Chronological

King Ahaziah dies

1 After King Ahab's death, the country of Moab turned against Israel. ² At this time, Ahaziah was king of Israel. He lived in the city of Samaria. One day he fell from the window of an upstairs room in his palace. He became very ill. So he sent men to the temple of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron. He told them, ‘Ask their god if I will become well again after my disease.’

³ Then the angel of the Lord spoke to Elijah.^[a] He was a prophet who came from Tishbe. The angel said, ‘Go and meet the men that the king of Samaria has sent. Say to them, “Do you think that there is no God in Israel? Is that why you are going to Ekron's god, Baal-Zebub, to ask if the king will be well again?” ⁴ Because you are doing this, the Lord says to you, Ahaziah, “You will never leave the bed that you are lying on. You will certainly die.” ’

⁵ Elijah went to tell the men the Lord's message. So the men returned to the king. He asked them, ‘Why have you returned already?’ ⁶ They replied, ‘A man came to meet us. He told us to go back to the king who had sent us. He says to you, “This is what the Lord says: Why have you sent men to speak to Ekron's god, Baal-Zebub? You seem to think that there is no God in Israel. Because of that, you will not leave the bed that you are lying on. You will certainly die.” ’

⁷ The king asked them, ‘Describe the man who came to meet you. What did he look like?’ ⁸ They replied, ‘He was wearing rough clothes. He had tied a leather belt around him.’ Then the king said, ‘That was Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe.’

⁹ Then the king sent 50 soldiers with their captain to fetch Elijah. Elijah was sitting on the top of a hill. The captain went up and he said to Elijah, ‘Man of God, the king says, “Come down with us.” ’

¹⁰ Elijah replied to the captain, ‘If I am really a man of God, fire will come down from the sky. It will destroy you and your 50 soldiers.’ Then fire did come down from the sky. It destroyed the captain and his 50 soldiers.

¹¹ Then the king sent another captain with 50 more soldiers to fetch Elijah. The captain went up and he said to Elijah, ‘Man of God, the king says, “Come down immediately!” ’ ¹² Elijah answered, ‘If I am really a man of God, fire will come down from the sky. It will destroy you and your 50 soldiers.’ Then fire from God did come down from the sky. It destroyed the captain and his 50 soldiers.

¹³ So the king sent a third captain, with 50 more soldiers. This captain went up to Elijah. He bent down on his knees in front of Elijah to ask him to be kind to them. He said, ‘Man of God, we are your servants. Please do not kill me and my 50 soldiers. ¹⁴ We know that fire came down from the sky. It destroyed the two captains who came before me and all their soldiers. But now, please be kind and do not kill me.’

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, ‘Go down with him. Do not be afraid of him.’ So Elijah went down with the captain to meet the king. ¹⁶ Elijah said to the king, ‘This is what the Lord says: You sent men to speak to Ekron's god, Baal-Zebub, to find out what would happen to you. Did you think that there is no God in Israel? You did not ask him what would happen. Because of that, you will not leave the bed that you are lying on. You will certainly die.’

¹⁷ So Ahaziah died. The Lord had told Elijah that this would happen. Ahaziah had no son, so his brother, Joram, became king after him. This happened in the second year that Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, ruled Judah as king.

¹⁸ The other things that happened while Ahaziah was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about the things that King Ahaziah did.^[b]

Elijah goes up to heaven

2 The Lord was now ready to take Elijah up to heaven in a storm of wind. At this time, Elijah and Elisha were travelling from Gilgal. ² Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Stay here, because the Lord has sent me to Bethel.’ But Elisha replied, ‘I will not leave you. I promise that, as surely as the Lord lives and as surely as you also live.’

So they went down to Bethel together. ³ A group of prophets lived in Bethel. They came out to Elisha and they asked him, ‘Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?’ Elisha replied, ‘Yes, I do know that, but do not talk about it now.’

⁴ Then Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Stay here, because the Lord has sent me to Jericho.’ But Elisha replied, ‘I will not leave you. I promise that, as surely as the Lord lives and as surely as you live.’

So they went to Jericho together. ⁵ A group of prophets lived in Jericho. They went out to Elisha and they asked him, ‘Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?’ Elisha replied, ‘Yes, I do know that, but do not talk about it now.’

⁶ Then Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Stay here, because the Lord has sent me to the Jordan River.’ But Elisha replied, ‘I will not leave you. I promise that, as surely as the Lord lives and as surely as you live.’

So they continued to travel together. ⁷ 50 men who belonged to the group of prophets went and they stood near the Jordan River. They were standing not far away from Elijah and Elisha. They watched what happened. ⁸ Elijah took off his coat. He rolled it up and he hit the water with it. The water became separate to the left side and to the right side. Elijah and Elisha went across the river on dry ground.

⁹ After they had crossed the river, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘The Lord will soon take me away from you. What do you want me to do for you before that happens?’ Elisha replied, ‘Please let me have twice as much of your spirit.’ ¹⁰ Elijah said, ‘You have asked a difficult thing. But watch carefully when God takes me from you. If you see it happen, you will receive that spirit. If you do not see me, you will not receive it.’

¹¹ So they walked along and they talked together. Suddenly a chariot that was burning with fire appeared. The horses that pulled it were also burning with fire. The chariot went between Elijah and Elisha. Elijah went up to heaven in a storm of wind. ¹² When Elisha saw this, he shouted, ‘My father! My father!^[c] You are riding in Israel's chariot! Israel's men are riding on the horses!’

After that, Elisha could not see Elijah again. He took hold of his own clothes and he tore them into pieces because he was very upset. ¹³ He picked up Elijah's coat that had fallen off. He went and he stood on the shore of the Jordan River. ¹⁴ He took Elijah's coat and he hit the water with it. He said, ‘Now is the Lord, Elijah's God, with me?’ When he hit the water with Elijah's coat, the water became separate, to the left side and to the right side. Elisha went across the river.

¹⁵ The group of prophets from Jericho were standing not far away. They saw what happened. They said, ‘The spirit that gave power to Elijah is now with Elisha.’ They went to meet Elisha. They bent down low to the ground to respect him. ¹⁶ They said to him, ‘Please, sir! We are your servants. We have 50 strong men with us. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit^[d] of the Lord has carried him away. Maybe it has dropped him somewhere on a mountain or in a valley.’ But Elisha replied, ‘No. Do not send them to look for him.’

¹⁷ But the prophets asked him many times to do this. Elisha was too ashamed to refuse. So he said, ‘Send them to look.’ They sent 50 men who looked for Elijah for three days. But they did not find him. ¹⁸ When they returned, Elisha was waiting for them in Jericho. He said to them, ‘I told you not to go and look for Elijah.’

Elisha shows that he has God's authority

¹⁹ One day, the leaders in Jericho said to Elisha, ‘Please listen to us, sir. You can see that our city is in a good place. But the water here is bad. The land does not give us good crops.’ ²⁰ Elisha said, ‘Bring a new bowl to me with some salt in it.’ So they brought it to him. ²¹ Then Elisha went out to the city's spring of water. He threw the salt into it. He said, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have made this water clean again. It will no longer cause people to die. The land will no longer be useless for crops.” ’

²² Since that time, the water has always been pure. This is what Elisha had said would happen.

²³ Elisha went from Jericho to Bethel. While he travelled along the road, some boys came out of the town. They laughed at Elisha. They shouted at him, ‘Bald man, move on! Go away, you bald man!’ ²⁴ Elisha turned around and he looked at them. He asked the Lord to punish them. Two bears came out from the forest. They tore 42 of the boys in pieces.

²⁵ Then Elisha travelled to Mount Carmel. From there, he returned to Samaria.

Moab's people fight against Israel

3 Ahab's son Jehoram became the king of Israel in Samaria.^[e] This happened when Jehoshaphat had been the king of Judah for 18 years. Jehoram ruled Israel as king for 12 years. ² He did things that the Lord said were evil. But he was not as bad as his father and his mother had been. Jehoram did throw away the stone pillar where people worshipped Baal. His father Ahab had made that pillar.^{[f] 3} But Jehoram continued to do the same bad things that Nebat's son Jeroboam had done. Jeroboam had caused many people in Israel to do those sins, and Jehoram did not stop doing them himself.

⁴ Mesha, the king of Moab, was a sheep farmer. Every year he had to pay the king of Israel 100,000 male lambs and the wool from 100,000 male sheep. ⁵ But after King Ahab died, the king of Moab turned against the king of Israel. ⁶ So King Jehoram left Samaria to bring all Israel's army together. They were ready to attack Moab. ⁷ He also sent this message to Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah: ‘The king of Moab has turned against me. Will you go with me to fight against the Moabites?’

Jehoshaphat replied, ‘Yes, I will go with you. We will have one army. My soldiers will join with your soldiers. My horses will be under your authority.’

⁸ King Jehoram asked, ‘What road should we go on to attack Moab?’ King Jehoshaphat replied, ‘We should travel through the Edom desert.’

⁹ So the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edom joined together to attack Moab.^[g] They were travelling along the road for seven days. After that time, there was no more water for the army or for their animals. ¹⁰ The king of Israel was very upset. He said, ‘What has happened? Perhaps the Lord has brought us three kings here to put us under the power of the king of Moab!’ ¹¹ But King Jehoshaphat asked, ‘There must surely be a prophet of the Lord here somewhere. We could ask him what the Lord wants us to do.’

An officer of the king of Israel answered him, ‘Yes, Shaphat's son Elisha is here. He was Elijah's servant.’ ¹² Jehoshaphat said, ‘He will tell us what the Lord is saying.’ So the king of Israel, King Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went to meet Elisha.

¹³ Elisha said to the king of Israel, ‘We have nothing to say to each other! Instead, go to the prophets that your father and your mother liked to listen to.’ The king of Israel replied, ‘No! The Lord told us three kings to come here together. Now he is putting us under Moab's power.’ ¹⁴ Elisha said to him, ‘I serve the Lord Almighty. I promise you, as surely as the Lord lives, I would never even look at you! But I do respect Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, who is with you. So I will help you. ¹⁵ But now, bring someone to play music on a harp for me.’

While the man was making music, the Lord's power came to Elisha. ¹⁶ Elisha said, ‘This is what the Lord says: Dig many holes in this dry valley, ¹⁷ because the Lord says this: You will not see any wind or any rain. But this valley will become full of water! You, your cows and your other animals will have water to drink. ¹⁸ This is an easy thing for the Lord to do. He will also put the Moabites under your power. ¹⁹ You will destroy all their strong cities and all their important towns. You will cut down every good tree. You will stop their springs giving any water. You will cover their fields with stones so that nothing grows there.’

²⁰ The next morning, at the time when they offered the morning sacrifice, the water appeared! It came from the direction of Edom so that the land was full of water!

²¹ All the people in Moab had heard that the kings had come to attack them. So the leaders of Moab brought together every man who was old enough to fight. They put these men on Moab's border. ²² When the Moabites woke up early the next morning, the sun was shining on the water. When they looked at the water from where they were, it looked like blood! ²³ They said to each other, ‘That is blood! The armies of those kings have fought against each other. Now they are all dead! We must go and take all their valuable things!’

²⁴ So the Moabites arrived at the camp of the Israelite army. Then Israel's soldiers attacked the Moabites. The Moabites ran away back to their own land. The Israelites chased them and they completely destroyed them. ²⁵ They destroyed the Moabites' towns. Each Israelite soldier threw a stone onto all the good fields, until they covered them with stones. They filled the springs so that they gave no water. They cut down all the good trees.

Only the city of Kir-Hareseth was still there with its stone walls.^[h] But the Israelite soldiers stood all around the city. They attacked it with stones from their slings. ²⁶ The king of Moab realized that he was not winning the battle. So he took 700 of his soldiers who had swords. They tried to attack their enemies and reach the king of Edom. But they failed to do that. ²⁷ So the king of Moab took his oldest son who would have become king after him. He killed him on the wall of the city as a burnt offering to their god.^[i] This made the Israelite soldiers become very upset. So they went away from the city and they returned to their own land.

Elisha helps a poor widow

4 There was a woman whose husband belonged to the group of prophets. When her husband died, she called out to Elisha for help. She said, ‘Your servant, my husband, is dead. He served the Lord faithfully. My husband was in debt to a certain man. Now that man wants to take my two children to be his slaves.’

² Elisha said to her, ‘How can I help you? Tell me, what things do you have in your house?’

She said to Elisha, ‘Please sir, I have nothing in the house. All I have is a small jar of olive oil.’

³ Then Elisha said to her, ‘Go to all your neighbours. Ask them to lend you empty jars. Make sure that you get a lot of them. ⁴ Then take the jars into your house. Go in with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour the olive oil from your jar into all the other jars. When each jar is full, put it in a safe place.’

⁵ The widow left Elisha. She went into her house with her sons and she shut the door behind her. They brought the jars to her and she poured the oil into them. ⁶ When all the jars were full, she said to one of her sons, ‘Bring me another jar.’ But he said, ‘There are no more jars.’ Then there was no more olive oil to pour from her jar.

⁷ Then the widow went back to Elisha, the man of God. She told him what had happened. He said, ‘Go and sell the oil. Use some of the money to pay the debt to the man. Use the money that remains to buy food for you and your sons. Then you will live.’

Elisha gives life to a boy

⁸ One day, Elisha went to Shunem. A rich woman lived there. She asked Elisha to eat a meal with her family. So every time that he went near her house, he stopped there to eat a meal. ⁹ Then the woman said to her husband, ‘Listen! I believe that this man who often eats with us is a holy man who serves God. ¹⁰ We should make a small room on the roof of our house for him.^[j] We can put a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp in the room. Then, when he comes to visit us, he can stay there.’

¹¹ One day, Elisha came to Shunem again. He went up to the room on the roof. He lay down to rest there. ¹² He told Gehazi, his servant, ‘Ask the woman to come here.’ So Gehazi did that. The woman came and she stood in front of Elisha. ¹³ Elisha said to Gehazi, ‘Say to her, “You have done a lot to take care of us. So what can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king, or to the officer who leads the army?” ’ The woman replied, ‘I live here safely among my own people.’ ¹⁴ But Elisha asked Gehazi again, ‘What can we do to help her?’ Gehazi said, ‘She has no son. But her husband is an old man.’ ¹⁵ Elisha said, ‘Ask her to come here.’ When Gehazi did that, she came and she stood near the door. ¹⁶ Elisha said to her, ‘About this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.’ The woman said, ‘No, my master! You are a man of God. Please do not tell me lies.’

¹⁷ But the woman did become pregnant. At that time next year she gave birth to a son. Elisha had said that this would happen.

¹⁸ One day, when the child was older, he went out to see his father. His father was working in a field with his men at harvest time. ¹⁹ He said to his father, ‘My head is hurting! Yes, it hurts!’ His father said to a servant, ‘Carry the boy to his mother.’ ²⁰ So the servant lifted him up and he carried him to his mother. The boy sat on his mother's knees until midday. Then he died. ²¹ She took the boy upstairs and she put him on the bed of the man of God. Then she went out of the room and she shut the door. ²² She sent a message to her husband. She said, ‘Send to me one of the servants with one of the donkeys. I must go quickly to see the man of God and then I will return.’ ²³ Her husband asked, ‘Why do you want to go and see him today? It is not a special day with a new moon. It is not a Sabbath day.’ She said, ‘All is well.’ ²⁴ Then she prepared the donkey. She said to her servant, ‘You go ahead and lead! Go as fast as you can unless I say, “Go more slowly.” ’

²⁵ So the woman went to see Elisha, the man of God, at Mount Carmel. Elisha saw her when she was a long way away. He said to his servant Gehazi, ‘Look! There is the woman from Shunem! ²⁶ Run to meet her. Ask her, “Are you well? Is your husband well? Is your son well?” ’ The woman replied, ‘All is well.’ ²⁷ But when she reached the man of God at Mount Carmel, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came to push her away. But the man of God said, ‘Leave her alone. She is very upset. But the Lord has hidden the reason from me. He did not tell me about her problem.’

²⁸ The woman said, ‘My master, I did not ask you for a son, did I? I told you not to tell me lies. ’

²⁹ Elisha said to Gehazi, ‘Tie your belt around you. Prepare to travel! Take my stick with you and run there quickly. If you meet anyone, do not stop to speak. If anyone speaks to you, do not stop to answer them. When you get there, put my stick on the boy's face.’ ³⁰ But the child's mother said, ‘I promise you, as surely as the Lord lives and you live, I will not leave you.’ So Elisha got up and he went back to Shunem with her.

³¹ Gehazi ran ahead and he arrived before they did. He put Elisha's stick on the boy's face. But the boy did not move or make any sound. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha. He said to him, ‘The boy did not wake up.’

³² When Elisha arrived at the house, the boy was lying on the bed. He saw that the boy was dead. ³³ Elisha went into the room by himself. He shut the door. Elisha prayed to the Lord. ³⁴ Then he got onto the bed and he lay across the boy. He put his mouth on the boy's mouth. He put his eyes over the boy's eyes. He put his hands on the boy's hands. When he lay across the boy's body, it became warm.

³⁵ Elisha went away from the bed. He walked round the room a few times. Then he got onto the bed again. He lay down across the boy. The boy sneezed seven times and then he opened his eyes.^{[k] 36} Then Elisha called Gehazi to come to him. He said, ‘Tell the boy's mother to come here.’ Gehazi did that. When the woman came, Elisha said to her, ‘Take your son.’ ³⁷ She came in to the room. She bent down low near Elisha's feet with her face towards the ground. Then she took her son and she left the room.

Elisha does some more miracles

³⁸ After that, Elisha went back to Gilgal. There was a famine in that region. The group of prophets came to meet with Elisha. He said to his servant, ‘Put the large pot over the fire. Cook some soup for the prophets.’ ³⁹ One of the prophets went out into the fields to get some herbs to put in the soup. He found a wild plant and he picked some of its fruits. He filled the pockets of his coat with them. He brought the fruits back with him and he cut them into pieces. He put the pieces into the pot of soup. But he did not know what they were.

⁴⁰ They poured out the soup for the men to eat. But when they started to eat it, they shouted, ‘Man of God, this soup will kill us!’ They could not eat it. ⁴¹ Then Elisha said, ‘Bring some flour.’ He put the flour into the pot. He said, ‘Now pour out some more soup for the people to eat.’ Then there was nothing in the soup that would hurt them.

⁴² One day, a man came from Baal Shalishah. He brought 20 bread loaves for the man of God. The flour for the bread was made from the first barley that he had picked at harvest time. He also brought some fresh grain. Elisha said, ‘Give this food to the people to eat.’ ⁴³ But his servant said, ‘There is not enough food here to feed 100 men!’ Elisha said, ‘Give it to the people for them to eat. Do it, because the Lord says, “They will all eat as much as they want. There will even be some food left.” ’ ⁴⁴ So the servant gave the bread to the prophets to eat. They ate as much as they wanted and some food still remained. The Lord had said that this would happen.