Beginning

Elisha Recovers a Lost Axe Head

6 Then the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “Please look; the place where we are living before you is too cramped for us. ² Let us please go to the Jordan and each bring from there one log that we might make a place there for us to live.” Then he said, “Do so.” ³ Then a certain one said, “Please be prepared and go with your servants,” and he said, “I will go.” ⁴ He went with them, and they went to the Jordan, and they cut down the trees. ⁵ It happened as the one was felling the log, that the iron ax fell into the water. He called out and said, “Oh, no! My master, it was borrowed!” ⁶ Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” So he showed him the place, and then he cut off a stick and threw it there and made the iron ax float. ⁷ Then he said, “Pick it up for yourself,” so he stretched out his hand and took it.

Arameans Plot to Take Elisha

⁸ The king of Aram was fighting with Israel, so he consulted with his officers, saying, “My camp is at such and such a place.”^{[a] 9} Then the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, “Take care while crossing over to this place, because the Arameans are descending there.” ¹⁰ So the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God said to him and warned him, so he was on guard there continually.^[b]

¹¹ Then the heart of the king of Aram was stormy because of this matter, so he called his servants and said to them, “Can you not tell me who among us sides with the king of Israel?”^{[c] 12} Then one of his servants said, “No, my lord the king, but Elisha the prophet who is in Israel tells the king of Israel things which you speak in your own bedchamber.”^{[d] 13} Then he said, “Go and see where he is so that I can send and capture him.” Then he was told to him, “Look, he is in Dothan.” ¹⁴ So he sent horses, chariots, and an oppressing army there. They arrived at night and surrounded the town. ¹⁵ The attendant of the man of God arose early and went out, and look, the army was surrounding the city with horses and chariots. His servant said to him, “Oh no, my master! What shall we do?” ¹⁶ And he said, “Don’t be afraid, for more are with us than are with them.” ¹⁷ Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Yahweh, please open his eyes that he may see,” and Yahweh opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw, and look, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. ¹⁸ They came down to him, and Elisha prayed to Yahweh and said, “Please strike this people with blindness,” so he struck them with blindness as Elisha had spoken.^{[e] 19} Then Elisha said to them, “This is not the way and this is not the city. Come after me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” Then he brought them to Samaria.

²⁰ It happened at the moment they came to Samaria, Elisha said, “O Yahweh, open the eyes of these that they may see,” so Yahweh opened their eyes, and they saw, and look, the middle of Samaria! ²¹ Then the king of Israel said to Elisha when he saw them, “Shall I kill them? Shall I kill, my father?” ²² And he said, “You shall not kill. Would you kill those whom you took captive with the sword or with the bow? Put food and water before them that they may eat and drink and then go to their master.” ²³ So he made a great feast for them, and they ate and drank; then he sent them, and they went to their master. And the bands of the Arameans did not come again into the land of Israel.

Besieged Samaria Resorts to Cannibalism

²⁴ It happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Aram assembled all of his army and marched up and laid siege against Samaria. ²⁵ There was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, a siege was against it, until the head of a donkey went for eighty shekels of silver, and one fourth of the measure of the dung of doves went for five shekels of silver. ²⁶ It happened that the king of Israel was crossing over on the wall, and a woman called out to him, saying, “Help, my lord the king!” ²⁷ He said, “No, let Yahweh help you. How^[f] can I save you? From the threshing floor or from the wine press?” ²⁸ The king said to her, “What is the problem?”^[g] Then the woman said, “This woman said to me, ‘Give me your son, and let us eat him today, then tomorrow we will eat my son.’ ²⁹ So we cooked my son and ate him, and I said to her the next day, ‘Give your son that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.” ³⁰ It happened that when the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he had been walking on the wall, and the people saw, and behold, sackcloth was over his flesh underneath. ³¹ Then he said, “May God do to me and thus may he add, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today!” ³² Now Elisha was sitting in his house and the elders were sitting with him, and the king dispatched a man from before him, but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Did you see that this son of a murderer has sent to remove my head? Look, when the messenger comes, close the door; and you must hold the door closed against him.^[h] Is not the sound of the feet of his master behind him?” ³³ While he was still speaking with them, suddenly the messenger was coming down to him, and he said, “Look this trouble is from Yahweh. Why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?”

Elisha Prophesies Hope for Relief

7 Elisha said, “Hear the word of Yahweh: ‘Thus says Yahweh, “At this time tomorrow a seah of wheat bread flour will sell for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.’” ² Then the officer on whom the king relied^[i] answered the man of God and said, “Look, even if Yahweh is making windows in heaven, could this thing happen?” And he said, “Look, you will be seeing it with your eyes, but you shall not eat from it there.”

Four Lepers Report the Departure of the Arameans

³ Now four men who had a skin disease were at the entrance of the gate, and they said to each other,^[j] “Why are we sitting here until we die? ⁴ If we say, ‘Let us go into the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; but if we sit here, we shall die. So then, come, let us fall into the camp of the Arameans. If they let us live, we shall live; but if they kill us, then we shall die.” ⁵ So they got up at dusk to go to the camp of the Arameans. They went up to the edge of the camp of the Arameans, and look, there was no man there! ⁶ Now the Lord had caused the camp of the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots, the sound of horses, and the sound of a great army. So they said to one another,^[k] “Look, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us!” ⁷ So they got up and fled at dusk and left their tents, their horses, their donkeys, and the camp as it was, and they fled for their lives. ⁸ When these who had the skin disease came to the edge of the camp, they went into a certain tent and they ate, drank, and took from there silver and gold and clothes. Then they went and hid them, then returned and came to another tent, and they took from there and went and hid them.

⁹ Then they said to one another,^[l] “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news! If we are silent and wait until the light of morning, they will find us and we will be punished.^[m] So then, come, let us go and tell the house of the king.” ¹⁰ When they came, they called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, saying, “We came to the camp of the Arameans, and behold, there was no man or the voice of a man there! Only the horses and the donkeys were tied up, and the tents were left as they were.” ¹¹ Then the gatekeepers called and told it inside the house of the king. ¹² The king got up in the night and said to his servants, “Please let me tell you what the Arameans have done to us. The Arameans know that we are hungry, so they went out from the camp to hide in the field, saying, ‘When they go out from the city, we shall seize them alive and go into the city.’” ¹³ Then one of his servants replied and said, “Please let them take five of the remaining horses which remain in the city; behold, they are like all of the multitude of Israel that remain in it; they are like all the multitude of Israel who have perished. Let us send and see.” ¹⁴ So he took two charioteer horsemen, and the king sent after the camp of the Arameans, saying, “Go, find out,” ¹⁵ and they went after them to the Jordan. Look, all of the way was littered with clothes and equipment which the Arameans had thrown away in their haste. Then the messengers returned and told the king.

Prophecy Fulfilled

¹⁶ So the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. A seah of wheat flour went for a shekel and two seahs of barley went for a shekel according to the word of Yahweh. ¹⁷ Then the king appointed the officer he was depending on over the gate, but the people trampled him and he died, according to that which the man of God had said which he spoke when the king came down to him. ¹⁸ It happened as the man of God spoke to the king, saying, “Two seahs of barley shall be sold for a shekel and a seah of wheat flour for a shekel at this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria.” ¹⁹ Then the officer had replied to the man of God and said, “Look, even if Yahweh is opening the windows in heaven, could this thing happen?” And he had said, “Look you are about to see it with your eyes, but you will not eat from it.” ²⁰ So it had happened to him; the people trampled him in the gate and he died.

Joram Restores the Shunammite’s Land

8 Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Get up and go, you and your household, and dwell as an alien wherever you can, for Yahweh has called for a famine, and it will come to the land for seven years.” ² So the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God. She and her household went and dwelt as an alien in the land of the Philistines for seven years. ³ It happened at the end of seven years that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went out to appeal to the king for her household and for her properties.^{[n] 4} Now the king was speaking to Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, “Please tell me all of the great things which Elisha has done.” ⁵ It happened that as he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, suddenly the woman whose son he had restored to life was crying out to the king about her household and about her field. Then Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life!” ⁶ So the king asked the woman, and she told him. So the king appointed for her a certain court official, saying, “Restore all that is hers and all the yield of the field from the day she left the land up to now.”

⁷ Elisha came to Damascus. Now Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill, and he was told, “The man of God has come up here.” ⁸ Then the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift in your hand and go meet the man of God. Inquire of Yahweh from him, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this illness?’” ⁹ So Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand of all of the good things of Damascus, a load on each of forty camels, and he came and stood before him. Then he said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this illness?’” ¹⁰ Elisha said to him, “Go; say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover,’ but Yahweh has shown me that he certainly will die.” ¹¹ Then the man fixed his gaze and stared at him^[o] until he was ashamed and the man of God cried. ¹² Then Hazael asked, “Why is my lord crying?” He said, “Because I know what evil you will do to the Israelites.^[p] You will set their fortifications on fire,^[q] and you will kill their young men with the sword. Their little ones you will dash to pieces, and their pregnant women you will rip open!” ¹³ Then Hazael said, “But how could your servant, who is like a dog, do this great thing?” Elisha said, “Yahweh has shown me that you are to be king over Aram.” ¹⁴ So he departed from Elisha and came to his master. He asked him, “What did Elisha say to you.” So he said, “He said to me that you will certainly recover.” ¹⁵ On the next day, he took the bed cover, dipped it in the water, and spread it over his face so that he died. Then Hazael became king in his place.

Joram Reigns in Judah

¹⁶ Now in the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Joram son of Jehoshaphat became the king of Judah.^{[r] 17} He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. ¹⁸ He walked in the way of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab became his wife, and he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh. ¹⁹ Yet Yahweh was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, as he had promised to give him a lamp for his sons always.

²⁰ In his days, Edom rebelled against the rule^[s] of Judah, and they set up a king over them. ²¹ So Joram crossed over to Zair and all the chariots with him. It happened that he arose by night and attacked Edom who had surrounded him and the commanders of the chariots; but the army fled to their tents. ²² So Edom has rebelled against the rule^[t] of Judah until this day; then Libnah also rebelled at that time. ²³ The remainder of the acts of Joram and all that he did, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? ²⁴ So Joram slept with his ancestors,^[u] and he was buried with his ancestors^[v] in the city of David, and Ahaziah his son became king in place of him.

Ahaziah Succeeds Joram in Judah

²⁵ In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Joram became king of Judah. ²⁶ Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Athaliah daughter of Omri, king of Israel. ²⁷ He walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, as the house of Ahab; for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab.

²⁸ He went with Joram the son of Ahab for the battle against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-Gilead, and the Arameans wounded Joram. ²⁹ Joram the king returned to Jezreel to heal from the wounds which the Arameans had inflicted at Ramah when Hazael king of Aram fought him. Ahaziah the son of Joram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was ill.