told him what had happened. Then the king commanded one of his officers to take care of her. The king said to him, ‘This woman must receive back everything that belongs to her. She must also receive the value of all the crops that have grown in her fields since the day that she went away.’

King Ben-Hadad dies

⁷ Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, was ill in Damascus. Elisha went to Damascus at that time. Somebody told the king, ‘The man of God has come to the city.’ ⁸ The king said to Hazael, ‘Take a gift with you to go and meet the man of God. Ask him to get a message from the Lord. Ask him, “Will I get well again after this disease?” ’

⁹ So Hazael went to meet Elisha. He took a gift with him. There were 40 camels that carried many kinds of valuable things that came from Damascus. He arrived at Elisha's house and he stood in front of him. Hazael said, ‘Your servant, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, has sent me to you. He asks, “Will I get well again after this disease?” ’

¹⁰ Elisha answered, ‘Go back to the king. Tell him, “Certainly, you will get well again.” But the Lord has shown me that the king will surely die.’ ¹¹ Then Elisha looked at him with open eyes until Hazael became ashamed. Then the man of God began to weep. ¹² So Hazael asked him, ‘Why are you weeping, my master?’ Elisha replied, ‘Because I know that you will cause great trouble for Israel's people. You will destroy their strong cities with fire. You will fight their young men and you will kill them. You will knock down their children to kill them. You will cut open their pregnant women.’

¹³ Hazael said, ‘I am only an ordinary man, sir. I am not more important than a dog! How could I ever do great things like that?’ Elisha answered, ‘The Lord has shown me that you will become the king of Syria.’

¹⁴ Then Hazael left Elisha. He returned to his master, the king. King Ben-Hadad asked him, ‘What did Elisha say to you?’ Hazael replied, ‘He told me that you will surely get well again.’

¹⁵ The next day, Hazael took a thick cloth. He used water to make it wet. Then he put it over the king's face so that he could not breathe. So King Ben-Hadad died. Hazael became king of Syria after him.

Jehoram becomes the king of Judah

¹⁶ When Ahab's son Joram had been king of Israel for five years, Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram started to rule Judah as king.^{[g] 17} He was 32 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. ¹⁸ He lived in the same bad way that the kings of Israel did. He did what the family of Ahab had done. He married a daughter of King Ahab and he became as wicked as King Ahab's family was. He did things that the Lord said were evil. ¹⁹ But the Lord did not want to destroy the nation of Judah, because of his promise to his servant, David. The Lord had promised that King David would always have descendants who would rule the nation.

²⁰ While Jehoram was king, Edom's people turned against Judah. They would no longer accept the king of Judah's authority over them. They decided to have their own king. ²¹ So King Jehoram travelled to Zair with all his chariots.^[h] The Edomite army came and they were all around him. But that night, Jehoram and his officers attacked the Edomites and they escaped. The Israelite army ran away to go back home. ²² Even today, Edom's people do not obey the rulers of Judah. The people of Libnah city also turned against Judah at the same time.

²³ The other things that happened while Jehoram was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about all the things that Jehoram did. ²⁴ Jehoram died and they buried him with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Ahaziah became king after him.

Ahaziah becomes the king of Judah

²⁵ When Ahab's son Joram had been king of Israel for 12 years, Jehoram's son Ahaziah started to rule Judah as king. ²⁶ Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's name was Athaliah. She was a granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel.^{[i] 27} Ahaziah lived in the same bad way that Ahab's family had done. He did things that the Lord said were evil, as Ahab's family had done. That was because he had married a woman from Ahab's family.

²⁸ King Ahaziah went with Ahab's son, King Joram of Israel, to fight against Hazael, the king of Syria. They fought a battle at Ramoth Gilead. The Syrian army won the fight and they hurt King Joram. ²⁹ King Joram returned to Jezreel, so that his wounds could get better after the battle. While he was there, King Ahaziah went to visit him, because of his wounds.