2 Kings 2-10
New American Standard Bible
Chapter 2
1Now it came about, when the Lord was about to bring Elijah up by a whirlwind to heaven, that Elijah left Gilgal with Elisha. 2And Elijah said to Elisha, 'Stay here please, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.' But Elisha said, 'As surely as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.' So they went down to Bethel. 3Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel went out to Elisha and said to him, 'Are you aware that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?' And he said, 'Yes, I am aware; say nothing about it.'
4And Elijah said to him, 'Elisha, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.' But he said, 'As surely as the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.' So they came to Jericho.
5Then the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho approached Elisha and said to him, 'Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?' And he answered, 'Yes, I know; say nothing about it.'
6And Elijah said to him, 'Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.' But he said, 'As surely as the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.' So the two of them went on.
7Now fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood opposite them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan.
8And Elijah took his coat, folded it, and struck the waters, and they were divided here and there, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
9When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, 'Ask me what I should do for you before I am taken from you.' And Elisha said, 'Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.'
10He said, 'You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.'
11And as they were walking along and talking, behold, a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and they separated the two of them. Then Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven.
12And Elisha was watching it and he was crying out, 'My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!' And he did not see Elijah again. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
13He also took up the coat of Elijah that had fallen from him, and he went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan.
14Then he took the coat of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the waters, and said, 'Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?' And when he also had struck the waters, they were divided here and there; and Elisha crossed over.
15Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho opposite him saw him, they said, 'The spirit of Elijah has settled on Elisha.' And they came to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.
16Then they said to him, 'Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men; please let them go and search for your master, in case the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him on some mountain or into some valley.' But he said, 'You shall not send anyone.'
17Yet when they urged him until he was ashamed to refuse, he said, 'Send them.' So they sent fifty men; and they searched for three days, but did not find him.
18They returned to him while he was staying in Jericho; and he said to them, 'Did I not say to you, ‘Do not go’?'
19Then the men of the city said to Elisha, 'Behold now, the site of the city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.'
20And he said, 'Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it.' So they brought it to him.
21Then he went out to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, 'This is what the Lord says: ‘I have purified these waters; there shall not come from there death or unfruitfulness any longer.’?'
22So the waters have been purified to this day, in accordance with the word of Elisha which he spoke.
23Now he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the road, some young boys came out from the city and ridiculed him and said to him, 'Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!'
24When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two of the boys.
25He then went on from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
Chapter 3
1Now Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel at Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned for twelve years. 2He did evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and his mother; for he removed the memorial stone of Baal which his father had made. 3Nevertheless, he clung to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, into which he misled Israel; he did not abandon them.
4Now Mesha the king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he used to make tribute payments to the king of Israel of a hundred thousand lambs, and the wool of a hundred thousand rams.
5However, when King Ahab died, the king of Moab broke with the king of Israel.
6So King Jehoram left Samaria for battle at that time and mustered all Israel.
7Then he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, 'The king of Moab has broken away from me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?' And he said, 'I will go up. Consider me yours, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.'
8Then he said, 'Which way shall we go up?' And he answered, 'The way of the wilderness of Edom.'
9So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom, and they made a circuit of seven days’ journey. But there was no water for the army or for the cattle that followed them.
10Then the king of Israel said, 'It is hopeless! For the Lord has called these three kings to hand them over to Moab!'
11But Jehoshaphat said, 'Is there no prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord by him?' And one of the king of Israel’s servants answered and said, 'Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.'
12And Jehoshaphat said, 'The word of the Lord is with him.' So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
13Now Elisha said to the king of Israel, 'What business do you have with me? Go to your father’s prophets and your mother’s prophets.' But the king of Israel said to him, 'No, for the Lord has called these three kings together to hand them over to Moab.'
14Elisha said, 'As surely as the Lord of armies lives, before whom I stand, if I did not respect Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look at you nor see you.
15But now bring me a musician.' And it came about, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him.
16And he said, 'This is what the Lord says: ‘Make this valley full of trenches.’
17For the Lord says this: ‘You will not see wind, nor will you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you will drink, you, your livestock, and your other animals.
18And this is an insignificant thing in the sight of the Lord; He will also give the Moabites into your hand.
19Then you shall strike every fortified city and every choice city, and cut down every good tree and stop up all the springs of water, and spoil every good plot of land with stones.’?'
20And it happened in the morning about the time of offering the sacrifice, that behold, water came from the direction of Edom, and the country was filled with water.
21Now all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them. And all who were able to put on armor and older were summoned and they took their positions on the border.
22Then they got up early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood.
23So they said, 'This is blood; the kings must have fought each other, and they have killed one another. Now then, Moab, to the spoils!'
24But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled from them; and the Israelites invaded the land, killing the Moabites.
25So they destroyed the cities; and each one threw a stone on every plot of good land and filled it. So they stopped up every spring of water and cut down every good tree, until in Kir-hareseth only they left its stones; however, the rock slingers surrounded it and struck it.
26When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not.
27Then the king of Moab took his oldest son who was to reign in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And great anger came upon Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own land.
Chapter 4
1Now a woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, 'Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.' 2So Elisha said to her, 'What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?' And she said, 'Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.' 3Then he said, 'Go, borrow containers elsewhere for yourself, empty containers from all your neighbors—do not get too few. 4Then you shall come in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour into all these containers; and you shall set aside what is full.' 5So she left him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they began bringing the containers to her, and she poured the oil. 6When the containers were full, she said to her son, 'Bring me another container.' But he said to her, 'There are no more containers.' Then the oil stopped. 7So she came and told the man of God. And he said, 'Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.'
8Now a day came when Elisha went over to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman, and she urged him to eat food. And so it was, as often as he passed by, that he turned in there to eat food.
9And she said to her husband, 'Behold now, I am aware that this is a holy man of God passing by us repeatedly.
10Please, let’s make a little walled upper room, and let’s set up a bed for him there, and a table, a chair, and a lampstand; then it shall be, when he comes to us, that he can turn in there.'
11Now one day he came there, and turned in to the upper room and rested.
12Then he said to his servant Gehazi, 'Call this Shunammite.' And when he had called her, she stood before him.
13And he said to him, 'Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have taken trouble for us with all this care; what can I do for you? Would you like me to speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’?' But she answered, 'I live among my own people.'
14So he said, 'What then is to be done for her?' And Gehazi answered, 'It is a fact that she has no son, and her husband is old.'
15He then said, 'Call her.' When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.
16Then he said, 'At this season next year, you are going to embrace a son.' And she said, 'No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.'
18When the child was grown, the day came that he went out to his father, to the reapers.
19And he said to his father, 'My head, my head!' And his father said to his servant, 'Carry him to his mother.'
20When he had carried him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.
21And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door behind him and left.
22Then she called to her husband and said, 'Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so that I may run to the man of God and return.'
23But he said, 'Why are you going to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.' So she just said, 'It will be fine.'
24Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, 'Drive the donkey and go on; do not slow down the pace for me unless I tell you.'
25So she went on and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, 'Behold, that person there is the Shunammite.
26Please run now to meet her and say to her, ‘Is it going well for you? Is it going well for your husband? Is it going well for the child?’?' Then she answered, 'It is going well.'
27But she came to the man of God at the hill and took hold of his feet. And Gehazi came up to push her away, but the man of God said, 'Leave her alone, for her soul is troubled within her; and the Lord has concealed it from me and has not informed me.'
28Then she said, 'Did I ask for a son from my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not give me false hope’?'
29Then he said to Gehazi, 'Get ready and take my staff in your hand, and go; if you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not reply to him. And lay my staff on the boy’s face.'
30The mother of the boy said, 'As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will not leave you.' So he got up and followed her.
31Then Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he returned to meet him and informed him, saying, 'The boy has not awakened.'
32When Elisha entered the house, behold the boy was dead, laid on his bed.
33So he entered and shut the door behind them both, and he prayed to the Lord.
34Then he got up on the bed and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, his hands on his hands, and he bent down on him; and the flesh of the child became warm.
35Then he returned and walked in the house back and forth once, and went up and bent down on him; and the boy sneezed seven times, then the boy opened his eyes.
36And he called Gehazi and said, 'Call this Shunammite.' So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, 'Pick up your son.'
37Then she came in and fell at his feet and bowed down to the ground, and she picked up her son and left.
38When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting in front of him, he said to his servant, 'Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.'
39Then one went out into the field to gather mallow, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds; and he came and sliced them into the pot of stew, because they did not know what they were.
40So they poured it out for the men to eat. But as they were eating the stew, they cried out and said, 'You man of God, there is death in the pot!' And they were unable to eat.
41Then he said, 'Bring flour.' And he threw it into the pot, and said, 'Pour it out for the people that they may eat.' Then there was nothing harmful in the pot.
42Now a man came from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh grain in his sack. And Elisha said, 'Give them to the people that they may eat.'
43But his attendant said, 'How am I to serve this to a hundred men?' Nevertheless he said, 'Give them to the people that they may eat, for this is what the Lord says: ‘They shall eat and have some left over.’?'
44So he served it to them, and they ate and had some left over, in accordance with the word of the Lord.
Chapter 5
1Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in the view of his master, and eminent, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but afflicted with leprosy. 2Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. 3And she said to her mistress, 'If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.' 4And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, 'The girl who is from the land of Israel spoke such and such.' 5Then the king of Aram said, 'Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.' So he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothes.
6And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, 'And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, so that you may cure him of his leprosy.'
7But when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, 'Am I God, to kill and to keep alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me.'
8Now it happened, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent word to the king, saying, 'Why did you tear your clothes? Just have him come to me, and he shall learn that there is a prophet in Israel.'
9So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots, and stood at the doorway of Elisha’s house.
10And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, 'Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.'
11But Naaman was furious and went away, and he said, 'Behold, I thought, ‘He will certainly come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the site and cure the leprosy.’
12Are Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, not better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?' So he turned and went away in a rage.
13Then his servants approached and spoke to him, saying, 'My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?'
14So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, in accordance with the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15Then he returned to the man of God with all his company, and came and stood before him. And he said, 'Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; so please accept a gift from your servant now.'
16But he said, 'As surely as the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will accept nothing.' And he urged him to accept it, but he refused.
17Then Naaman said, 'If not, please let your servant be given two mules’ load of earth; for your servant will no longer offer a burnt offering nor a sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord.
18Regarding this matter may the Lord forgive your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand and I bow down in the house of Rimmon, when I bow down in the house of Rimmon, may the Lord please forgive your servant in this matter.'
19He said to him, 'Go in peace.' So he went some distance from him.
20But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought, 'Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Aramean, by not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.'
21So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him and said, 'Is everything well?'
22And he said, 'Everything is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Behold, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes.’?'
23Naaman said, 'Be sure to take two talents.' And he urged him, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of clothes, and gave them to two of his servants; and they carried them before him.
24When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and deposited them in the house, and he sent the men away, and they departed.
25But he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, 'Where have you been, Gehazi?' And he said, 'Your servant went nowhere.'
26Then he said to him, 'Did my heart not go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to accept money and to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, oxen, and male and female slaves?
27Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.' So he went out from his presence afflicted with leprosy, as white as snow.
Chapter 6
1Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, 'Behold now, the place before you where we are living is too cramped for us. 2Please let us go to the Jordan, and let us each take from there a beam, and let us construct a place there for ourselves, to live there.' So he said, 'Go.' 3Then one of them said, 'Please agree and go with your servants.' And he said, 'I will go.' 4So he went with them; and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. 5But it happened that as one of them was cutting down a beam, the axe head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, 'Oh, my master! It was borrowed!' 6Then the man of God said, 'Where did it fall?' And when he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there, and made the iron float. 7Then he said, 'Pick it up for yourself.' So he reached out his hand and took it.
8Now the king of Aram was making war against Israel; and he consulted with his servants, saying, 'In such and such a place shall be my camp.'
9But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, saying, 'Be careful that you do not pass this place, because the Arameans are coming down there.'
10And the king of Israel sent scouts to the place about which the man of God had told him; so he warned him, so that he was on his guard there, more than once or twice.
11Now the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this matter; and he called his servants and said to them, 'Will you not tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?'
12One of his servants said, 'No, my lord, the king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.'
13So he said, 'Go and see where he is, so that I may send men and take him.' And it was told to him, saying, 'Behold, he is in Dothan.'
14So he sent horses and chariots and a substantial army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
15Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, 'This is hopeless, my master! What are we to do?'
16And he said, 'Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are greater than those who are with them.'
17Then Elisha prayed and said, 'Lord, please, open his eyes so that he may see.' And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, 'Please strike this people with blindness.' So He struck them with blindness in accordance with the word of Elisha.
19Then Elisha said to them, 'This is not the way, nor is this the city; follow me and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.' And he brought them to Samaria.
20When they had come into Samaria, Elisha said, 'Lord, open the eyes of these men, so that they may see.' So the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.
21Then the king of Israel when he saw them, said to Elisha, 'My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?'
22But he answered, 'You shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set bread and water before them, so that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.'
23So he provided a large feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the marauding bands of Arameans did not come again into the land of Israel.
24Now it came about after this, that Ben-hadad the king of Aram gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria.
25So there was a severe famine in Samaria; and behold, they kept besieging it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.
26And as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, 'Help, my lord the king!'
27But he said, 'If the Lord does not help you, from where am I to help you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?'
28Then the king said to her, 'What is on your mind?' And she said, 'This woman said to me, ‘Give your son so that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’
29So we cooked my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, so that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.'
30When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his clothes—and he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth underneath on his body.
31Then he said, 'May God do so to me and more so, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today.'
32Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man from his presence; but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, 'Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent a man to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold the door shut against him. Is the sound of his master’s feet not behind him?'
33While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him and he said, 'Behold, this evil is from the Lord; why should I wait for the Lord any longer?'
Chapter 7
1Then Elisha said, 'Listen to the word of the Lord; this is what the Lord says: ‘About this time tomorrow a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’?' 2The royal officer on whose hand the king was leaning responded to the man of God and said, 'Even if the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could this thing happen?' Then he said, 'Behold, you are going to see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it.'
3Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, 'Why are we sitting here until we die?
4If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ then the famine is in the city and we will die there; but if we sit here, we will also die. Now then come, and let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they spare us, we will live; and if they kill us, then we will die.'
5So they got up at twilight to go to the camp of the Arameans; when they came to the outskirts of the camp of the Arameans, behold, there was no one there.
6For the Lord had made the army of the Arameans hear a sound of chariots, a sound of horses, that is, the sound of a great army; and they said to one another, 'Behold, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians against us, to attack us!'
7So they got up and fled at twilight, and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys— indeed the camp itself, just as it was; and they fled for their lives.
8When these men with leprosy came to the outskirts of the camp, they entered one tent and ate and drank, and carried from there silver, gold, and clothes, and they went and hid them; then they returned and entered another tent, and carried valuables from there also, and went and hid them.
9Then they said to one another, 'We are not doing the right thing. This day is a day of good news, but we are keeping silent about it; if we wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now then come, let’s go and inform the king’s household.'
10So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city, and told them, saying, 'We came to the camp of the Arameans, and behold, there was no one there, nor a human voice; only the horses tied and the donkeys tied, and the tents just as they were.'
11And the gatekeepers called and announced it inside the king’s house.
12Then the king got up in the night and said to his servants, 'I will now tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know that we are hungry; so they have left the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and get into the city.’?'
13One of his servants responded and said, 'Please, have some men take five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city. Behold, they will be in any case like all the multitude of Israel who are left in it; behold, they will be like all the multitude of Israel who have already perished, so let us send them and see.'
14Therefore they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the army of the Arameans, saying, 'Go and see.'
16So the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. Then a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in accordance with the word of the Lord.
17Now the king appointed the royal officer on whose hand he leaned to be in charge of the gate; but the people trampled on him at the gate, and he died, just as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him.
18So it happened just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, 'Two measures of barley for a shekel and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, will be sold about this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria.'
19At that time the royal officer had responded to the man of God and said, 'Now even if the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could such a thing as this happen?' And he had said, 'Behold, you are going to see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it.'
20And this is what happened to him, for the people trampled on him at the gate and he died.
Chapter 8
1Now Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, 'Arise and go with your household, and live wherever you can live; for the Lord has called for a famine, and it will indeed come on the land for seven years.' 2So the woman arose and acted in accordance with the word of the man of God: she went with her household and resided in the land of the Philistines for seven years. 3Then at the end of seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went to appeal to the king for her house and for her field. 4Now the king was speaking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, 'Please report to me all the great things that Elisha has done.' 5And as he was reporting to the king how he had restored to life the one who was dead, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and for her field. And Gehazi said, 'My lord the king, this is the woman and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.' 6When the king asked the woman, she told everything to him. So the king appointed an officer for her, saying, 'Restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land even until now.'
7Then Elisha came to Damascus. Now Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, was sick, and it was told to him, saying, 'The man of God has come here.'
8And the king said to Hazael, 'Take a gift in your hand and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’?'
9So Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand, even every kind of good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ loads; and he came and stood before him and said, 'Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’?'
10Then Elisha said to him, 'Go, say to him, ‘You will certainly recover’; but the Lord has shown me that he will certainly die.'
11And he stared steadily at him until Hazael was embarrassed, and then the man of God wept.
12And Hazael said, 'Why is my lord weeping?' And he answered, 'Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: you will set their fortified cities on fire, you will kill their young men with the sword, their little ones you will smash to pieces, and you will rip up their pregnant women.'
13Then Hazael said, 'But what is your servant—a lowly dog—that he could do this great thing?' And Elisha answered, 'The Lord has shown me that you will be king over Aram.'
14So he left Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, 'What did Elisha say to you?' And he answered, 'He told me that you would certainly recover.'
15But on the following day, he took the cover and dipped it in water, and spread it over his face, so that he died. And Hazael became king in his place.
16Now in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king.
17He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem.
18He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
19However, the Lord did not want to destroy Judah, for the sake of David His servant, since He had promised him to give him a lamp through his sons always.
20In his days Edom broke away from the rule of Judah, and appointed a king over themselves.
21Then Joram crossed over to Zair, and all his chariots with him. And he got up at night and struck the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots; but his army fled to their tents.
22So Edom has broken away from Judah to this day. Then Libnah broke away at the same time.
23Now the rest of the acts of Joram and everything that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
25In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.
26Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.
27He walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab, because he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab.
28Then he went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans wounded Joram.
29So King Joram returned to have himself healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel because he was sick.
Chapter 9
1Now Elisha the prophet summoned one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, 'Get ready and take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. 2When you arrive there, then look there for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in and have him get up from among his brothers, and bring him to an inner room. 3Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head, and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: 'I have anointed you king over Israel.'?’ Then open the door and flee, and do not wait.'
4So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead.
5When he arrived, behold, the commanders of the army were sitting, and he said, 'I have a word for you, commander.' And Jehu said, 'For which one of us?' And he said, 'For you, commander.'
6He then got up and went into the house, and the prophet’s servant poured the oil on his head and said to him, 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel.
7And you shall strike the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel.
8For the entire house of Ahab shall perish, and I will eliminate from Ahab every male person both slave and free in Israel.
9I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah.
10The dogs will eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and no one will bury her.’?' Then he opened the door and fled.
11Now Jehu went out to the servants of his master, and one said to him, 'Is everything well? Why did this crazy fellow come to you?' And he said to them, 'You know very well the man and his talk.'
12And they said, 'It is a lie; tell us now.' And he said, 'Such and such he said to me, saying, ‘This is what the Lord says: 'I have anointed you king over Israel.'?’?'
13Then they hurried, and each man took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and blew the trumpet, saying, 'Jehu is king!'
14So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Now Joram with all Israel was defending Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Aram,
15but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to have himself healed of the wounds which the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought Hazael king of Aram. So Jehu said to the other men, 'If this is your intent, then let no one escape from the city to go tell about it in Jezreel.'
16Then Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, since Joram was lying there recovering. And Ahaziah the king of Judah had come down to see Joram.
17Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel and he saw the company of Jehu as he came, and he said, 'I see a company.' And Joram said, 'Take a horseman and send him to meet them and have him ask, ‘Is your intention peace?’?'
18So a horseman went to meet him and said, 'This is what the king says: ‘Is your intention peace?’?' But Jehu said, 'How is peace any business of yours? Turn and follow me.' And the watchman reported, 'The messenger came to them, but he did not return.'
19Then he sent a second horseman, and he came to them and said, 'This is what the king says: ‘Is your intention peace?’?' And Jehu answered, 'How is peace any business of yours? Turn and follow me.'
20And the watchman reported, 'He came up to them, but he did not return; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.'
21Then Joram said, 'Get ready.' And they made his chariot ready. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu and found him on the property of Naboth the Jezreelite.
22When Joram saw Jehu, he said, 'Is your intention peace, Jehu?' And he answered, 'What ‘peace,’ so long as your mother Jezebel’s acts of prostitution and witchcraft are so many?'
23So Joram turned back and fled, and he said to Ahaziah, 'There is treachery, Ahaziah!'
24Then Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and shot Joram between his arms; and the arrow went through his heart, and he sank in his chariot.
25And Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, 'Pick him up and throw him on the property of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember, when you and I were riding together after his father Ahab, that the Lord brought this pronouncement against him:
26‘I have certainly seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will repay you on this property,’ declares the Lord. Now then, pick him up and throw him on the property, in accordance with the word of the Lord.'
27When Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by way of the garden house. But Jehu pursued him and said, 'Shoot him too, in the chariot.' So they shot him at the ascent of Gur, which is at Ibleam. But he fled to Megiddo and died there.
28Then his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his grave with his fathers in the city of David.
30When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it, and she put makeup on her eyes and adorned her head, and looked down through the window.
31As Jehu entered the gate, she said, 'Is your intention peace, Zimri, his master’s murderer?'
32Then he raised his face toward the window and said, 'Who is with me, who?' And two or three officials looked down at him.
33Then he said, 'Throw her down.' So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her underfoot.
34When he came in, he ate and drank; and he said, 'See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.'
35So they went to bury her, but they found nothing of her except the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands.
36Therefore they returned and informed him. And he said, 'This is the word of the Lord, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘On the property of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel;
37and the corpse of Jezebel will be like dung on the face of the field in the property of Jezreel, so they cannot say, 'This is Jezebel.'?’?'
Chapter 10
1Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the officials of Jezreel, the elders, and to the guardians of the children of Ahab, saying, 2And now, when this letter comes to you, since your master’s sons are with you, as well as the chariots and horses, and a fortified city and the weapons, 3select the best and most capable of your master’s sons and seat him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.' 4But they feared greatly and said, 'Behold, the two kings did not stand firm before him; how then can we stand?' 5And the one who was in charge of the household, and the one who was in charge of the city, and the elders, and the guardians of the children, sent word to Jehu, saying, 'We are your servants, and everything that you tell us we will do. We will not appoint any man king; do what is good in your sight.' 6Then he wrote them a letter a second time, saying, 'If you are on my side, and will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men, your master’s sons, and come to me at Jezreel about this time tomorrow.' Now the king’s sons, seventy men, were with the great people of the city, who were raising them. 7When the letter came to them, they took the king’s sons and slaughtered them, seventy men, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him at Jezreel. 8When the messenger came and informed him, saying, 'They have brought the heads of the king’s sons,' he said, 'Put them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning.' 9Now in the morning he went out and stood and said to all the people, 'You are innocent; behold, I conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these? 10Know then that nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, shall fall to the earth, for the Lord has done what He spoke through His servant Elijah.' 11So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, his acquaintances, and his priests, until he left him without a survivor.
12Then he set out and went to Samaria. On the way while he was at Beth-eked of the shepherds,
13Jehu encountered the relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah, and he said, 'Who are you?' And they answered, 'We are the relatives of Ahaziah; and we have come down to greet the sons of the king and the sons of the queen mother.'
14Then he said, 'Take them alive.' So they took them alive, and slaughtered them at the pit of Beth-eked, forty-two men; and he left none of them.
15Now when he had gone from there, he encountered Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him; and he greeted him and said to him, 'Is your heart right, just as my heart is with your heart?' And Jehonadab answered, 'It is.' Jehu said, 'If it is, give me your hand.' And he gave him his hand, and he pulled him up to him into the chariot.
16Then he said, 'Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.' So he had him ride in his chariot.
17When he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had eliminated them, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He spoke to Elijah.
18Then Jehu gathered all the people and said to them, 'Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much.
19Now, summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers and all his priests; let no one go missing, because I have a great sacrifice for Baal; whoever is missing shall not live.' But Jehu did it in deception, in order to eliminate the worshipers of Baal.
20And Jehu said, 'Proclaim a holy assembly for Baal.' And they proclaimed it.
21Then Jehu sent word throughout Israel, and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a person left who did not come. And when they entered the house of Baal, the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other.
22And he said to the one who was in charge of the wardrobe, 'Bring out garments for all the worshipers of Baal.' So he brought out the garments for them.
23Then Jehu entered the house of Baal with Jehonadab the son of Rechab; and he said to the worshipers of Baal, 'Search carefully and see to it that there is here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but only the worshipers of Baal.'
25Then it came about, as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the royal officers, 'Go in, kill them; let none come out.' So they killed them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the royal officers threw them out, and went to the sanctuary of the house of Baal.
26They brought out the memorial stones of the house of Baal and burned them.
27They also tore down the memorial stone of Baal and tore down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine as it is to this day.
28So Jehu eradicated Baal from Israel.
29However, as for the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, into which he misled Israel, from these Jehu did not desist, including the golden calves that were at Bethel and at Dan.
30Yet the Lord said to Jehu, 'Because you have done well in performing what is right in My eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab in accordance with everything that was in My heart, your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.'
31But Jehu was not careful to walk in the Law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart; he did not desist from the sins of Jeroboam, into which he misled Israel.
32In those days the Lord began to cut off pieces from Israel; and Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel:
33from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the Manassites; from Aroer, which is by the Valley of the Arnon, that is, Gilead and Bashan.
34Now as for the rest of the acts of Jehu and everything that he did and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
35And Jehu lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And his son Jehoahaz became king in his place.
36So the time which Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
King James Version
Chapter 2
1And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. 2And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel. 3And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.
4And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho.
5And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.
6And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on.
7And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.
8And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.
9And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
10And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.
11And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
12And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
13He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;
14And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.
15And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
16And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send.
17And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not.
18And when they came again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho,) he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?
19And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.
20And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him.
21And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.
22So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.
23And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
24And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
25And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.
Chapter 3
1Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. 2And he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord; but not like his father, and like his mother: for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. 3Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom.
4And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool.
5But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
6And king Jehoram went out of Samaria the same time, and numbered all Israel.
7And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab hath rebelled against me: wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle? And he said, I will go up: I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses.
8And he said, Which way shall we go up? And he answered, The way through the wilderness of Edom.
9So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom: and they fetched a compass of seven days' journey: and there was no water for the host, and for the cattle that followed them.
10And the king of Israel said, Alas! that the Lord hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab!
11But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may enquire of the Lord by him? And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah.
12And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
13And Elisha said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother. And the king of Israel said unto him, Nay: for the Lord hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab.
14And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee.
15But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him.
16And he said, Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches.
17For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts.
18And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand.
19And ye shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.
20And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.
21And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered all that were able to put on armour, and upward, and stood in the border.
22And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood:
23And they said, This is blood: the kings are surely slain, and they have smitten one another: now therefore, Moab, to the spoil.
24And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them: but they went forward smiting the Moabites, even in their country.
25And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees: only in Kirharaseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it.
26And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not.
27Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.
Chapter 4
1Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. 2And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. 3Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. 4And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. 5So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. 6And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. 7Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. 8And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. 9And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. 10Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.
11And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there.
12And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him.
13And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people.
14And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old.
15And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door.
16And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid.
17And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.
18And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.
19And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother.
20And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.
21And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.
22And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.
23And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.
24Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee.
25So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite:
26Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.
27And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.
28Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?
29Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.
30And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.
31And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked.
32And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed.
33He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord.
34And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.
35Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
36And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son.
37Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.
38And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.
39And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not.
40So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof.
41But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.
42And there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
43And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.
44So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.
Chapter 5
1Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. 2And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. 3And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.
4And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.
5And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.
6And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
7And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
8And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
9So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
11But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
12Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
13And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
14Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.
16But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.
17And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord.
18In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing.
19And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.
20But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.
21So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?
22And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments.
23And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him.
24And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed.
25But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither.
26And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?
27The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.
Chapter 6
1And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. 2Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. 3And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. 4So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. 5But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. 6And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. 7Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it. 8Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 9And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. 10And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. 11Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? 12And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. 13And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. 14Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.
15And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?
16And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
17And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
18And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
19And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.
20And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.
21And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them?
22And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.
23And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.
24And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.
25And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.
26And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.
27And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?
28And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow.
29So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.
30And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.
31Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.
32But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?
33And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?
Chapter 7
1Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. 2Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
3And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?
4If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.
5And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.
6For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.
7Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.
8And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.
9Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household.
10So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were.
11And he called the porters; and they told it to the king's house within.
12And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city.
13And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and see.
14They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.
15And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.
16And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
17And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him.
18And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria:
19And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
20And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.
Chapter 8
1Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the Lord hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years. 2And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. 3And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land. 4And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done. 5And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. 6And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now. 7And Elisha came to Damascus; and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither. 8And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and enquire of the Lord by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 9So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Thy son Benhadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 10And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the Lord hath shewed me that he shall surely die. 11And he settled his countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept. 12And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. 13And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. 14So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover. 15And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead. 16And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. 17Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 18And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. 19Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light, and to his children.
20In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves.
21So Joram went over to Zair, and all the chariots with him: and he rose by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him about, and the captains of the chariots: and the people fled into their tents.
22Yet Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time.
23And the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
24And Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.
25In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign.
26Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.
27And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab.
28And he went with Joram the son of Ahab to the war against Hazael king of Syria in Ramothgilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram.
29And king Joram went back to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.
Chapter 9
1And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets, and said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramothgilead: 2And when thou comest thither, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber; 3Then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not.
4So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramothgilead.
5And when he came, behold, the captains of the host were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to thee, O captain. And Jehu said, Unto which of all us? And he said, To thee, O captain.
6And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel.
7And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel.
8For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel:
9And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah:
10And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door, and fled.
11Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said unto him, Is all well? wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication.
12And they said, It is false; tell us now. And he said, Thus and thus spake he to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.
13Then they hasted, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king.
14So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram had kept Ramothgilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria.
15But king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) And Jehu said, If it be your minds, then let none go forth nor escape out of the city to go to tell it in Jezreel.
16So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah was come down to see Joram.
17And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, I see a company. And Joram said, Take an horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it peace?
18So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu said, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he cometh not again.
19Then he sent out a second on horseback, which came to them, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu answered, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me.
20And the watchman told, saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously.
21And Joram said, Make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out against Jehu, and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.
22And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?
23And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah.
24And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and smote Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.
25Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the Lord laid this burden upon him;
26Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons, saith the Lord; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the Lord. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the Lord.
27But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there.
28And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David.
29And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah.
30And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.
31And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?
32And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs.
33And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot.
34And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king's daughter.
35And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.
36Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:
37And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.
Chapter 10
1And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to them that brought up Ahab's children, saying, 2Now as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city also, and armour; 3Look even out the best and meetest of your master's sons, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house.
4But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him: how then shall we stand?
5And he that was over the house, and he that was over the city, the elders also, and the bringers up of the children, sent to Jehu, saying, We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not make any king: do thou that which is good in thine eyes.
6Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up.
7And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.
8And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning.
9And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, Ye be righteous: behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him: but who slew all these?
10Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab: for the Lord hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah.
11So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.
12And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house in the way,
13Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen.
14And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them.
15And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him: and he saluted him, and said to him, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot.
16And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his chariot.
17And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord, which he spake to Elijah.
18And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much.
19Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.
20And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it.
21And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full from one end to another.
22And he said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments.
23And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal, and said unto the worshippers of Baal, Search, and look that there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only.
24And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed fourscore men without, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him.
25And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and slay them; let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal.
26And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them.
27And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day.
28Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.
29Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.
30And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.
31But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.
32In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel;
33From Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.
34Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
35And Jehu slept with his fathers: and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead.
36And the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty and eight years.
Christian Standard Bible
7Fifty men from the sons of the prophets came and stood observing them at a distance while the two of them stood by the Jordan.
8Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water, which parted to the right and left. Then the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
12As Elisha watched, he kept crying out, "My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!" When he could see him no longer, he took hold of his own clothes, tore them in two,
13picked up the mantle that had fallen off Elijah, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
14He took the mantle Elijah had dropped, and he struck the water. "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" he asked. He struck the water himself, and it parted to the right and the left, and Elisha crossed over.
17However, they urged him to the point of embarrassment, so he said, "Send them." They sent fifty men, who looked for three days but did not find him.
18When they returned to him in Jericho where he was staying, he said to them, "Didn’t I tell you not to go?"
20He replied, "Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it." After they had brought him one,
21Elisha went out to the spring, threw salt in it, and said, "This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. No longer will death or unfruitfulness result from it.’"
22Therefore, the water still remains healthy today according to the word that Elisha spoke.
23From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking up the path, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, chanting, "Go up, baldy! Go up, baldy!"
24He turned around, looked at them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the children.
25From there Elisha went to Mount Carmel, and then he returned to Samaria.
Chapter 3
1Joram son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria during the eighteenth year of Judah’s King Jehoshaphat, and he reigned twelve years. 2He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, but not like his father and mother, for he removed the sacred pillar of Baal his father had made. 3Nevertheless, Joram clung to the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit. He did not turn away from them.
4King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder. He used to pay the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams,
5but when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
6So King Joram marched out from Samaria at that time and mobilized all Israel.
15Now, bring me a musician." While the musician played, the Lord’s hand came on Elisha.
16Then he said, "This is what the Lord says: ‘Dig ditch after ditch in this wadi.’
17For the Lord says, ‘You will not see wind or rain, but the wadi will be filled with water, and you will drink—you and your cattle and your animals.’
18This is easy in the Lord’s sight. He will also hand Moab over to you.
19Then you will attack every fortified city and every choice city. You will cut down every good tree and stop up every spring. You will ruin every good piece of land with stones."
21All Moab had heard that the kings had come up to fight against them. So all who could bear arms, from the youngest to the oldest, were summoned and took their stand at the border.
22When they got up early in the morning, the sun was shining on the water, and the Moabites saw that the water across from them was red like blood.
23"This is blood!" they exclaimed. "The kings have crossed swords and their men have killed one another. So, to the spoil, Moab!"
24However, when the Moabites came to Israel’s camp, the Israelites attacked them, and they fled from them. So Israel went into the land attacking the Moabites.
25They would destroy the cities, and each of them would throw a stone to cover every good piece of land. They would stop up every spring and cut down every good tree. This went on until only the buildings of Kir-hareseth were left. Then men with slings surrounded the city and attacked it.
26When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took seven hundred swordsmen with him to try to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not do it.
27So he took his firstborn son, who was to become king in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the city wall. Great wrath was on the Israelites, and they withdrew from him and returned to their land.
3Then he said, "Go out and borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few.
4Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these containers. Set the full ones to one side."
8One day Elisha went to Shunem. A prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to eat some food. So whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat.
9Then she said to her husband, "I know that the one who often passes by here is a holy man of God,
10so let’s make a small, walled-in upper room and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp there for him. Whenever he comes, he can stay there."
11One day he came there and stopped at the upstairs room to lie down.
12He ordered his attendant Gehazi, "Call this Shunammite woman." So he called her and she stood before him.
19Suddenly he complained to his father, "My head! My head!" His father told his servant, "Carry him to his mother."
20So he picked him up and took him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon and then died.
21She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut him in, and left.
32When Elisha got to the house, he discovered the boy lying dead on his bed.
33So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.
34Then he went up and lay on the boy: he put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand. While he bent down over him, the boy’s flesh became warm.
35Elisha got up, went into the house, and paced back and forth. Then he went up and bent down over him again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
36Elisha called Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite woman." He called her and she came. Then Elisha said, "Pick up your son."
37She came, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; she picked up her son and left.
43But Elisha’s attendant asked, "What? Am I to set this before a hundred men?" "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said, "for this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat, and they will have some left over.’"
44So he set it before them, and as the Lord had promised, they ate and had some left over.
2Aram had gone on raids and brought back from the land of Israel a young girl who served Naaman’s wife.
3She said to her mistress, "If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his skin disease."
8When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Have him come to me, and he will know there is a prophet in Israel."
9So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
11But Naaman got angry and left, saying, "I was telling myself: He will surely come out, stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the skin disease.
12Aren’t Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and left in a rage.
13But his servants approached and said to him, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more should you do it when he only tells you, ‘Wash and be clean’?"
14So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the command of the man of God. Then his skin was restored and became like the skin of a small boy, and he was clean.
17Naaman responded, "If not, please let your servant be given as much soil as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will no longer offer a burnt offering or a sacrifice to any other god but the Lord.
18However, in a particular matter may the Lord pardon your servant: When my master, the king of Aram, goes into the temple of Rimmon to bow in worship while he is leaning on my arm, and I have to bow in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon your servant in this matter."
19So he said to him, "Go in peace." After Naaman had traveled a short distance from Elisha,
20Gehazi, the attendant of Elisha the man of God, thought, "My master has let this Aramean Naaman off lightly by not accepting from him what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him."
23But Naaman insisted, "Please, accept one hundred fifty pounds." He urged Gehazi and then packed one hundred fifty pounds of silver in two bags with two sets of clothing. Naaman gave them to two of his attendants who carried them ahead of Gehazi.
24When Gehazi came to the hill, he took the gifts from them and deposited them in the house. Then he dismissed the men, and they left.
26"And my heart didn’t go when the man got down from his chariot to meet you," Elisha said. "Is this a time to accept silver and clothing, olive orchards and vineyards, flocks and herds, and male and female slaves?
27Therefore, Naaman’s skin disease will cling to you and your descendants forever." So Gehazi went out from his presence diseased, resembling snow.
4So he went with them, and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.
5As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water, and he cried out, "Oh, my master, it was borrowed!"
6Then the man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, the man of God cut a piece of wood, threw it there, and made the iron float.
7Then he said, "Pick it up." So he reached out and took it.
9But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel: "Be careful passing by this place, for the Arameans are going down there."
10Consequently, the king of Israel sent word to the place the man of God had told him about. The man of God repeatedly warned the king, so the king would be on his guard.
13So the king said, "Go and see where he is, so I can send men to capture him." When he was told, "Elisha is in Dothan,"
14he sent horses, chariots, and a massive army there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
18When the Arameans came against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, "Please strike this nation with blindness." So he struck them with blindness, according to Elisha’s word.
19Then Elisha said to them, "This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will take you to the man you’re looking for." And he led them to Samaria.
20When they entered Samaria, Elisha said, "Lord, open these men’s eyes and let them see." So the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw that they were in the middle of Samaria.
24Some time later, King Ben-hadad of Aram brought all his military units together and marched up and laid siege to Samaria.
25So there was a severe famine in Samaria, and they continued the siege against it until a donkey’s head sold for thirty-four ounces of silver, and a cup of dove’s dung sold for two ounces of silver.
28Then the king asked her, "What’s the matter?" She said, "This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him today. Then we will eat my son tomorrow.’
29So we boiled my son and ate him, and I said to her the next day, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him,’ but she has hidden her son."
30When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his clothes. Then, as he was passing by on the wall, the people saw that there was sackcloth under his clothes next to his skin.
31He announced, "May God punish me and do so severely if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today."
3Now four men with a skin disease were at the entrance to the city gate. They said to each other, "Why just sit here until we die?
4If we say, ‘Let’s go into the city,’ we will die there because the famine is in the city, but if we sit here, we will also die. So now, come on. Let’s surrender to the Arameans’ camp. If they let us live, we will live; if they kill us, we will die."
5So the diseased men got up at twilight to go to the Arameans’ camp. When they came to the camp’s edge, they discovered that no one was there,
6for the Lord had caused the Aramean camp to hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a large army. The Arameans had said to each other, "The king of Israel must have hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to attack us."
7So they had gotten up and fled at twilight, abandoning their tents, horses, and donkeys. The camp was intact, and they had fled for their lives.
8When these diseased men came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent to eat and drink. Then they picked up the silver, gold, and clothing and went off and hid them. They came back and entered another tent, picked things up, and hid them.
9Then they said to each other, "We’re not doing what is right. Today is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until morning light, our punishment will catch up with us. So let’s go tell the king’s household."
10The diseased men came and called to the city’s gatekeepers and told them, "We went to the Aramean camp and no one was there—no human sounds. There was nothing but tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents were intact."
11The gatekeepers called out, and the news was reported to the king’s household.
14The messengers took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, "Go and see."
15So they followed them as far as the Jordan. They saw that the whole way was littered with clothes and equipment the Arameans had thrown off in their haste. The messengers returned and told the king.
16Then the people went out and plundered the Aramean camp. It was then that six quarts of fine flour sold for a half ounce of silver and twelve quarts of barley sold for a half ounce of silver, according to the word of the Lord.
17The king had appointed the captain, his right-hand man, to be in charge of the city gate, but the people trampled him in the gate. He died, just as the man of God had predicted when the king had come to him.
18When the man of God had said to the king, "About this time tomorrow twelve quarts of barley will sell for a half ounce of silver and six quarts of fine flour will sell for a half ounce of silver at Samaria’s gate,"
19this captain had answered the man of God, "Look, even if the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?" Elisha had said, "You will in fact see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it."
20This is what happened to him: the people trampled him in the city gate, and he died.
2So the woman got ready and did what the man of God said. She and her household lived as resident aliens in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
3When the woman returned from the land of the Philistines at the end of seven years, she went to appeal to the king for her house and field.
7Elisha came to Damascus while King Ben-hadad of Aram was sick, and the king was told, "The man of God has come here."
8So the king said to Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go meet the man of God. Inquire of the Lord through him, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’"
14Hazael left Elisha and went to his master, who asked him, "What did Elisha say to you?" He responded, "He told me you are sure to recover."
15The next day Hazael took a heavy cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over the king’s face. Ben-hadad died, and Hazael reigned in his place.
16In the fifth year of Israel’s King Joram son of Ahab, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah, replacing his father.
17He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
18He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.
19For the sake of his servant David, the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah, since he had promised to give a lamp to David and his sons forever.
20During Jehoram’s reign, Edom rebelled against Judah’s control and appointed their own king.
21So Jehoram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. Then at night he set out to attack the Edomites who had surrounded him and the chariot commanders, but his troops fled to their tents.
22So Edom is still in rebellion against Judah’s control today. Libnah also rebelled at that time.
23The rest of the events of Jehoram’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.
24Jehoram rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Ahaziah became king in his place.
25In the twelfth year of Israel’s King Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.
26Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, granddaughter of Israel’s King Omri.
27He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the Lord’s sight like the house of Ahab, for his father had married into the house of Ahab.
28Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to fight against King Hazael of Aram in Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans wounded Joram.
29So King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him in Ramoth-gilead when he fought against Aram’s King Hazael. Then Judah’s King Ahaziah son of Jehoram went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab since Joram was ill.
Chapter 9
1The prophet Elisha called one of the sons of the prophets and said, "Tuck your mantle under your belt, take this flask of oil with you, and go to Ramoth-gilead. 2When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Go in, get him away from his colleagues, and take him to an inner room. 3Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: "I anoint you king over Israel."’ Open the door and escape. Don’t wait." 4So the young prophet went to Ramoth-gilead.
6So Jehu got up and went into the house. The young prophet poured the oil on his head and said, "This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord’s people, Israel.
7You are to strike down the house of your master Ahab so that I may avenge the blood shed by the hand of Jezebel—the blood of my servants the prophets and of all the servants of the Lord.
8The whole house of Ahab will perish, and I will wipe out all of Ahab’s males, both slave and free, in Israel.
9I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah.
10The dogs will eat Jezebel in the plot of land at Jezreel—no one will bury her.’" Then the young prophet opened the door and escaped.
14Then Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. Joram and all Israel had been at Ramoth-gilead on guard against King Hazael of Aram.
15But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought against Aram’s King Hazael. Jehu said, "If you commanders wish to make me king, then don’t let anyone escape from the city to go tell about it in Jezreel."
24Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow went through his heart, and he slumped down in his chariot.
25Jehu said to Bidkar his aide, "Pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember when you and I were riding side by side behind his father Ahab, and the Lord uttered this pronouncement against him:
26‘As surely as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday’—this is the Lord’s declaration—’so will I repay you on this plot of land’—this is the Lord’s declaration. So now, according to the word of the Lord, pick him up and throw him on the plot of land."
27When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what was happening, he fled up the road toward Beth-haggan. Jehu pursued him, shouting, "Shoot him too!" So they shot him in his chariot at Gur Pass near Ibleam, but he fled to Megiddo and died there.
28Then his servants carried him to Jerusalem in a chariot and buried him in his fathers’ tomb in the city of David.
29It was in the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab that Ahaziah had become king over Judah.
30When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it, so she painted her eyes, fixed her hair, and looked down from the window.
31As Jehu entered the city gate, she said, "Do you come in peace, Zimri, killer of your master?"
32He looked up toward the window and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked down at him,
33and he said, "Throw her down!" So they threw her down, and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, and Jehu rode over her.
34Then he went in, ate and drank, and said, "Take care of this cursed woman and bury her, since she’s a king’s daughter."
35But when they went out to bury her, they did not find anything but the skull, the feet, and the hands.
36So they went back and told him, and he said, "This fulfills the Lord’s word that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘In the plot of land at Jezreel, the dogs will eat Jezebel’s flesh.
37Jezebel’s corpse will be like manure on the surface of the ground in the plot of land at Jezreel so that no one will be able to say: This is Jezebel.’"
2Your master’s sons are with you, and you have chariots, horses, a fortified city, and weaponry, so when this letter arrives
3select the most qualified of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.
6Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying: If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, bring me the heads of your master’s sons at this time tomorrow at Jezreel. All seventy of the king’s sons were being cared for by the city’s prominent men.
7When the letter came to them, they took the king’s sons and slaughtered all seventy, put their heads in baskets, and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.
8When the messenger came and told him, "They have brought the heads of the king’s sons," the king said, "Pile them in two heaps at the entrance of the city gate until morning."
9The next morning when he went out and stood at the gate, he said to all the people, "You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him. But who struck down all these?
10Know, then, that not a word the Lord spoke against the house of Ahab will fail, for the Lord has done what he promised through his servant Elijah."
11So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel—all his great men, close friends, and priests—leaving him no survivors.
15When he left there, he found Jehonadab son of Rechab coming to meet him. He greeted him and then asked, "Is your heart one with mine?" "It is," Jehonadab replied. Jehu said, "If it is, give me your hand." So he gave him his hand, and Jehu pulled him up into the chariot with him.
16Then he said, "Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord!" So he let him ride with him in his chariot.
17When Jehu came to Samaria, he struck down all who remained from the house of Ahab in Samaria until he had annihilated his house, according to the word of the Lord spoken to Elijah.
18Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him a lot.
19Now, therefore, summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. None must be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing will not live." However, Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.
20Jehu commanded, "Consecrate a solemn assembly for Baal." So they called one.
21Then Jehu sent messengers throughout all Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; no one failed to come. They entered the temple of Baal, and it was filled from one end to the other.
22Then he said to the custodian of the wardrobe, "Bring out the garments for all the servants of Baal." So he brought out their garments.
24Then they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, and he warned them, "Whoever allows any of the men I am placing in your hands to escape will forfeit his life for theirs."
25When he finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guards and officers, "Go in and kill them. Don’t let anyone out." So they struck them down with the sword. Then the guards and officers threw the bodies out and went into the inner room of the temple of Baal.
26They brought out the pillar of the temple of Baal and burned it,
27and they tore down the pillar of Baal. Then they tore down the temple of Baal and made it a latrine —which it still is today.
28Jehu eliminated Baal worship from Israel,
29but he did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit—worshiping the gold calves that were in Bethel and Dan.
30Nevertheless, the Lord said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in my heart, four generations of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel."
32In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout their territory
33from the Jordan eastward: the whole land of Gilead—the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the Manassites—from Aroer which is by the Arnon Valley through Gilead to Bashan.
34The rest of the events of Jehu’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and all his might, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.
35Jehu rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. His son Jehoahaz became king in his place.
36The length of Jehu’s reign over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
New Living Translation
7Fifty men from the group of prophets also went and watched from a distance as Elijah and Elisha stopped beside the Jordan River.
8Then Elijah folded his cloak together and struck the water with it. The river divided, and the two of them went across on dry ground!
11As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire. It drove between the two men, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven.
12Elisha saw it and cried out, 'My father! My father! I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel!' And as they disappeared from sight, Elisha tore his clothes in distress.
13Elisha picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan River.
14He struck the water with Elijah’s cloak and cried out, 'Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?' Then the river divided, and Elisha went across.
16Sir,' they said, 'just say the word and fifty of our strongest men will search the wilderness for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has left him on some mountain or in some valley.' 'No,' Elisha said, 'don’t send them.'
17But they kept urging him until they shamed him into agreeing, and he finally said, 'All right, send them.' So fifty men searched for three days but did not find Elijah.
18Elisha was still at Jericho when they returned. 'Didn’t I tell you not to go?' he asked.
20Elisha said, 'Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.' So they brought it to him.
21Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, 'This is what the Lord says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility. '
22And the water has remained pure ever since, just as Elisha said.
23Elisha left Jericho and went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, a group of boys from the town began mocking and making fun of him. 'Go away, baldy!' they chanted. 'Go away, baldy!'
24Elisha turned around and looked at them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of them.
25From there Elisha went to Mount Carmel and finally returned to Samaria.
Chapter 3
1Ahab’s son Joram began to rule over Israel in the eighteenth year of King Jehoshaphat’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria twelve years. 2He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, but not to the same extent as his father and mother. He at least tore down the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had set up. 3Nevertheless, he continued in the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had committed and led the people of Israel to commit.
4King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder. He used to pay the king of Israel an annual tribute of 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams.
5But after Ahab’s death, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
6So King Joram promptly mustered the army of Israel and marched from Samaria.
15Now bring me someone who can play the harp.' While the harp was being played, the power of the Lord came upon Elisha,
16and he said, 'This is what the Lord says: This dry valley will be filled with pools of water!
17You will see neither wind nor rain, says the Lord, but this valley will be filled with water. You will have plenty for yourselves and your cattle and other animals.
18But this is only a simple thing for the Lord, for he will make you victorious over the army of Moab!
19You will conquer the best of their towns, even the fortified ones. You will cut down all their good trees, stop up all their springs, and ruin all their good land with stones.'
21Meanwhile, when the people of Moab heard about the three armies marching against them, they mobilized every man who was old enough to strap on a sword, and they stationed themselves along their border.
22But when they got up the next morning, the sun was shining across the water, making it appear red to the Moabites — like blood.
23It’s blood!' the Moabites exclaimed. 'The three armies must have attacked and killed each other! Let’s go, men of Moab, and collect the plunder!'
24But when the Moabites arrived at the Israelite camp, the army of Israel rushed out and attacked them until they turned and ran. The army of Israel chased them into the land of Moab, destroying everything as they went.
25They destroyed the towns, covered their good land with stones, stopped up all the springs, and cut down all the good trees. Finally, only Kir-hareseth and its stone walls were left, but men with slings surrounded and attacked it.
26When the king of Moab saw that he was losing the battle, he led 700 of his swordsmen in a desperate attempt to break through the enemy lines near the king of Edom, but they failed.
27Then the king of Moab took his oldest son, who would have been the next king, and sacrificed him as a burnt offering on the wall. So there was great anger against Israel, and the Israelites withdrew and returned to their own land.
3And Elisha said, 'Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.
4Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.'
9She said to her husband, 'I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God.
10Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.'
11One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to this upper room to rest.
12He said to his servant Gehazi, 'Tell the woman from Shunem I want to speak to her.' When she appeared,
20So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died.
21She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there.
22She sent a message to her husband: 'Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back.'
32When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet’s bed.
33He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord.
34Then he lay down on the child’s body, placing his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the child’s hands. And as he stretched out on him, the child’s body began to grow warm again!
35Elisha got up, walked back and forth across the room once, and then stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
36Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. 'Call the child’s mother!' he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, 'Here, take your son!'
37She fell at his feet and bowed before him, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she took her son in her arms and carried him downstairs.
39One of the young men went out into the field to gather herbs and came back with a pocketful of wild gourds. He shredded them and put them into the pot without realizing they were poisonous.
40Some of the stew was served to the men. But after they had eaten a bite or two they cried out, 'Man of God, there’s poison in this stew!' So they would not eat it.
43What?' his servant exclaimed. 'Feed a hundred people with only this?' But Elisha repeated, 'Give it to the people so they can eat, for this is what the Lord says: Everyone will eat, and there will even be some left over!'
44And when they gave it to the people, there was plenty for all and some left over, just as the Lord had promised.
2At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid.
3One day the girl said to her mistress, 'I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.'
4So Naaman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said.
5Go and visit the prophet,' the king of Aram told him. 'I will send a letter of introduction for you to take to the king of Israel.' So Naaman started out, carrying as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing.
6The letter to the king of Israel said: 'With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy.'
9So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house.
10But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: 'Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.'
11But Naaman became angry and stalked away. 'I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!' he said. 'I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me!
12Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?' So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.
13But his officers tried to reason with him and said, 'Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’'
14So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!
17Then Naaman said, 'All right, but please allow me to load two of my mules with earth from this place, and I will take it back home with me. From now on I will never again offer burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the Lord.
18However, may the Lord pardon me in this one thing: When my master the king goes into the temple of the god Rimmon to worship there and leans on my arm, may the Lord pardon me when I bow, too.'
23By all means, take twice as much silver,' Naaman insisted. He gave him two sets of clothing, tied up the money in two bags, and sent two of his servants to carry the gifts for Gehazi.
24But when they arrived at the citadel, Gehazi took the gifts from the servants and sent the men back. Then he went and hid the gifts inside the house.
26But Elisha asked him, 'Don’t you realize that I was there in spirit when Naaman stepped down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to receive money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and cattle, and male and female servants?
27Because you have done this, you and your descendants will suffer from Naaman’s leprosy forever.' When Gehazi left the room, he was covered with leprosy; his skin was white as snow.
4So he went with them. When they arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees.
5But as one of them was cutting a tree, his ax head fell into the river. 'Oh, sir!' he cried. 'It was a borrowed ax!'
6Where did it fall?' the man of God asked. When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water at that spot. Then the ax head floated to the surface.
7Grab it,' Elisha said. And the man reached out and grabbed it.
9But immediately Elisha, the man of God, would warn the king of Israel, 'Do not go near that place, for the Arameans are planning to mobilize their troops there.'
10So the king of Israel would send word to the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he would be on the alert there.
13Go and find out where he is,' the king commanded, 'so I can send troops to seize him.' And the report came back: 'Elisha is at Dothan.'
14So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city.
16Don’t be afraid!' Elisha told him. 'For there are more on our side than on theirs!'
17Then Elisha prayed, 'O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!' The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
24Some time later, however, King Ben-hadad of Aram mustered his entire army and besieged Samaria.
25As a result, there was a great famine in the city. The siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a cup of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver.
28But then the king asked, 'What is the matter?' She replied, 'This woman said to me: ‘Come on, let’s eat your son today, then we will eat my son tomorrow.’
29So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said to her, ‘Kill your son so we can eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.'
30When the king heard this, he tore his clothes in despair. And as the king walked along the wall, the people could see that he was wearing burlap under his robe next to his skin.
31May God strike me and even kill me if I don’t separate Elisha’s head from his shoulders this very day,' the king vowed.
3Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. 'Why should we sit here waiting to die?' they asked each other.
4We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.'
5So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there!
6For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. 'The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!' they cried to one another.
7So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives.
8When the men with leprosy arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it.
9Finally, they said to each other, 'This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.'
10So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened. 'We went out to the Aramean camp,' they said, 'and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there wasn’t a single person around!'
11Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.
14So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army.
15They went all the way to the Jordan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their mad rush to escape. The scouts returned and told the king about it.
16Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that six quarts of choice flour were sold that day for one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain were sold for one piece of silver, just as the Lord had promised.
17The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out. So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house.
18The man of God had said to the king, 'By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost one piece of silver.'
19The king’s officer had replied, 'That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven!' And the man of God had said, 'You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!'
20And so it was, for the people trampled him to death at the gate!
Chapter 8
1Elisha had told the woman whose son he had brought back to life, 'Take your family and move to some other place, for the Lord has called for a famine on Israel that will last for seven years.' 2So the woman did as the man of God instructed. She took her family and settled in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
3After the famine ended she returned from the land of the Philistines, and she went to see the king about getting back her house and land.
4As she came in, the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. The king had just said, 'Tell me some stories about the great things Elisha has done.'
7Elisha went to Damascus, the capital of Aram, where King Ben-hadad lay sick. When someone told the king that the man of God had come,
8the king said to Hazael, 'Take a gift to the man of God. Then tell him to ask the Lord, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’'
10And Elisha replied, 'Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover.’ But actually the Lord has shown me that he will surely die!'
11Elisha stared at Hazael with a fixed gaze until Hazael became uneasy. Then the man of God started weeping.
16Jehoram son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah began to rule over Judah in the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel.
17Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.
18But Jehoram followed the example of the kings of Israel and was as wicked as King Ahab, for he had married one of Ahab’s daughters. So Jehoram did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.
19But the Lord did not want to destroy Judah, for he had promised his servant David that his descendants would continue to rule, shining like a lamp forever.
20During Jehoram’s reign, the Edomites revolted against Judah and crowned their own king.
21So Jehoram went with all his chariots to attack the town of Zair. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he went out at night and attacked them under cover of darkness. But Jehoram’s army deserted him and fled to their homes.
22So Edom has been independent from Judah to this day. The town of Libnah also revolted about that same time.
23The rest of the events in Jehoram’s reign and everything he did are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah.
24When Jehoram died, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. Then his son Ahaziah became the next king.
26Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother was Athaliah, a granddaughter of King Omri of Israel.
27Ahaziah followed the evil example of King Ahab’s family. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as Ahab’s family had done, for he was related by marriage to the family of Ahab.
28Ahaziah joined Joram son of Ahab in his war against King Hazael of Aram at Ramoth-gilead. When the Arameans wounded King Joram in the battle,
29he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he had received at Ramoth. Because Joram was wounded, King Ahaziah of Judah went to Jezreel to visit him.
Chapter 9
1Meanwhile, Elisha the prophet had summoned a member of the group of prophets. 'Get ready to travel,' he told him, 'and take this flask of olive oil with you. Go to Ramoth-gilead, 2and find Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Call him into a private room away from his friends, 3and pour the oil over his head. Say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you to be the king over Israel.’ Then open the door and run for your life!'
6So Jehu left the others and went into the house. Then the young prophet poured the oil over Jehu’s head and said, 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anoint you king over the Lord’s people, Israel.
7You are to destroy the family of Ahab, your master. In this way, I will avenge the murder of my prophets and all the Lord’s servants who were killed by Jezebel.
8The entire family of Ahab must be wiped out. I will destroy every one of his male descendants, slave and free alike, anywhere in Israel.
9I will destroy the family of Ahab as I destroyed the families of Jeroboam son of Nebat and of Baasha son of Ahijah.
10Dogs will eat Ahab’s wife Jezebel at the plot of land in Jezreel, and no one will bury her.' Then the young prophet opened the door and ran.
14So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, led a conspiracy against King Joram. (Now Joram had been with the army at Ramoth-gilead, defending Israel against the forces of King Hazael of Aram.
15But King Joram was wounded in the fighting and returned to Jezreel to recover from his wounds.) So Jehu told the men with him, 'If you want me to be king, don’t let anyone leave town and go to Jezreel to report what we have done.'
23Then King Joram turned the horses around and fled, shouting to King Ahaziah, 'Treason, Ahaziah!'
24But Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart, and he sank down dead in his chariot.
25Jehu said to Bidkar, his officer, 'Throw him into the plot of land that belonged to Naboth of Jezreel. Do you remember when you and I were riding along behind his father, Ahab? The Lord pronounced this message against him:
26‘I solemnly swear that I will repay him here on this plot of land, says the Lord, for the murder of Naboth and his sons that I saw yesterday.’ So throw him out on Naboth’s property, just as the Lord said.'
27When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what was happening, he fled along the road to Beth-haggan. Jehu rode after him, shouting, 'Shoot him, too!' So they shot Ahaziah in his chariot at the Ascent of Gur, near Ibleam. He was able to go on as far as Megiddo, but he died there.
28His servants took him by chariot to Jerusalem, where they buried him with his ancestors in the City of David.
29Ahaziah had become king over Judah in the eleventh year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab.
30When Jezebel, the queen mother, heard that Jehu had come to Jezreel, she painted her eyelids and fixed her hair and sat at a window.
31When Jehu entered the gate of the palace, she shouted at him, 'Have you come in peace, you murderer? You’re just like Zimri, who murdered his master!'
32Jehu looked up and saw her at the window and shouted, 'Who is on my side?' And two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
33Throw her down!' Jehu yelled. So they threw her out the window, and her blood spattered against the wall and on the horses. And Jehu trampled her body under his horses’ hooves.
34Then Jehu went into the palace and ate and drank. Afterward he said, 'Someone go and bury this cursed woman, for she is the daughter of a king.'
35But when they went out to bury her, they found only her skull, her feet, and her hands.
36When they returned and told Jehu, he stated, 'This fulfills the message from the Lord, which he spoke through his servant Elijah from Tishbe: ‘At the plot of land in Jezreel, dogs will eat Jezebel’s body.
37Her remains will be scattered like dung on the plot of land in Jezreel, so that no one will be able to recognize her.’'
Chapter 10
1Ahab had seventy sons living in the city of Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the elders and officials of the city, and to the guardians of King Ahab’s sons. He said, 2The king’s sons are with you, and you have at your disposal chariots, horses, a fortified city, and weapons. As soon as you receive this letter, 3select the best qualified of your master’s sons to be your king, and prepare to fight for Ahab’s dynasty.'
6Jehu responded with a second letter: 'If you are on my side and are going to obey me, bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.' Now the seventy sons of the king were being cared for by the leaders of Samaria, where they had been raised since childhood.
7When the letter arrived, the leaders killed all seventy of the king’s sons. They placed their heads in baskets and presented them to Jehu at Jezreel.
9In the morning he went out and spoke to the crowd that had gathered around them. 'You are not to blame,' he told them. 'I am the one who conspired against my master and killed him. But who killed all these?
10You can be sure that the message of the Lord that was spoken concerning Ahab’s family will not fail. The Lord declared through his servant Elijah that this would happen.'
11Then Jehu killed all who were left of Ahab’s relatives living in Jezreel and all his important officials, his personal friends, and his priests. So Ahab was left without a single survivor.
15When Jehu left there, he met Jehonadab son of Recab, who was coming to meet him. After they had greeted each other, Jehu said to him, 'Are you as loyal to me as I am to you?' 'Yes, I am,' Jehonadab replied. 'If you are,' Jehu said, 'then give me your hand.' So Jehonadab put out his hand, and Jehu helped him into the chariot.
16Then Jehu said, 'Now come with me, and see how devoted I am to the Lord.' So Jehonadab rode along with him.
18Then Jehu called a meeting of all the people of the city and said to them, 'Ahab’s worship of Baal was nothing compared to the way I will worship him!
19Therefore, summon all the prophets and worshipers of Baal, and call together all his priests. See to it that every one of them comes, for I am going to offer a great sacrifice to Baal. Anyone who fails to come will be put to death.' But Jehu’s cunning plan was to destroy all the worshipers of Baal.
20Then Jehu ordered, 'Prepare a solemn assembly to worship Baal!' So they did.
21He sent messengers throughout all Israel summoning those who worshiped Baal. They all came — not a single one remained behind — and they filled the temple of Baal from one end to the other.
22And Jehu instructed the keeper of the wardrobe, 'Be sure that every worshiper of Baal wears one of these robes.' So robes were given to them.
23Then Jehu went into the temple of Baal with Jehonadab son of Recab. Jehu said to the worshipers of Baal, 'Make sure no one who worships the Lord is here — only those who worship Baal.'
24So they were all inside the temple to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty of his men outside the building and had warned them, 'If you let anyone escape, you will pay for it with your own life.'
25As soon as Jehu had finished sacrificing the burnt offering, he commanded his guards and officers, 'Go in and kill all of them. Don’t let a single one escape!' So they killed them all with their swords, and the guards and officers dragged their bodies outside. Then Jehu’s men went into the innermost fortress of the temple of Baal.
26They dragged out the sacred pillar used in the worship of Baal and burned it.
27They smashed the sacred pillar and wrecked the temple of Baal, converting it into a public toilet, as it remains to this day.
28In this way, Jehu destroyed every trace of Baal worship from Israel.
29He did not, however, destroy the gold calves at Bethel and Dan, with which Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to sin.
30Nonetheless the Lord said to Jehu, 'You have done well in following my instructions to destroy the family of Ahab. Therefore, your descendants will be kings of Israel down to the fourth generation.'
31But Jehu did not obey the Law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He refused to turn from the sins that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit.
32At about that time the Lord began to cut down the size of Israel’s territory. King Hazael conquered several sections of the country
33east of the Jordan River, including all of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh. He conquered the area from the town of Aroer by the Arnon Gorge to as far north as Gilead and Bashan.
English Standard Version
Chapter 2
1Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2And Elijah said to Elisha, "Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel." But Elisha said, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel. 3And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha 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; keep quiet."
4Elijah said to him, "Elisha, please stay here, 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.
5The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha 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; keep quiet."
6Then Elijah said to him, "Please stay here, 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.
7Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan.
8Then Elijah took his cloak 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.
9When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you." And Elisha said, "Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me."
10And 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."
11And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
12And Elisha saw it and he cried, "My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
13And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
14Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, "Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?" And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.
15Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha." And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
16And they said to him, "Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please 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."
17But 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.
18And they came back to him while he was staying at Jericho, and he said to them, "Did I not say to you, ‘Do not go’?"
19Now the men of the city said to Elisha, "Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful."
20He said, "Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.
21Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, "Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it."
22So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.
23He 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!"
24And 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.
25From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
Chapter 3
1In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twelve years. 2He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. 3Nevertheless, he clung to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from it.
4Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he had to deliver to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams.
5But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
6So King Jehoram marched out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel.
7And he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat king of Judah: "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to battle against Moab?" And he said, "I will go. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses."
8Then he said, "By which way shall we march?" Jehoram answered, "By the way of the wilderness of Edom."
9So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And when they had made a circuitous march of seven days, there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them.
10Then the king of Israel said, "Alas! The Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab."
11And Jehoshaphat said, "Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may inquire of the Lord?" Then one of the king of Israel 's servants answered, "Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah."
12And Jehoshaphat said, "The word of the Lord is with him." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
13And Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother." But the king of Israel said to him, "No; it is the Lord who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab."
14And Elisha said, "As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you.
15But now bring me a musician." And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him.
16And he said, "Thus says the Lord, ‘I will make this dry streambed full of pools.’
17For thus says the Lord, ‘You shall not see wind or rain, but that streambed shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, you, your livestock, and your animals.’
18This is a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will also give the Moabites into your hand,
19and you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree and stop up all springs of water and ruin every good piece of land with stones."
20The next morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came from the direction of Edom, till the country was filled with water.
21When all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to put on armor, from the youngest to the oldest, were called out and were drawn up at the border.
22And when they rose early in the morning and the sun shone on the water, the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood.
23And they said, "This is blood; the kings have surely fought together and struck one another down. Now then, Moab, to the spoil!"
24But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose and struck the Moabites, till they fled before them. And they went forward, striking the Moabites as they went.
25And they overthrew the cities, and on every good piece of land every man threw a stone until it was covered. They stopped every spring of water and felled all the good trees, till only its stones were left in Kir-hareseth, and the slingers surrounded and attacked it.
26When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him, he took with him 700 swordsmen to break through, opposite the king of Edom, but they could not.
27Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel. And they withdrew from him and returned to their own land.
Chapter 4
1Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves." 2And Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?" And she said, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil." 3Then he said, "Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. 4Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside." 5So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6When the vessels were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." And he said to her, "There is not another." Then the oil stopped flowing. 7She came and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest."
8One day Elisha went on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food.
9And she said to her husband, "Behold now, I know that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way.
10Let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there."
11One day he came there, and he turned into the chamber and rested there.
12And he said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she stood before him.
13And he said to him, "Say now to her, ‘See, you have taken all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’" She answered, "I dwell among my own people."
14And he said, "What then is to be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is old."
15He said, "Call her." And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway.
16And he said, "At this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son." And she said, "No, my lord, O man of God; do not lie to your servant."
17But the woman conceived, and she bore a son about that time the following spring, as Elisha had said to her.
18When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers.
19And he said to his father, "Oh, my head, my head!" The father said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."
20And when he had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died.
21And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and went out.
22Then she called to her husband and said, "Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again."
23And he said, "Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She said, "All is well."
24Then she saddled the donkey, and she said to her servant, "Urge the animal on; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you."
25So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, "Look, there is the Shunammite.
26Run at once to meet her and say to her, ‘Is all well with you? Is all well with your husband? Is all well with the child?’" And she answered, "All is well."
27And when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came to push her away. But the man of God said, "Leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me."
28Then she said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me?’"
29He said to Gehazi, "Tie up your garment and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not reply. And lay my staff on the face of the child."
30Then the mother of the child said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So he arose and followed her.
31Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore he returned to meet him and told him, "The child has not awakened."
32When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed.
33So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord.
34Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm.
35Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
36Then he summoned Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, "Pick up your son."
37She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.
38And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, "Set on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."
39One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were.
40And they poured out some for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, "O man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it.
41He said, "Then bring flour." And he threw it into the pot and said, "Pour some out for the men, that they may eat." And there was no harm in the pot.
42A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, "Give to the men, that they may eat."
43But his servant said, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" So he repeated, "Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’"
44So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.
Chapter 5
1Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman 's wife. 3She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." 4So Naaman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel." 5And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
6And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy."
7And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me."
8But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel."
9So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha 's house.
10And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean."
11But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.
12Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.
13But his servants came near and said to him, "My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?"
14So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, "Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant."
16But he said, "As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none." And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
17Then Naaman said, "If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the Lord.
18In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter."
19He said to him, "Go in peace." But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance,
20Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, "See, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him."
21So Gehazi followed Naaman. And when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, "Is all well?"
22And he said, "All is well. My master has sent me to say, ‘There have just now come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.’"
23And Naaman said, "Be pleased to accept two talents." And he urged him and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and laid them on two of his servants. And they carried them before Gehazi.
24And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and put them in the house, and he sent the men away, and they departed.
25He went in and stood before his master, and Elisha said to him, "Where have you been, Gehazi?" And he said, "Your servant went nowhere."
26But he said to him, "Did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants?
27Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever." So he went out from his presence a leper, like snow.
Chapter 6
1Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us. 2Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to dwell there." And he answered, "Go." 3Then one of them said, "Be pleased to go with your servants." And he answered, "I will go." 4So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. 5But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, "Alas, my master! It was borrowed." 6Then the man of God said, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. 7And he said, "Take it up." So he reached out his hand and took it.
8Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, "At such and such a place shall be my camp."
9But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, "Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there."
10And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice.
11And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, "Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?"
12And one of his servants said, "None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom."
13And he said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him." It was told him, "Behold, he is in Dothan."
14So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
15When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?"
16He said, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
17Then Elisha prayed and said, "O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see." So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, "Please strike this people with blindness." So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha.
19And Elisha said to them, "This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek." And he led them to Samaria.
20As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, "O Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see." So the Lord opened their eyes and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.
21As soon as the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, "My father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down?"
22He answered, "You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master."
23So he prepared for them a great feast, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel.
24Afterward Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria.
25And there was a great famine in Samaria, as they besieged it, until a donkey 's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove 's dung for five shekels of silver.
26Now as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!"
27And he said, "If the Lord will not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?"
28And the king asked her, "What is your trouble?" She answered, "This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’
29So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him.’ But she has hidden her son."
30When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes — now he was passing by on the wall — and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body —
31and he said, "May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today."
32Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Now the king had dispatched a man from his presence, but before the messenger arrived Elisha said to the elders, "Do you see how this murderer has sent to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master 's feet behind him?"
33And while he was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him and said, "This trouble is from the Lord! Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?"
Chapter 7
1But Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord, Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria." 2Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, "If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?" But he said, "You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it."
3Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die?
4If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die."
5So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there.
6For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, "Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us."
7So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives.
8And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them.
9Then they said to one another, "We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king 's household."
10So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, "We came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied and the donkeys tied and the tents as they were."
11Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within the king 's household.
12And the king rose in the night and said to his servants, "I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city.’"
13And one of his servants said, "Let some men take five of the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole multitude of Israel who have already perished. Let us send and see."
14So they took two horsemen, and the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, "Go and see."
15So they went after them as far as the Jordan, and behold, all the way was littered with garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.
16Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
17Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him.
18For when the man of God had said to the king, "Two seahs of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria,"
19the captain had answered the man of God, "If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?" And he had said, "You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it."
20And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate and he died.
Chapter 8
1Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, "Arise, and depart with your household, and sojourn wherever you can, for the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years." 2So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. She went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. 3And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land. 4Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, "Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done." 5And while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, "My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life." 6And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, "Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now."
7Now Elisha came to Damascus. Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick. And when it was told him, "The man of God has come here,"
8the king said to Hazael, "Take a present with you and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord through him, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’"
9So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camels ' loads. When he came and stood before him, he said, "Your son Ben-hadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’"
10And Elisha said to him, "Go, say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover,’ but the Lord has shown me that he shall certainly die."
11And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was embarrassed. And the man of God wept.
12And Hazael said, "Why does my lord weep?" He answered, "Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women."
13And Hazael said, "What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?" Elisha answered, "The Lord has shown me that you are to be king over Syria."
14Then he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, "What did Elisha say to you?" And he answered, "He told me that you would certainly recover."
15But the next day he took the bed cloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, till he died. And Hazael became king in his place.
16In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign.
17He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
18And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
19Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.
20In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own.
21Then Joram passed over to Zair with all his chariots and rose by night, and he and his chariot commanders struck the Edomites who had surrounded him, but his army fled home.
22So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time.
23Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
24So Joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.
25In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign.
26Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother 's name was Athaliah; she was a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.
27He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was son-in-law to the house of Ahab.
28He went with Joram the son of Ahab to make war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead, and the Syrians wounded Joram.
29And King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.
Chapter 9
1Then Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, "Tie up your garments, and take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. 2And when you arrive, look there for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. And go in and have him rise from among his fellows, and lead him to an inner chamber. 3Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, ‘Thus says the Lord, I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not linger."
4So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead.
5And when he came, behold, the commanders of the army were in council. And he said, "I have a word for you, O commander." And Jehu said, "To which of us all?" And he said, "To you, O commander."
6So he arose and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I anoint you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel.
7And you shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord.
8For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.
9And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah.
10And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her." Then he opened the door and fled.
11When Jehu came out to the servants of his master, they said to him, "Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?" And he said to them, "You know the fellow and his talk."
12And they said, "That is not true; tell us now." And he said, "Thus and so he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, I anoint you king over Israel.’"
13Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, "Jehu is king."
14Thus Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram with all Israel had been on guard at Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Syria,
15but King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) So Jehu said, "If this is your decision, then let no one slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel."
16Then Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to visit Joram.
17Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu as he came and said, "I see a company." And Joram said, "Take a horseman and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’"
18So a man on horseback went to meet him and said, "Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’" And Jehu said, "What do you have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me." And the watchman reported, saying, "The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back."
19Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them and said, "Thus the king has said, ‘Is it peace?’" And Jehu answered, "What do you have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me."
20Again the watchman reported, "He reached them, but he is not coming back. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously."
21Joram said, "Make ready." And they made ready his chariot. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah set out, each in his chariot, and went to meet Jehu, and met him at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite.
22And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace can there be, so long as the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?"
23Then Joram reined about and fled, saying to Ahaziah, "Treachery, O Ahaziah!"
24And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank in his chariot.
25Jehu said to Bidkar his aide, "Take him up and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember, when you and I rode side by side behind Ahab his father, how the Lord made this pronouncement against him:
26‘As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons — declares the Lord — I will repay you on this plot of ground.’ Now therefore take him up and throw him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the Lord."
27When Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled in the direction of Beth-haggan. And Jehu pursued him and said, "Shoot him also." And they shot him in the chariot at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo and died there.
28His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.
30When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window.
31And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, "Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?"
32And he lifted up his face to the window and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
33He said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down. And some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her.
34Then he went in and ate and drank. And he said, "See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king 's daughter."
35But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
36When they came back and told him, he said, "This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel,
37and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.’"
Chapter 10
1Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the rulers of the city, to the elders, and to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, saying, 2"Now then, as soon as this letter comes to you, seeing your master 's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, fortified cities also, and weapons, 3select the best and fittest of your master 's sons and set him on his father 's throne and fight for your master 's house." 4But they were exceedingly afraid and said, "Behold, the two kings could not stand before him. How then can we stand?" 5So he who was over the palace, and he who was over the city, together with the elders and the guardians, sent to Jehu, saying, "We are your servants, and we will do all that you tell us. We will not make anyone king. Do whatever is good in your eyes." 6Then he wrote to them a second letter, saying, "If you are on my side, and if you are ready to obey me, take the heads of your master 's sons and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time." Now the king 's sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who were bringing them up. 7And as soon as the letter came to them, they took the king 's sons and slaughtered them, seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel. 8When the messenger came and told him, "They have brought the heads of the king 's sons," he said, "Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning." 9Then in the morning, when he went out, he stood and said to all the people, "You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who struck down all these? 10Know then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the Lord has done what he said by his servant Elijah." 11So Jehu struck down all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his great men and his close friends and his priests, until he left him none remaining.
12Then he set out and went to Samaria. On the way, when he was at Beth-eked of the Shepherds,
13Jehu met the relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah, and he said, "Who are you?" And they answered, "We are the relatives of Ahaziah, and we came down to visit the royal princes and the sons of the queen mother."
14He said, "Take them alive." And they took them alive and slaughtered them at the pit of Beth-eked, forty-two persons, and he spared none of them.
15And when he departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. And he greeted him and said to him, "Is your heart true to my heart as mine is to yours?" And Jehonadab answered, "It is." Jehu said, "If it is, give me your hand." So he gave him his hand. And Jehu took him up with him into the chariot.
16And he said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord." So he had him ride in his chariot.
17And when he came to Samaria, he struck down all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had wiped them out, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke to Elijah.
18Then Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much.
19Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers and all his priests. Let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live." But Jehu did it with cunning in order to destroy the worshipers of Baal.
20And Jehu ordered, "Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal." So they proclaimed it.
21And Jehu sent throughout all Israel, and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. And they entered the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other.
22He said to him who was in charge of the wardrobe, "Bring out the vestments for all the worshipers of Baal." So he brought out the vestments for them.
23Then Jehu went into the house of Baal with Jehonadab the son of Rechab, and he said to the worshipers of Baal, "Search, and see that there is no servant of the Lord here among you, but only the worshipers of Baal."
24Then they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside and said, "The man who allows any of those whom I give into your hands to escape shall forfeit his life."
25So as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, "Go in and strike them down; let not a man escape." So when they put them to the sword, the guard and the officers cast them out and went into the inner room of the house of Baal,
26and they brought out the pillar that was in the house of Baal and burned it.
27And they demolished the pillar of Baal, and demolished the house of Baal, and made it a latrine to this day.
28Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel.
29But Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin — that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan.
30And the Lord said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel."
31But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.
32In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel. Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel:
33from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the Valley of the Arnon, that is, Gilead and Bashan.
34Now the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
35So Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place.
36The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
New International Version
7Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan.
8Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
11As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
12Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two.
13Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
14He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. "Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?" he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
17But they persisted until he was too embarrassed to refuse. So he said, "Send them." And they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him.
18When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, "Didn’t I tell you not to go?"
21Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, "This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’ "
22And the water has remained pure to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.
23From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. "Get out of here, baldy!" they said. "Get out of here, baldy!"
24He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.
25And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.
Chapter 3
1Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years. 2He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. 3Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.
4Now Mesha king of Moab raised sheep, and he had to pay the king of Israel a tribute of a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams.
5But after Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
6So at that time King Joram set out from Samaria and mobilized all Israel.
15But now bring me a harpist." While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came on Elisha
16and he said, "This is what the Lord says: I will fill this valley with pools of water.
17For this is what the Lord says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink.
18This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord; he will also deliver Moab into your hands.
19You will overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every good field with stones."
21Now all the Moabites had heard that the kings had come to fight against them; so every man, young and old, who could bear arms was called up and stationed on the border.
22When they got up early in the morning, the sun was shining on the water. To the Moabites across the way, the water looked red—like blood.
23"That’s blood!" they said. "Those kings must have fought and slaughtered each other. Now to the plunder, Moab!"
24But when the Moabites came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and fought them until they fled. And the Israelites invaded the land and slaughtered the Moabites.
25They destroyed the towns, and each man threw a stone on every good field until it was covered. They stopped up all the springs and cut down every good tree. Only Kir Hareseth was left with its stones in place, but men armed with slings surrounded it and attacked it.
26When the king of Moab saw that the battle had gone against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they failed.
27Then he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. The fury against Israel was great; they withdrew and returned to their own land.
3Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.
4Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side."
8One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat.
9She said to her husband, "I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God.
10Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us."
11One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there.
12He said to his servant Gehazi, "Call the Shunammite." So he called her, and she stood before him.
19He said to his father, "My head! My head!" His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother."
20After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.
21She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
32When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch.
33He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord.
34Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm.
35Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
36Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite." And he did. When she came, he said, "Take your son."
37She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.
39One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.
40The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, "Man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it.
43"How can I set this before a hundred men?" his servant asked. But Elisha answered, "Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ "
44Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.
2Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.
3She said to her mistress, "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."
4Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.
5"By all means, go," the king of Aram replied. "I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing.
6The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: "With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy."
8When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: "Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel."
9So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.
10Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed."
11But Naaman went away angry and said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.
12Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?" So he turned and went off in a rage.
13Naaman’s servants went to him and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!"
14So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
17"If you will not," said Naaman, "please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord.
18But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this."
19"Go in peace," Elisha said. After Naaman had traveled some distance,
20Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said to himself, "My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him."
23"By all means, take two talents," said Naaman. He urged Gehazi to accept them, and then tied up the two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing. He gave them to two of his servants, and they carried them ahead of Gehazi.
24When Gehazi came to the hill, he took the things from the servants and put them away in the house. He sent the men away and they left.
26But Elisha said to him, "Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money or to accept clothes—or olive groves and vineyards, or flocks and herds, or male and female slaves?
27Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever." Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and his skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.
4And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees.
5As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. "Oh no, my lord!" he cried out. "It was borrowed!"
6The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.
7"Lift it out," he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.
9The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: "Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there."
10So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
13"Go, find out where he is," the king ordered, "so I can send men and capture him." The report came back: "He is in Dothan."
14Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
22"Do not kill them," he answered. "Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master."
23So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.
24Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria.
25There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.
28Then he asked her, "What’s the matter?" She answered, "This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’
29So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,’ but she had hidden him."
30When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and they saw that, under his robes, he had sackcloth on his body.
31He said, "May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!"
3Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die?
4If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die."
5At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there,
6for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!"
7So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.
10So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, "We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were."
11The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.
14So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, "Go and find out what has happened."
15They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king.
16Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.
17Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.
18It happened as the man of God had said to the king: "About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria."
19The officer had said to the man of God, "Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?" The man of God had replied, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!"
20And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.
Chapter 8
1Now Elisha had said to the woman 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 in the land that will last seven years." 2The 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.
3At 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.
4The 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."
7Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, "The man of God has come all the way up here,"
8he said to Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the Lord through him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ "
10Elisha answered, "Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’ Nevertheless, the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die."
11He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed. Then the man of God began to weep.
14Then 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."
15But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael succeeded him as king.
16In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah.
17He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.
18He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
19Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
20In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king.
21So Jehoram 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.
22To this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah. Libnah revolted at the same time.
23As 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?
24Jehoram rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.
25In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.
26Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.
27He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.
Chapter 9
1The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of olive oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. 3Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and run; don’t delay!"
6Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil on Jehu’s head and declared, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord’s people Israel.
7You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel.
8The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free.
9I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah.
10As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.’ " Then he opened the door and ran.
14So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead against Hazael king of Aram,
15but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.) Jehu said, "If you desire to make me king, don’t let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel."
16Then he got into his chariot and rode to Jezreel, because Joram was resting there and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to see him.
24Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot.
25Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, "Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord spoke this prophecy against him:
26‘Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord.’ Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord."
27When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him, shouting, "Kill him too!" They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam, but he escaped to Megiddo and died there.
28His servants took him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his ancestors in his tomb in the City of David.
29(In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king of Judah.)
30Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup, arranged her hair and looked out of a window.
31As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, "Have you come in peace, you Zimri, you murderer of your master?"
32He looked up at the window and called out, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked down at him.
33"Throw her down!" Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.
34Jehu went in and ate and drank. "Take care of that cursed woman," he said, "and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter."
35But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands.
36They went back and told Jehu, who said, "This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh.
37Jezebel’s body will be like dung on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’ "
Chapter 10
1Now there were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab’s children. He said, 2"You have your master’s sons with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons. Now as soon as this letter reaches you, 3choose the best and most worthy of your master’s sons and set him on his father’s throne. Then fight for your master’s house."
6Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, "If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow." Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them.
7When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel.
9The next morning Jehu went out. He stood before all the people and said, "You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these?
10Know, then, that not a word the Lord has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The Lord has done what he announced through his servant Elijah."
11So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.
15After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab son of Rekab, who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, "Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?" "I am," Jehonadab answered. "If so," said Jehu, "give me your hand." So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot.
16Jehu said, "Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord." Then he had him ride along in his chariot.
18Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much.
19Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live." But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.
20Jehu said, "Call an assembly in honor of Baal." So they proclaimed it.
21Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other.
22And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, "Bring robes for all the servants of Baal." So he brought out robes for them.
23Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, "Look around and see that no one who serves the Lord is here with you—only servants of Baal."
24So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: "If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life."
25As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: "Go in and kill them; let no one escape." So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal.
26They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it.
27They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.
28So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel.
29However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
30The Lord said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation."
31Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.
New King James Version
6Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan.” But he said, “ As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!” So the two of them went on.
7And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan.
8Now Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water; and it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
10So he said, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.”
11Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
12And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” So he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces.
13He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan.
14Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over.
17But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, “Send them!” Therefore they sent fifty men, and they searched for three days but did not find him.
18And when they came back to him, for he had stayed in Jericho, he said to them, “Did I not say to you, ‘Do not go’?”
20And he said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.
21Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’ ”
22So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.
Chapter 3
1Now Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel at Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. 2And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not like his father and mother; for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made. 3Nevertheless he persisted in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin; he did not depart from them.
4Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheepbreeder, and he regularly paid the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams.
5But it happened, when Ahab died, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
9So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom, and they marched on that roundabout route seven days; and there was no water for the army, nor for the animals that followed them.
10And the king of Israel said, “Alas! For the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”
15But now bring me a musician.” Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him.
16And he said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Make this valley full of ditches.’
17For thus says the Lord: ‘You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink.’
18And this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord; He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand.
19Also you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall cut down every good tree, and stop up every spring of water, and ruin every good piece of land with stones.”
21And when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to bear arms and older were gathered; and they stood at the border.
22Then they rose up early in the morning, and the sun was shining on the water; and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood.
23And they said, “This is blood; the kings have surely struck swords and have killed one another; now therefore, Moab, to the spoil!”
24So when they came to the camp of Israel, Israel rose up and attacked the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they entered their land, killing the Moabites.
25Then they destroyed the cities, and each man threw a stone on every good piece of land and filled it; and they stopped up all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees. But they left the stones of Kir Haraseth intact. However the slingers surrounded and attacked it.
26And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not.
27Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall; and there was great indignation against Israel. So they departed from him and returned to their own land.
3Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few.
4And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”
6Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “ There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased.
7Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
8Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food.
9And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly.
10Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.”
11And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned in to the upper room and lay down there.
12Then he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite woman.” When he had called her, she stood before him.
19And he said to his father, “My head, my head!” So he said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
20When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.
21And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out.
22Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come back.”
23So he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.” And she said, “ It is well.”
24Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.”
26Please run now to meet her, and say to her, ‘ Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’ ” And she answered, “ It is well.”
27Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone; for her soul is in deep distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
30And the mother of the child said, “ As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her.
31Now Gehazi went on ahead of them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore he went back to meet him, and told him, saying, “The child has not awakened.”
32When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, lying dead on his bed.
33He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.
34And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm.
35He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
36And he called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.”
37So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out.
38And Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. Now the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”
39So one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were.
40Then they served it to the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
43But his servant said, “What? Shall I set this before one hundred men?” He said again, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for thus says the Lord: ‘They shall eat and have some left over.’ ”
44So he set it before them; and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.
Chapter 5
1Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper. 2And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman’s wife. 3Then she said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.” 4And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel.”
9Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
10And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.”
11But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’
12Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
13And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
14So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
17So Naaman said, “Then, if not, please let your servant be given two mule-loads of earth; for your servant will no longer offer either burnt offering or sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord.
18Yet in this thing may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord please pardon your servant in this thing.”
20But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has spared Naaman this Syrian, while not receiving from his hands what he brought; but as the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.”
21So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him, and said, “ Is all well?”
23So Naaman said, “Please, take two talents.” And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and handed them to two of his servants; and they carried them on ahead of him.
24When he came to the citadel, he took them from their hand, and stored them away in the house; then he let the men go, and they departed.
26Then he said to him, “Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants?
27Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.” And he went out from his presence leprous, as white as snow.
3Then one said, “Please consent to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.”
4So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.
5But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed.”
6So the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float.
7Therefore he said, “Pick it up for yourself.” So he reached out his hand and took it.
8Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel; and he consulted with his servants, saying, “My camp will be in such and such a place.”
9And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, “Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down there.”
10Then the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him. Thus he warned him, and he was watchful there, not just once or twice.
14Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
15And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
16So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said, “Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
22But he answered, “You shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.”
23Then he prepared a great feast for them; and after they ate and drank, he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel.
24And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria.
25And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.
28Then the king said to her, “What is troubling you?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’
29So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”
30Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes; and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked, and there underneath he had sackcloth on his body.
31Then he said, “God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today!”
32But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to take away my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”
33And while he was still talking with them, there was the messenger, coming down to him; and then the king said, “Surely this calamity is from the Lord; why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”
3Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die?
4If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die.”
5And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise no one was there.
6For the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses—the noise of a great army; so they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us!”
7Therefore they arose and fled at twilight, and left the camp intact—their tents, their horses, and their donkeys—and they fled for their lives.
8And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and carried from it silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them; then they came back and entered another tent, and carried some from there also, and went and hid it.
9Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king’s household.”
10So they went and called to the gatekeepers of the city, and told them, saying, “We went to the Syrian camp, and surprisingly no one was there, not a human sound—only horses and donkeys tied, and the tents intact.”
11And the gatekeepers called out, and they told it to the king’s household inside.
13And one of his servants answered and said, “Please, let several men take five of the remaining horses which are left in the city. Look, they may either become like all the multitude of Israel that are left in it; or indeed, I say, they may become like all the multitude of Israel left from those who are consumed; so let us send them and see.”
14Therefore they took two chariots with horses; and the king sent them in the direction of the Syrian army, saying, “Go and see.”
15And they went after them to the Jordan; and indeed all the road was full of garments and weapons which the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. So the messengers returned and told the king.
16Then the people went out and plundered the tents of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
17Now the king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. But the people trampled him in the gate, and he died, just as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him.
18So it happened just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “Two seahs of barley for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, shall be sold tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria.”
19Then that officer had answered the man of God, and said, “Now look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”
20And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.
Chapter 8
1Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; for the Lord has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years.” 2So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines seven years.
3It came to pass, at the end of seven years, that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land.
4Then the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me, please, all the great things Elisha has done.”
5Now it happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, that there was the woman whose son he had restored to life, appealing to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”
7Then Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, “The man of God has come here.”
8And the king said to Hazael, “Take a present in your hand, and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this disease?’ ”
9So Hazael went to meet him and took a present with him, of every good thing of Damascus, forty camel-loads; and he came and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this disease?’ ”
10And Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover.’ However the Lord has shown me that he will really die.”
11Then he set his countenance in a stare until he was ashamed; and the man of God wept.
14Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me you would surely recover.”
15But it happened on the next day that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water, and spread it over his face so that he died; and Hazael reigned in his place.
16Now in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat having been king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat began to reign as king of Judah.
17He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
18And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
19Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah, for the sake of His servant David, as He promised him to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.
20In his days Edom revolted against Judah’s authority, and made a king over themselves.
21So Joram went to Zair, and all his chariots with him. Then he rose by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots; and the troops fled to their tents.
22Thus Edom has been in revolt against Judah’s authority to this day. And Libnah revolted at that time.
23Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
24So Joram rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.
25In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign.
26Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel.
27And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab.
28Now he went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth Gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram.
29Then King Joram went back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.
Chapter 9
1And Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, “Get yourself ready, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2Now when you arrive at that place, look there for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, and go in and make him rise up from among his associates, and take him to an inner room. 3Then take the flask of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I have anointed you king over Israel.” ’ Then open the door and flee, and do not delay.”
5And when he arrived, there were the captains of the army sitting; and he said, “I have a message for you, Commander.” Jehu said, “For which one of us?” And he said, “For you, Commander.”
6Then he arose and went into the house. And he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel.
7You shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel.
8For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab all the males in Israel, both bond and free.
9So I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah.
10The dogs shall eat Jezebel on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her.’ ” And he opened the door and fled.
14So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram had been defending Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, against Hazael king of Syria.
15But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) And Jehu said, “If you are so minded, let no one leave or escape from the city to go and tell it in Jezreel.”
16So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was laid up there; and Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.
23Then Joram turned around and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!”
24Now Jehu drew his bow with full strength and shot Jehoram between his arms; and the arrow came out at his heart, and he sank down in his chariot.
25Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, “Pick him up, and throw him into the tract of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember, when you and I were riding together behind Ahab his father, that the Lord laid this burden upon him:
26‘Surely I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will repay you in this plot,’ says the Lord. Now therefore, take and throw him on the plot of ground, according to the word of the Lord.”
27But when Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the road to Beth Haggan. So Jehu pursued him, and said, “Shoot him also in the chariot.” And they shot him at the Ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. Then he fled to Megiddo, and died there.
28And his servants carried him in the chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the City of David.
29In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king over Judah.
30Now when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head, and looked through a window.
31Then, as Jehu entered at the gate, she said, “ Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?”
32And he looked up at the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” So two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
33Then he said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses; and he trampled her underfoot.
34And when he had gone in, he ate and drank. Then he said, “Go now, see to this accursed woman, and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter.”
35So they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
36Therefore they came back and told him. And he said, “This is the word of the Lord, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel;
37and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as refuse on the surface of the field, in the plot at Jezreel, so that they shall not say, “Here lies Jezebel.” ’ ”
2Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master’s sons are with you, and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and weapons,
3choose the best qualified of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.
4But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, “Look, two kings could not stand up to him; how then can we stand?”
5And he who was in charge of the house, and he who was in charge of the city, the elders also, and those who reared the sons, sent to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants, we will do all you tell us; but we will not make anyone king. Do what is good in your sight.”
6Then he wrote a second letter to them, saying: If you are for me and will obey my voice, take the heads of the men, your master’s sons, and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow. Now the king’s sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who were rearing them.
7So it was, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons and slaughtered seventy persons, put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.
9So it was, in the morning, that he went out and stood, and said to all the people, “You are righteous. Indeed I conspired against my master and killed him; but who killed all these?
10Know now that nothing shall fall to the earth of the word of the Lord which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab; for the Lord has done what He spoke by His servant Elijah.”
11So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men and his close acquaintances and his priests, until he left him none remaining.
15Now when he departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab, coming to meet him; and he greeted him and said to him, “Is your heart right, as my heart is toward your heart?” And Jehonadab answered, “It is.” Jehu said, “If it is, give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into the chariot.
16Then he said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.” So they had him ride in his chariot.
17And when he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to Elijah.
18Then Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little, Jehu will serve him much.
19Now therefore, call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. Let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu acted deceptively, with the intent of destroying the worshipers of Baal.
20And Jehu said, “Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal.” So they proclaimed it.
21Then Jehu sent throughout all Israel; and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. So they came into the temple of Baal, and the temple of Baal was full from one end to the other.
22And he said to the one in charge of the wardrobe, “Bring out vestments for all the worshipers of Baal.” So he brought out vestments for them.
23Then Jehu and Jehonadab the son of Rechab went into the temple of Baal, and said to the worshipers of Baal, “Search and see that no servants of the Lord are here with you, but only the worshipers of Baal.”
24So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed for himself eighty men on the outside, and had said, “ If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escapes, whoever lets him escape, it shall be his life for the life of the other.”
25Now it happened, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, “Go in and kill them; let no one come out!” And they killed them with the edge of the sword; then the guards and the officers threw them out, and went into the inner room of the temple of Baal.
26And they brought the sacred pillars out of the temple of Baal and burned them.
27Then they broke down the sacred pillar of Baal, and tore down the temple of Baal and made it a refuse dump to this day.
28Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel.
29However Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, that is, from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan.
30And the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”
31But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin.
32In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel; and Hazael conquered them in all the territory of Israel
33from the Jordan eastward: all the land of Gilead—Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh—from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, including Gilead and Bashan.
34Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
35So Jehu rested with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. Then Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place.
36And the period that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
