Thematic Bible: Who reigned over israel
Thematic Bible
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Zimri
Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his treason that he committed, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.
It happened, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he struck all the house of Baasha: he did not leave him a single one who urinates on a wall, neither of his relatives, nor of his friends. Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet,
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Jeroboam
It happened, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was returned, that they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived in it; and he went out from there, and built Penuel. Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah." read more.
Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and see your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt." He set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. This thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even to Dan. He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; he did so in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar, to burn incense. Behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD to Beth El: and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. He cried against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, "Altar, altar, thus says the LORD: 'Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name. On you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and they will burn men's bones on you.'" He gave a sign the same day, saying, "This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: Behold, the altar will be split apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out." It happened, when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam put out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him." His hand, which he put out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back again to himself. The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. The king answered the man of God, "Now entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again." The man of God entreated the LORD, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. The king said to the man of God, "Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward." The man of God said to the king, "Even if you gave me half of your house, I would not go in with you, neither would I eat bread nor drink water in this place; for so was it commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, neither return by the way that you came.'" So he went another way, and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel. Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel; and one of his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. Their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" Now his sons had seen which way the man of God went, who came from Judah. He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it. He went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. He said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He said, "I am." Then he said to him, "Come home with me, and eat bread." He said, "I may not return with you, nor go in with you; neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, 'You shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that you came.'" He said to him, "I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'" He lied to him. So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. It happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who brought him back; and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because you have been disobedient to the mouth of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, but came back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, "Eat no bread, and drink no water"; your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'" It happened, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. When he had gone, a lion met him by the way, and killed him. His body was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the body. Behold, men passed by, and saw the body cast in the way, and the lion standing by the body; and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived. When the prophet who brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, "It is the man of God who was disobedient to the mouth of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has mauled him and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke to him." He spoke to his sons, saying, "Saddle the donkey for me." They saddled it. He went and found his body cast in the way, and the donkey and the lion standing by the body. The lion had not eaten the body, nor mauled the donkey. The prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. He came to the city of the old prophet to mourn, and to bury him. He laid his body in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, "Alas, my brother." It happened, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, "When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb in which the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones. For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely happen." After this thing Jeroboam did not return from his evil way, but again made priests of the high places from among all the people. Whoever wanted to, he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the high places. This thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the surface of the earth. At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. Jeroboam said to his wife, "Please get up and disguise yourself, that you won't be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Go to Shiloh. Behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, who spoke concerning me that I should be king over this people. Take with you ten loaves, and cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the child." Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age. The LORD said to Ahijah, "Behold, the wife of Jeroboam comes to inquire of you concerning her son; for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall tell her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman." It was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, "Come in, you wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy news. Go, tell Jeroboam, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: "Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it you; and yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in my eyes, but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made you other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back: therefore, behold, I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who urinates on a wall, he who is shut up and he who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it is all gone. He who dies of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and he who dies in the field shall the birds of the sky eat: for the LORD has spoken it."' Arise therefore, and go to your house. When your feet enter into the city, the child shall die. All Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover the LORD will raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is day. What? Even now. For the LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger. He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he has sinned, and with which he has made Israel to sin." Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. All Israel buried him, and mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet. The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. The days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.
Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and see your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt." He set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. This thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even to Dan. He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; he did so in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar, to burn incense. Behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD to Beth El: and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. He cried against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, "Altar, altar, thus says the LORD: 'Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name. On you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and they will burn men's bones on you.'" He gave a sign the same day, saying, "This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: Behold, the altar will be split apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out." It happened, when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam put out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him." His hand, which he put out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back again to himself. The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. The king answered the man of God, "Now entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again." The man of God entreated the LORD, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. The king said to the man of God, "Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward." The man of God said to the king, "Even if you gave me half of your house, I would not go in with you, neither would I eat bread nor drink water in this place; for so was it commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, neither return by the way that you came.'" So he went another way, and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel. Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel; and one of his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. Their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" Now his sons had seen which way the man of God went, who came from Judah. He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it. He went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. He said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He said, "I am." Then he said to him, "Come home with me, and eat bread." He said, "I may not return with you, nor go in with you; neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, 'You shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that you came.'" He said to him, "I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'" He lied to him. So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. It happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who brought him back; and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because you have been disobedient to the mouth of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, but came back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, "Eat no bread, and drink no water"; your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'" It happened, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. When he had gone, a lion met him by the way, and killed him. His body was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the body. Behold, men passed by, and saw the body cast in the way, and the lion standing by the body; and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived. When the prophet who brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, "It is the man of God who was disobedient to the mouth of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has mauled him and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke to him." He spoke to his sons, saying, "Saddle the donkey for me." They saddled it. He went and found his body cast in the way, and the donkey and the lion standing by the body. The lion had not eaten the body, nor mauled the donkey. The prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. He came to the city of the old prophet to mourn, and to bury him. He laid his body in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, "Alas, my brother." It happened, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, "When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb in which the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones. For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely happen." After this thing Jeroboam did not return from his evil way, but again made priests of the high places from among all the people. Whoever wanted to, he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the high places. This thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the surface of the earth. At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. Jeroboam said to his wife, "Please get up and disguise yourself, that you won't be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Go to Shiloh. Behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, who spoke concerning me that I should be king over this people. Take with you ten loaves, and cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the child." Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age. The LORD said to Ahijah, "Behold, the wife of Jeroboam comes to inquire of you concerning her son; for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall tell her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman." It was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, "Come in, you wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy news. Go, tell Jeroboam, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: "Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it you; and yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in my eyes, but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made you other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back: therefore, behold, I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who urinates on a wall, he who is shut up and he who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it is all gone. He who dies of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and he who dies in the field shall the birds of the sky eat: for the LORD has spoken it."' Arise therefore, and go to your house. When your feet enter into the city, the child shall die. All Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover the LORD will raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is day. What? Even now. For the LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger. He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he has sinned, and with which he has made Israel to sin." Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. All Israel buried him, and mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet. The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. The days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Jehoash or joash
In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria for sixteen years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin; but he walked therein. Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might with which he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? read more.
Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat on his throne: and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness of which he died: and Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him, and said, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen." Elisha said to him, "Take bow and arrows"; and he took to him bow and arrows. He said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow"; and he put his hand on it. Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands. He said, "Open the window eastward"; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot." and he shot. He said, "The LORD's arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Syria; for you shall strike the Syrians in Aphek, until you have consumed them." He said, "Take the arrows"; and he took them. He said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; and he struck three times, and stopped. The man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times. Then you would have struck Syria until you had consumed it, whereas now you shall strike Syria just three times." Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. It happened, as they were burying a man, that behold, they spied a band; and they cast the man into the tomb of Elisha: and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. But the LORD was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect to them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet. Hazael king of Syria died; and Benhadad his son reigned in his place. Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Joash struck him three times, and recovered the cities of Israel.
Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat on his throne: and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness of which he died: and Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him, and said, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen." Elisha said to him, "Take bow and arrows"; and he took to him bow and arrows. He said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow"; and he put his hand on it. Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands. He said, "Open the window eastward"; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot." and he shot. He said, "The LORD's arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Syria; for you shall strike the Syrians in Aphek, until you have consumed them." He said, "Take the arrows"; and he took them. He said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; and he struck three times, and stopped. The man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times. Then you would have struck Syria until you had consumed it, whereas now you shall strike Syria just three times." Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. It happened, as they were burying a man, that behold, they spied a band; and they cast the man into the tomb of Elisha: and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. But the LORD was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect to them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet. Hazael king of Syria died; and Benhadad his son reigned in his place. Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Joash struck him three times, and recovered the cities of Israel.
Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face." Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, "The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son as wife. Then a wild animal that was in Lebanon passed by, and trampled down the thistle. You have indeed struck Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Enjoy the glory of it, and stay at home; for why should you meddle to your harm, that you should fall, even you, and Judah with you?'" read more.
But Amaziah would not listen. So Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah. Judah was defeated by Israel; and they fled every man to his tent. Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits. He took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did, and his might, and how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jehoash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his place.
But Amaziah would not listen. So Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah. Judah was defeated by Israel; and they fled every man to his tent. Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits. He took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did, and his might, and how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jehoash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his place.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Nadab
Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah; and he reigned over Israel two years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin. Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; and Baasha struck him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon.
Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Pekah
Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria for twenty years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel Beth Maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria. read more.
Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and struck him, and killed him, and reigned in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah. Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and struck him, and killed him, and reigned in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah. Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Ahaziah
Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, in which he made Israel to sin. He served Baal, and worshiped him, and provoked to anger the LORD, the God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.
Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Ahab
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him. It happened, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him. read more.
He reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did yet more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho: he laid its foundation with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun. Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the foreigners of Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word." And the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Go away from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, that is near the Jordan. And it shall be that you will drink from the wadi. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." So he went and did according to the word of the LORD; for he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, that is near the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening. And he drank from the wadi. And it happened after a while that the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land. The word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you." So he got up and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering wood. And he called to her, and said, "Please bring me a little water in a pitcher, that I may drink." And as she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, "Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand." She said, "As the LORD your God lives, I do not have anything baked, except a handful of flour in a jar, and a little oil in a jug. Behold, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die." And Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid. Go and do as you have said. But make me of it a little cake first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for yourself and for your son. For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'The jar of flour shall not empty, neither shall the jug of oil be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth.'" And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she, and he, and her household, ate for a long time. The jar of flour did not empty, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Elijah. It happened after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, "What do we have in common, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son." And he said to her, "Give me your son." And he took him out of her lap and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed. He cried to the LORD, and said, "LORD my God, have you also brought disaster on the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?" And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called out to the LORD, and said, "LORD my God, please let this child's soul come into him again." The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the room into the house and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, "See, your son lives." And the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth." And it happened after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, "Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth." So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. And the famine was severe in Samaria. And Ahab summoned Obadiah, the steward of the house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly. For so it was, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) And Ahab said to Obadiah, "Go through the land, to all the springs of water, and to all the wadis. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, that we not lose all the animals." So they divided the land between them to explore it; Ahab went one way alone, and Obadiah went another way alone. And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him; and he recognized him and fell on his face and said, "Is it you, my lord Elijah?" He answered him, "It is I. Go, tell your lord, 'Behold, Elijah is here.'" And he said, "How have I sinned, that you would deliver your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom, where my lord has not sent to seek you. When they said, 'He is not here,' he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they did not find you. Now you say, 'Go, tell your lord, "Behold, Elijah is here."' It will happen, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you I do not know where; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he can't find you, he will kill me. But I, your servant, have feared the LORD from my youth. Wasn't it told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid one hundred men of the LORD's prophets with fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread and water? Now you say, 'Go, tell your lord, "Behold, Elijah is here";' and he will kill me." Elijah said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to him today." So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah. It happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?" He answered, "I have not troubled Israel; but you, and your father's house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and you have followed the Baals. Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel, and four hundred fifty of the prophets of Baal, and four hundred of the prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table." So Ahab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. Elijah came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you keep limping between two positions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." But the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, "I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal's prophets are four hundred fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under. And I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under it. You call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD, and the god who answers by fire, he is God." All the people answered, "It is well said." Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one bull for yourselves, and prepare it first, for you are the majority, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it." And they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, "Baal, answer us." But there was no voice, nor any who answered. And they limped about the altar they had made. And it came about, at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, "Cry aloud, for he is a god. Maybe he is thinking about it, or he is busy, or he is on a trip, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened." And they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with swords and spears, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the offering up of the offering; but there was no voice, no answer, and no response. Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me"; and all the people came near to him. He repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down. Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, "Israel shall be your name." And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD. And he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two seahs of seed. And he arranged the wood, and cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. And he said, "Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering, and on the wood." And he said, "Do it a second time"; and they did it the second time. And he said, "Do it a third time"; and they did it the third time. And the water ran around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water. It happened at the time of the offering up of the offering, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, "LORD, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, LORD, hear me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again." Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell facedown and said, "The LORD, he is God. The LORD, he is God." And Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape." And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there. And Elijah said to Ahab, "Get up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of a heavy rain." So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down toward the ground, and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, "Go up now, look toward the sea." So he went up, and looked, and said, "There is nothing." Then he said, "Go again" seven times. It happened at the seventh time, that he said, "Behold, a small cloud, like a man's hand, is rising out of the sea." He said, "Go up, tell Ahab, 'Get ready and go down, so that the rain doesn't stop you.'" It happened in a little while, that the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel. The hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he tucked his cloak into his belt and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." And he was afraid, and he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers." He lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat." He looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, "Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you." And he got up and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the Mount of God. And there he came to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." Behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire passed; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. It was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." The LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. You shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to be prophet in your place. It shall happen, that he who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and he who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet will I leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him." So he departed there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed over to him, and cast his mantle on him. He left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me please kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." He said to him, "Go back again; for what have I done to you?" He returned from following him, and took the yoke of oxen, and killed them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they ate. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and served him. Ben Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his army together; and there were thirty-two kings with him, and horses and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it. He sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, into the city, and said to him, "Thus says Ben Hadad, 'Your silver and your gold is mine. Your wives also and your children, even the best, are mine.'" The king of Israel answered, "It is according to your saying, my lord, O king. I am yours, and all that I have." The messengers came again, and said, "Ben Hadad says, 'I sent indeed to you, saying, "You shall deliver me your silver, and your gold, and your wives, and your children; but I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your house, and the houses of your servants; and it shall be, that whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away."'" Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, "Please notice how this man seeks mischief; for he sent to me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I did not deny him." All the elders and all the people said to him, "Do not listen, neither consent." Therefore he said to the messengers of Ben Hadad, "Tell my lord the king, 'All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do; but this thing I cannot do.'" The messengers departed, and brought him back the message. Ben Hadad sent to him, and said, "The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me." The king of Israel answered, "Tell him, 'Do not let him who puts on his armor brag like he who takes it off.'" It happened, when Ben Hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the pavilions, that he said to his servants, "Prepare to attack." They prepared to attack the city. Behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel, and said, "Thus says the LORD, 'Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand this day; and you shall know that I am the LORD.'" Ahab said, "By whom?" He said, "Thus says the LORD, 'By the young men of the governors of the districts.'" Then he said, "Who shall begin the battle?" He answered, "You." Then he mustered the young men of the governors of the districts, and they were two hundred and thirty-two. After them, he mustered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand. They went out at noon. But Ben Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him. the young men of the governors of the districts went out first; and Ben Hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, "Men are coming out from Samaria." He said, "If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive." So these went out of the city, the young men of the governors of the districts, and the army which followed them. They each killed his man. The Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. Ben Hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen. The king of Israel went out, and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter. The prophet came near to the king of Israel, and said to him, "Go, strengthen yourself, and mark, and see what you do; for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against you." The servants of the king of Syria said to him, "Their god is a god of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. Do this thing: take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their place. Muster an army, like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot. We will fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than them." He listened to their voice, and did so. It happened at the return of the year, that Ben Hadad mustered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel. The children of Israel were mustered, and were provisioned, and went against them. The children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of young goats; but the Syrians filled the country. A man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because the Syrians have said, "The LORD is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys"; therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.'" They encamped one over against the other seven days. So it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel killed one hundred thousand footmen of the Syrians in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben Hadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner room. His servants said to him, "See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth on our bodies, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Maybe he will save your life." So they put sackcloth on their bodies and ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, "Your servant Ben Hadad says, 'Please let me live.'" He said, "Is he still alive? He is my brother." Now the men observed diligently, and hurried to take this phrase; and they said, "Your brother Ben Hadad." Then he said, "Go, bring him." Then Ben Hadad came out to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot. Ben Hadad said to him, "The cities which my father took from your father I will restore. You shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria." "I," said Ahab, "will let you go with this covenant." So he made a covenant with him, and let him go. A certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow by the word of the LORD, "Please strike me." The man refused to strike him. Then he said to him, "Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you are departed from me, a lion shall kill you." As soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and killed him. Then he found another man, and said, "Please strike me." The man struck him, smiting and wounding him. So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with his headband over his eyes. As the king passed by, he cried to the king; and he said, "Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man to me, and said, 'Guard this man. If by any means he be missing, then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.' As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone." The king of Israel said to him, "So your judgment shall be; you yourself have decided it." He hurried, and took the headband away from his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized that he was of the prophets. He said to him, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.'" The king of Israel went to his house sullen and angry, and came to Samaria. It happened after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, "Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near to my house; and I will give you for it a better vineyard than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money." Naboth said to Ahab, "May the LORD forbid me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you." Ahab came into his house sullen and angry because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." He laid himself down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, "Why is your spirit so sad, that you eat no bread?" He said to her, "Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, 'Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it.' He answered, 'I will not give you my vineyard.'" Jezebel his wife said to him, "Do you now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be merry. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, who lived with Naboth. She wrote in the letters, saying, "Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. Set two men, base fellows, before him, and let them testify against him, saying, 'You cursed God and the king.' Then carry him out, and stone him to death." The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, according as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. The two men, the base fellows, came in and sat before him. The base fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, "Naboth cursed God and the king." Then they carried him out of the city, and stoned him to death with stones. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, "Naboth has been stoned, and is dead." It happened, when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned, and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, "Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead." It happened, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it. The word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, "Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. You shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "Have you killed and also taken possession?"' You shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours."'" Ahab said to Elijah, "Have you found me, my enemy?" He answered, "I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD. Behold, I will bring disaster on you, and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab everyone, slave or free in Israel. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah for the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger, and have made Israel to sin." The LORD also spoke of Jezebel, saying, "The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel. The dogs will eat he who dies of Ahab in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field." But there was none like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. He did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. It happened, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. The word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, "See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days will I bring the disaster on his house." They continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. It happened in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. The king of Israel said to his servants, "You know that Ramoth Gilead is ours, and we are still, and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?" He said to Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead?" Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "Please inquire first for the word of the LORD." Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, "Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?" They said, "Go up; for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king." But Jehoshaphat said, "Isn't there here a prophet of the LORD, that we may inquire of him?" The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him; for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." Jehoshaphat said, "Do not let the king say so." Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, "Quickly get Micaiah the son of Imlah." Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them. Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron, and said, "Thus says the LORD, 'With these you shall push the Syrians, until they are consumed.'" All the prophets prophesied so, saying, "Go up to Ramoth Gilead, and prosper; for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king." The messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, "See now, the prophets declare good to the king with one mouth. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak good." Micaiah said, "As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak." When he had come to the king, the king said to him, "Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear?" He answered him, "Go up and prosper; and the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king." The king said to him, "How many times do I have to adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?" He said, "I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. The LORD said, 'These have no master. Let them each return to his house in peace.'" The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?" Micaiah said, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. The LORD said, 'Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?' One said one thing; and another said another. A spirit came out and stood before the LORD, and said, 'I will entice him.' The LORD said to him, 'How?' He said, 'I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' He said, 'You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.' Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the LORD has pronounced disaster against you." Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, "Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?" Micaiah said, "Behold, you will see on that day, when you go into an inner room to hide yourself." The king of Israel said, "Take Micaiah, and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son. Say, 'Thus says the king, "Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace."'" Micaiah said, "If you return at all in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me." He said, "Listen, all you people." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but you put on your robes." The king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle. Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, except only with the king of Israel. It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, "Surely that is the king of Israel." and they turned aside to fight against him. Jehoshaphat cried out. It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. A certain man drew his bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of the armor. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, "Turn your hand, and carry me out of the battle; for I am severely wounded." The battle increased that day. The king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, and died at evening. The blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot. A cry went throughout the army about the going down of the sun, saying, "Every man to his city, and every man to his country." So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria. They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood where the prostitutes washed themselves; according to the word of the LORD which he spoke. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities that he built, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Ahab slept with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.
He reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did yet more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho: he laid its foundation with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun. Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the foreigners of Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word." And the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Go away from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, that is near the Jordan. And it shall be that you will drink from the wadi. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." So he went and did according to the word of the LORD; for he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, that is near the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening. And he drank from the wadi. And it happened after a while that the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land. The word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you." So he got up and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering wood. And he called to her, and said, "Please bring me a little water in a pitcher, that I may drink." And as she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, "Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand." She said, "As the LORD your God lives, I do not have anything baked, except a handful of flour in a jar, and a little oil in a jug. Behold, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die." And Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid. Go and do as you have said. But make me of it a little cake first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for yourself and for your son. For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'The jar of flour shall not empty, neither shall the jug of oil be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth.'" And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she, and he, and her household, ate for a long time. The jar of flour did not empty, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Elijah. It happened after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, "What do we have in common, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son." And he said to her, "Give me your son." And he took him out of her lap and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed. He cried to the LORD, and said, "LORD my God, have you also brought disaster on the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?" And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called out to the LORD, and said, "LORD my God, please let this child's soul come into him again." The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the room into the house and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, "See, your son lives." And the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth." And it happened after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, "Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth." So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. And the famine was severe in Samaria. And Ahab summoned Obadiah, the steward of the house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly. For so it was, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) And Ahab said to Obadiah, "Go through the land, to all the springs of water, and to all the wadis. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, that we not lose all the animals." So they divided the land between them to explore it; Ahab went one way alone, and Obadiah went another way alone. And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him; and he recognized him and fell on his face and said, "Is it you, my lord Elijah?" He answered him, "It is I. Go, tell your lord, 'Behold, Elijah is here.'" And he said, "How have I sinned, that you would deliver your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom, where my lord has not sent to seek you. When they said, 'He is not here,' he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they did not find you. Now you say, 'Go, tell your lord, "Behold, Elijah is here."' It will happen, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you I do not know where; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he can't find you, he will kill me. But I, your servant, have feared the LORD from my youth. Wasn't it told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid one hundred men of the LORD's prophets with fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread and water? Now you say, 'Go, tell your lord, "Behold, Elijah is here";' and he will kill me." Elijah said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to him today." So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah. It happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?" He answered, "I have not troubled Israel; but you, and your father's house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and you have followed the Baals. Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel, and four hundred fifty of the prophets of Baal, and four hundred of the prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table." So Ahab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. Elijah came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you keep limping between two positions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." But the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, "I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal's prophets are four hundred fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under. And I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under it. You call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD, and the god who answers by fire, he is God." All the people answered, "It is well said." Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one bull for yourselves, and prepare it first, for you are the majority, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it." And they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, "Baal, answer us." But there was no voice, nor any who answered. And they limped about the altar they had made. And it came about, at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, "Cry aloud, for he is a god. Maybe he is thinking about it, or he is busy, or he is on a trip, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened." And they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with swords and spears, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the offering up of the offering; but there was no voice, no answer, and no response. Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me"; and all the people came near to him. He repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down. Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, "Israel shall be your name." And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD. And he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two seahs of seed. And he arranged the wood, and cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. And he said, "Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering, and on the wood." And he said, "Do it a second time"; and they did it the second time. And he said, "Do it a third time"; and they did it the third time. And the water ran around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water. It happened at the time of the offering up of the offering, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, "LORD, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, LORD, hear me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again." Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell facedown and said, "The LORD, he is God. The LORD, he is God." And Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape." And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there. And Elijah said to Ahab, "Get up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of a heavy rain." So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down toward the ground, and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, "Go up now, look toward the sea." So he went up, and looked, and said, "There is nothing." Then he said, "Go again" seven times. It happened at the seventh time, that he said, "Behold, a small cloud, like a man's hand, is rising out of the sea." He said, "Go up, tell Ahab, 'Get ready and go down, so that the rain doesn't stop you.'" It happened in a little while, that the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel. The hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he tucked his cloak into his belt and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." And he was afraid, and he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers." He lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat." He looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, "Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you." And he got up and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the Mount of God. And there he came to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." Behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire passed; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. It was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." The LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. You shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to be prophet in your place. It shall happen, that he who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and he who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet will I leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him." So he departed there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed over to him, and cast his mantle on him. He left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me please kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." He said to him, "Go back again; for what have I done to you?" He returned from following him, and took the yoke of oxen, and killed them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they ate. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and served him. Ben Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his army together; and there were thirty-two kings with him, and horses and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it. He sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, into the city, and said to him, "Thus says Ben Hadad, 'Your silver and your gold is mine. Your wives also and your children, even the best, are mine.'" The king of Israel answered, "It is according to your saying, my lord, O king. I am yours, and all that I have." The messengers came again, and said, "Ben Hadad says, 'I sent indeed to you, saying, "You shall deliver me your silver, and your gold, and your wives, and your children; but I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your house, and the houses of your servants; and it shall be, that whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away."'" Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, "Please notice how this man seeks mischief; for he sent to me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I did not deny him." All the elders and all the people said to him, "Do not listen, neither consent." Therefore he said to the messengers of Ben Hadad, "Tell my lord the king, 'All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do; but this thing I cannot do.'" The messengers departed, and brought him back the message. Ben Hadad sent to him, and said, "The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me." The king of Israel answered, "Tell him, 'Do not let him who puts on his armor brag like he who takes it off.'" It happened, when Ben Hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the pavilions, that he said to his servants, "Prepare to attack." They prepared to attack the city. Behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel, and said, "Thus says the LORD, 'Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand this day; and you shall know that I am the LORD.'" Ahab said, "By whom?" He said, "Thus says the LORD, 'By the young men of the governors of the districts.'" Then he said, "Who shall begin the battle?" He answered, "You." Then he mustered the young men of the governors of the districts, and they were two hundred and thirty-two. After them, he mustered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand. They went out at noon. But Ben Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him. the young men of the governors of the districts went out first; and Ben Hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, "Men are coming out from Samaria." He said, "If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive." So these went out of the city, the young men of the governors of the districts, and the army which followed them. They each killed his man. The Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. Ben Hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen. The king of Israel went out, and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter. The prophet came near to the king of Israel, and said to him, "Go, strengthen yourself, and mark, and see what you do; for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against you." The servants of the king of Syria said to him, "Their god is a god of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. Do this thing: take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their place. Muster an army, like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot. We will fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than them." He listened to their voice, and did so. It happened at the return of the year, that Ben Hadad mustered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel. The children of Israel were mustered, and were provisioned, and went against them. The children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of young goats; but the Syrians filled the country. A man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because the Syrians have said, "The LORD is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys"; therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.'" They encamped one over against the other seven days. So it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel killed one hundred thousand footmen of the Syrians in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben Hadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner room. His servants said to him, "See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth on our bodies, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Maybe he will save your life." So they put sackcloth on their bodies and ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, "Your servant Ben Hadad says, 'Please let me live.'" He said, "Is he still alive? He is my brother." Now the men observed diligently, and hurried to take this phrase; and they said, "Your brother Ben Hadad." Then he said, "Go, bring him." Then Ben Hadad came out to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot. Ben Hadad said to him, "The cities which my father took from your father I will restore. You shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria." "I," said Ahab, "will let you go with this covenant." So he made a covenant with him, and let him go. A certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow by the word of the LORD, "Please strike me." The man refused to strike him. Then he said to him, "Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you are departed from me, a lion shall kill you." As soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and killed him. Then he found another man, and said, "Please strike me." The man struck him, smiting and wounding him. So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with his headband over his eyes. As the king passed by, he cried to the king; and he said, "Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man to me, and said, 'Guard this man. If by any means he be missing, then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.' As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone." The king of Israel said to him, "So your judgment shall be; you yourself have decided it." He hurried, and took the headband away from his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized that he was of the prophets. He said to him, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.'" The king of Israel went to his house sullen and angry, and came to Samaria. It happened after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, "Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near to my house; and I will give you for it a better vineyard than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money." Naboth said to Ahab, "May the LORD forbid me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you." Ahab came into his house sullen and angry because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." He laid himself down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, "Why is your spirit so sad, that you eat no bread?" He said to her, "Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, 'Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it.' He answered, 'I will not give you my vineyard.'" Jezebel his wife said to him, "Do you now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be merry. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, who lived with Naboth. She wrote in the letters, saying, "Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. Set two men, base fellows, before him, and let them testify against him, saying, 'You cursed God and the king.' Then carry him out, and stone him to death." The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, according as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. The two men, the base fellows, came in and sat before him. The base fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, "Naboth cursed God and the king." Then they carried him out of the city, and stoned him to death with stones. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, "Naboth has been stoned, and is dead." It happened, when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned, and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, "Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead." It happened, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it. The word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, "Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. You shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "Have you killed and also taken possession?"' You shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours."'" Ahab said to Elijah, "Have you found me, my enemy?" He answered, "I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD. Behold, I will bring disaster on you, and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab everyone, slave or free in Israel. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah for the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger, and have made Israel to sin." The LORD also spoke of Jezebel, saying, "The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel. The dogs will eat he who dies of Ahab in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field." But there was none like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. He did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. It happened, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. The word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, "See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days will I bring the disaster on his house." They continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. It happened in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. The king of Israel said to his servants, "You know that Ramoth Gilead is ours, and we are still, and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?" He said to Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead?" Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "Please inquire first for the word of the LORD." Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, "Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?" They said, "Go up; for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king." But Jehoshaphat said, "Isn't there here a prophet of the LORD, that we may inquire of him?" The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him; for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." Jehoshaphat said, "Do not let the king say so." Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, "Quickly get Micaiah the son of Imlah." Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them. Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron, and said, "Thus says the LORD, 'With these you shall push the Syrians, until they are consumed.'" All the prophets prophesied so, saying, "Go up to Ramoth Gilead, and prosper; for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king." The messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, "See now, the prophets declare good to the king with one mouth. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak good." Micaiah said, "As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak." When he had come to the king, the king said to him, "Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear?" He answered him, "Go up and prosper; and the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king." The king said to him, "How many times do I have to adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?" He said, "I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. The LORD said, 'These have no master. Let them each return to his house in peace.'" The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?" Micaiah said, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. The LORD said, 'Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?' One said one thing; and another said another. A spirit came out and stood before the LORD, and said, 'I will entice him.' The LORD said to him, 'How?' He said, 'I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' He said, 'You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.' Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the LORD has pronounced disaster against you." Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, "Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?" Micaiah said, "Behold, you will see on that day, when you go into an inner room to hide yourself." The king of Israel said, "Take Micaiah, and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son. Say, 'Thus says the king, "Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace."'" Micaiah said, "If you return at all in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me." He said, "Listen, all you people." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but you put on your robes." The king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle. Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, except only with the king of Israel. It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, "Surely that is the king of Israel." and they turned aside to fight against him. Jehoshaphat cried out. It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. A certain man drew his bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of the armor. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, "Turn your hand, and carry me out of the battle; for I am severely wounded." The battle increased that day. The king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, and died at evening. The blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot. A cry went throughout the army about the going down of the sun, saying, "Every man to his city, and every man to his country." So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria. They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood where the prostitutes washed themselves; according to the word of the LORD which he spoke. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities that he built, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Ahab slept with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Baasha
Even in the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha killed him, and reigned in his place. It happened that, as soon as he was king, he struck all the house of Jeroboam: he did not leave to Jeroboam any who breathed, until he had destroyed him; according to the saying of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite; for the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and with which he made Israel to sin, because of his provocation with which he provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger. read more.
Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah began to reign over all Israel in Tirzah for twenty-four years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin. The word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, "Because I exalted you out of the dust, and made you ruler over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins; behold, I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. The dogs will eat Baasha's descendants who die in the city; and he who dies of his in the field the birds of the sky will eat." Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his might, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah; and Elah his son reigned in his place. Moreover by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the word of the LORD against Baasha, and against his house, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he struck him.
Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah began to reign over all Israel in Tirzah for twenty-four years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin. The word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, "Because I exalted you out of the dust, and made you ruler over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins; behold, I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. The dogs will eat Baasha's descendants who die in the city; and he who dies of his in the field the birds of the sky will eat." Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his might, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah; and Elah his son reigned in his place. Moreover by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the word of the LORD against Baasha, and against his house, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he struck him.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Jehu
Then take the vial 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, flee, and do not wait." So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead. When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting. Then he said, "I have a message for you, captain." Jehu said, "To which of us all?" He said, "To you, O captain." read more.
He arose, and went into the house. Then he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel. You shall strike 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. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish. I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. 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. The dogs will eat Jezebel on the plot of ground of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her.'" He opened the door, and fled. Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, "Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?" He said to them, "You know the man and what his talk was." They said, "That is a lie. Tell us now." He said, "He said to me, 'Thus says the LORD, I have anointed you king over Israel.'" Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, "Jehu is king." So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria; but 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.) Jehu said, "If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel." So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram. Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, "I see a company." Joram said, "Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, 'Is it peace?'" So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu said, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me." The watchman said, "The messenger came to them, but he isn't coming back." Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu answered, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me." The watchman said, "He came to them, and isn't coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he drives furiously." Joram said, "Get ready." They got his chariot ready. 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 in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. It happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?" Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, "There is treason, Ahaziah." Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, "Pick him up, and throw him in the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how, when you and I rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden on him: 'Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,' says the LORD; 'and I will repay you in this plot of ground,' says the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to the word of the LORD." But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him, and said, "Strike him also in the chariot." They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there. His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the City of David. In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah. When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window. As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, "Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?" He lifted up his face to the window, and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. He said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses. Then he trampled her under foot. When he had come in, he ate and drink; and he said, "See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter." They went to bury her; but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, "This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of Jezreel, and the body of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, "This is Jezebel."'" Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up the sons of Ahab, saying, "Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and armor. Select the best and fittest of your master's sons, set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house." But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, "Behold, the two kings did not stand before him. How then shall we stand?" He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who raised the children, sent to Jehu, saying, "We are your servants, and will do all that you ask us. We will not make any man king. You do that which is good in your eyes." Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, "If you are on my side, and if you will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time." Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who brought them up. It happened, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and killed them, even seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezreel. A 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." It happened in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, "You are righteous. Behold, I conspired against my master, and killed him; but who struck all these? Know 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 that which he spoke by his servant Elijah." So Jehu struck all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, with all his great men, his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining. He arose and departed, and went to Samaria. As he was at the shearing house of the shepherds on the way, Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, "Who are you?" They answered, "We are the brothers of Ahaziah. We are going down to greet the children of the king and the children of the queen." He said, "Take them alive." They took them alive, and killed them at the pit of the shearing house, even forty-two men. He did not leave any of them. When he had departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. He greeted him, and said to him, "Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart?" Jehonadab answered, "It is" And Jehu said, "If it is, give me your hand." He gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot. He said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD." So he made him ride in his chariot. When he came to Samaria, he struck all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke to Elijah. Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all of his worshippers, and all of his priests. Let none be absent; for I have a great sacrifice to Baal. Whoever is absent, he shall not live." But Jehu did it in subtlety, intending that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. Jehu said, "Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal." They proclaimed it. Jehu sent through all Israel; and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that did not come. They came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one end to another. He said to him who was over the vestry, "Bring out robes for all the worshippers of Baal." He brought robes out to them. Jehu went with Jehonadab the son of Rechab into the house of Baal. Then he said to the worshippers of Baal, "Search, and look that there are here with you none of the servants of the LORD, but the worshippers of Baal only." They went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed him eighty men outside, and said, "If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, he who lets him go, his life shall be for the life of him." 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 none escape." They struck 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. They brought out the pillars that were in the house of Baal, and burned them. They broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine, to this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. However from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin, Jehu did not depart from after them, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan. The LORD said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in executing that which 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." But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin. In those days the LORD began to cut off from Israel; and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel; from 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, even Gilead and Bashan. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jehu slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria. Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place. The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
He arose, and went into the house. Then he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel. You shall strike 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. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish. I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. 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. The dogs will eat Jezebel on the plot of ground of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her.'" He opened the door, and fled. Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, "Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?" He said to them, "You know the man and what his talk was." They said, "That is a lie. Tell us now." He said, "He said to me, 'Thus says the LORD, I have anointed you king over Israel.'" Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, "Jehu is king." So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria; but 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.) Jehu said, "If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel." So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram. Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, "I see a company." Joram said, "Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, 'Is it peace?'" So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu said, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me." The watchman said, "The messenger came to them, but he isn't coming back." Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu answered, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me." The watchman said, "He came to them, and isn't coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he drives furiously." Joram said, "Get ready." They got his chariot ready. 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 in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. It happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?" Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, "There is treason, Ahaziah." Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, "Pick him up, and throw him in the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how, when you and I rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden on him: 'Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,' says the LORD; 'and I will repay you in this plot of ground,' says the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to the word of the LORD." But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him, and said, "Strike him also in the chariot." They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there. His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the City of David. In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah. When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window. As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, "Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?" He lifted up his face to the window, and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. He said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses. Then he trampled her under foot. When he had come in, he ate and drink; and he said, "See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter." They went to bury her; but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, "This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of Jezreel, and the body of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, "This is Jezebel."'" Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up the sons of Ahab, saying, "Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and armor. Select the best and fittest of your master's sons, set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house." But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, "Behold, the two kings did not stand before him. How then shall we stand?" He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who raised the children, sent to Jehu, saying, "We are your servants, and will do all that you ask us. We will not make any man king. You do that which is good in your eyes." Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, "If you are on my side, and if you will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time." Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who brought them up. It happened, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and killed them, even seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezreel. A 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." It happened in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, "You are righteous. Behold, I conspired against my master, and killed him; but who struck all these? Know 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 that which he spoke by his servant Elijah." So Jehu struck all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, with all his great men, his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining. He arose and departed, and went to Samaria. As he was at the shearing house of the shepherds on the way, Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, "Who are you?" They answered, "We are the brothers of Ahaziah. We are going down to greet the children of the king and the children of the queen." He said, "Take them alive." They took them alive, and killed them at the pit of the shearing house, even forty-two men. He did not leave any of them. When he had departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. He greeted him, and said to him, "Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart?" Jehonadab answered, "It is" And Jehu said, "If it is, give me your hand." He gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot. He said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD." So he made him ride in his chariot. When he came to Samaria, he struck all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke to Elijah. Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all of his worshippers, and all of his priests. Let none be absent; for I have a great sacrifice to Baal. Whoever is absent, he shall not live." But Jehu did it in subtlety, intending that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. Jehu said, "Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal." They proclaimed it. Jehu sent through all Israel; and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that did not come. They came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one end to another. He said to him who was over the vestry, "Bring out robes for all the worshippers of Baal." He brought robes out to them. Jehu went with Jehonadab the son of Rechab into the house of Baal. Then he said to the worshippers of Baal, "Search, and look that there are here with you none of the servants of the LORD, but the worshippers of Baal only." They went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed him eighty men outside, and said, "If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, he who lets him go, his life shall be for the life of him." 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 none escape." They struck 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. They brought out the pillars that were in the house of Baal, and burned them. They broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine, to this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. However from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin, Jehu did not depart from after them, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan. The LORD said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in executing that which 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." But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin. In those days the LORD began to cut off from Israel; and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel; from 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, even Gilead and Bashan. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jehu slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria. Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place. The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Jeroboam the second
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria for forty-one years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath Hepher. read more.
For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for there was none shut up nor left at large, neither was there any helper for Israel. The LORD did not say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under the sky; but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, for Israel, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son reigned in his place.
For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for there was none shut up nor left at large, neither was there any helper for Israel. The LORD did not say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under the sky; but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, for Israel, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son reigned in his place.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Pekahiah
In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria for two years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him, and struck him in Samaria, in the citadel of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of the Gileadites: and he killed him, and reigned in his place. read more.
Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Shallum
Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned for a month in Samaria. Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and struck Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and killed him, and reigned in his place. Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Menahem
Then Menahem struck Tiphsah, and all who were therein, and its borders, from Tirzah: because they did not open to him, therefore he struck it; and all the women therein who were with child he ripped up. In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel for ten years in Samaria. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he did not depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. read more.
There came against the land Pul the king of Assyria; and Menahem gave Pul one thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and did not stay there in the land. Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son reigned in his place.
There came against the land Pul the king of Assyria; and Menahem gave Pul one thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and did not stay there in the land. Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son reigned in his place.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Omri
In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel for twelve years. He reigned six years in Tirzah. He bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver; and he built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill, Samaria. Omri did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and dealt wickedly above all who were before him. read more.
For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins with which he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities. Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and his might that he showed, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria; and Ahab his son reigned in his place.
For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins with which he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities. Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and his might that he showed, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria; and Ahab his son reigned in his place.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Jehoram, or joram
Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like his father, and like his mother; for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he held to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from it. read more.
Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he rendered to the king of Israel the wool of one hundred thousand lambs, and of one hundred thousand rams. But it happened, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel. He went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me against Moab to battle?" He said, "I will go up. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." He said, "Which way shall we go up?" He answered, "The way of the wilderness of Edom." So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom; and they made a circuit of seven days' journey. There was no water for the army, nor for the animals that followed them. The king of Israel said, "Alas. For the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab." But Jehoshaphat said, "Isn't there here a prophet of the LORD, that we may inquire of the LORD by him?" One of the king of Israel's servants answered, "Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah." 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. 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." The king of Israel said to him, "No; for the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab." Elisha said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I respect the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward you, nor see you. But now bring me a minstrel." It happened, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came on him. He said, "Thus says the LORD, 'Make this valley full of trenches.' For thus says the LORD, 'You will not see wind, neither will you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, and you will drink, both you and your livestock and your animals. This is but a light thing in the sight of the LORD. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. You shall strike every fortified city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.'" It happened in the morning, about the time of offering the offering, that behold, water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water. Now when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, they gathered themselves together, all who were able to put on armor, and upward, and stood on the border. They rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water over against them as red as blood. They said, "This is blood. The kings are surely destroyed, and they have struck each other. Now therefore, Moab, to the spoil." When they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land smiting the Moabites. They beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land they cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the springs of water, and felled all the good trees, until in Kir Hareseth only they left its stones; however the men armed with slings went about it, and struck it. When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too severe for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew sword, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not. Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. There was great wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves." Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil." Then he said, "Go, borrow containers from of all your neighbors, even empty containers. Do not borrow just a few. You shall go in, and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour out into all those containers; and you shall set aside that which is full." So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons; they brought the containers to her, and she poured out. It happened, when the containers were full, that she said to her son, "Bring me another container." He said to her, "There isn't another container." The oil stopped flowing. Then she came and told the man of God. He said, "Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest." It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. She said to her husband, "See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually. Please let us make a little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there." One day he came there, and he turned into the room and lay there. He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she stood before him. He said to him, "Say now to her, 'Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?'" She answered, "I dwell among my own people." He said, "What then is to be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old." He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the door. He said, "At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid." The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her. When the child was grown, it happened one day that he went out to his father to the reapers. He said to his father, "My head. My head." He said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother." When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went out. She called to her husband, and said, "Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God, and come again." He said, "Why would you want to go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She said, "It's alright." Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, "Drive, and go forward. Do not slow down for me, unless I ask you to." So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. It happened, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, "Behold, there is the Shunammite. Please run now to meet her, and ask her, 'Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?'" She answered, "It is well." When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, "Leave her alone; for her soul is troubled within her; and the LORD has hidden it from me, and has not told me." Then she said, "Did I ask a son from my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?" Then he said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him again. Then lay my staff on the face of the child." The mother of the child said, "As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." He arose, and followed her. Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, "The child has not awakened." When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lay on his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to the LORD. He went up, and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child grew warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. He called Gehazi, and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, "Take up your son." Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out. Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, "Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets." One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of stew; for they did not recognize them. So they poured out for the men to eat. It happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, "Man of God, there is death in the pot." They could not eat of it. But he said, "Then bring meal." He cast it into the pot; and he said, "Pour out for the people, that they may eat." There was no harm in the pot. A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, "Give to the people, that they may eat." His servant said, "What, should I set this before a hundred men?" But he said, "Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says the LORD, 'They will eat, and will have some left over.'" So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to the word of the LORD. Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria. Then he would heal him of his leprosy." Someone went in, and told his lord, saying, "The maiden who is from the land of Israel said this." The king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "Now when this letter has come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy." It happened, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he tore his clothes, and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me." It was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean." But Naaman was angry, 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 wave his hand over the place, and heal the leper.' Aren't Abanah 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 went away in a rage. His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, "My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean?'" Then went he down, and dipped himself 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. He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, "See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant." But he said, "As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none." He urged him to take it; but he refused. Naaman said, "If not, then, please let two mules' burden of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will from now on offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD. In this thing may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, may the LORD pardon your servant in this thing." He said to him, "Go in peace." So he departed from him a little way. But Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, "Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him, and take something from him." So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him, and said, "Is all well?" He said, "All is well. My master has sent me, saying, 'Behold, even 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 clothing.'" Naaman said, "Be pleased to take two talents." He urged him, and bound 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 him. When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, "Where did you come from, Gehazi?" He said, "Your servant went nowhere." He said to him, "Did not my heart go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive groves and vineyards, and sheep and cattle, and male servants and female servants? Therefore the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your seed forever." He went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow. The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "See now, the place where we dwell before you is too small for us. Please let us go to the Jordan, and every man take a beam from there, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell." He answered, "Go." One said, "Please be pleased to go with your servants." He answered, "I will go." So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water. Then he cried, and said, "Alas, my master. For it was borrowed." The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" He showed him the place. He cut down a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float. He said, "Take it." So he put out his hand and took it. Now the king of Syria was warring against Israel; and he took counsel with his servants, saying, "My camp will be in such and such a place." The man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, "Beware that you not pass such a place; for the Syrians are coming down there." The king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of; and he saved himself there, not once nor twice. The heart of the king of Syria was very troubled about this. He called his servants, and said to them, "Won't you show me which of us is for the king of Israel?" One of his servants said, "No, 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." He said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him." It was told him, saying, "Behold, he is in Dothan." Therefore he sent horses, chariots, and a great army there. They came by night, and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God had risen early, and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was around the city. His servant said to him, "Alas, my master. What shall we do?" He answered, "Do not be afraid; for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "LORD, please open his eyes, that he may see." The LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, "Please strike this people with blindness." He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. Elisha said to them, "This is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek." He led them to Samaria. It happened, when they had come into Samaria, that Elisha said, "LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see." The LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. The king of Israel said to Elisha, when he saw them, "My father, shall I strike them? Shall I strike them?" He answered, "You shall not strike them. Would you strike 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." He prepared great feast for them. When they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. The bands of Syria stopped raiding the land of Israel. It happened after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. There was a great famine in Samaria. Behold, they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king." He said, "If the LORD doesn't help you, from where could I help you? From of the threshing floor, or from the winepress?" The king said to her, "What ails you?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' So we boiled my son, and ate him: and I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him;' and she has hidden her son." It happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes (now he was passing by on the wall); and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth underneath on his flesh. Then he said, "God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stay on him this day." But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Then the king sent a man from before him; but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, "Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Behold, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door shut against him. Isn't the sound of his master's feet behind him?" While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him. Then he said, "Behold, this disaster is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?" Elisha said, "Hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the LORD, 'Tomorrow about this time a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.'" Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, "Behold, if the LORD made windows in heaven, could this thing be?" He said, "Behold, you shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat of it." Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. They said one to another, "Why do we sit here until we die? If we say, 'We will enter into the city,' then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. If we sit still here, we also die. Now therefore come, and let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die." They rose up in the twilight, to go to the camp of the Syrians. When they had come to the outermost part of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great army: and they said one to another, Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come on us. Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their donkeys, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. When these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drink, and carried there silver, and gold, and clothing, and went and hid it. Then they came back, and entered into another tent, and carried there also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, "We aren't doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we keep silent. If we wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household." So they came and called to the gatekeepers 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 the horses tied, and the donkeys tied, and the tents as they were." The gatekeepers called out, and it was reported to the king's household within. The king arose in the night, and said to his servants, "I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are 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 take them alive, and get into the city.'" One of his servants answered, "Please let some take five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel who are left in it. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel who are consumed. Let us send and see." They took therefore two chariots with horses; and the king sent after the army of the Syrians, saying, "Go and see." They went after them to the Jordan; and behold, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. The messengers returned, and told the king. The people went out, and plundered the camp 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. The king appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to be in charge of the gate: and the people trod on him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him. It happened, 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 tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria"; and that captain 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, you shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat of it." It happened like that to him; for the people trod on him in the gate, and he died. Now Elisha had spoken to the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, "Arise, and go, you and your household, and stay for a while wherever you can; for the LORD has called for a famine. It shall also come on the land seven years." The woman arose, and did according to the word of the man of God. She went with her household, and lived in the land of the Philistines seven years. It happened at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines. Then she went forth to cry to the king for her house and for her land. Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, "Please tell me all the great things that Elisha has done." It happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored to life him who was dead, that behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. Gehazi said, "My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life." When the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed to 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." Elisha came to Damascus; and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick. It was told him, saying, "The man of God has come here." The king said to Hazael, "Take a present in your hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD by him, saying, 'Will I recover from this sickness?'" So 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, "Your son Benhadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, 'Will I recover from this sickness?'" Elisha said to him, "Go, tell him, 'You shall surely recover;' however the LORD has shown me that he shall surely die." He settled his gaze steadfastly on him, until he was ashamed. Then the man of God wept. Hazael said, "Why do you weep, my lord?" He answered, "Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child." Hazael said, "But 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 will be king over Syria." Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said to him, "What did Elisha say to you?" He answered, "He told me that you would surely recover." It happened on the next day, that he took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died. Then Hazael reigned in his place. In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being king of Judah then, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign. He reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab; for he had the daughter of Ahab as wife. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. However the LORD would not destroy Judah, for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always. In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves. Then Joram passed over to Zair, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and struck the Edomites who surrounded him, and the captains of the chariots; and the people fled to their tents. So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time. The rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place. In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. Twenty-two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel. He walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did that which was 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. He went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth Gilead: and the Syrians wounded Joram. King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick. Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, "Put your belt on your waist, take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead. When you come there, find Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brothers, and carry him to an inner room. Then take the vial 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, flee, and do not wait." So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead. When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting. Then he said, "I have a message for you, captain." Jehu said, "To which of us all?" He said, "To you, O captain." He arose, and went into the house. Then he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel. You shall strike 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. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish. I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. 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. The dogs will eat Jezebel on the plot of ground of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her.'" He opened the door, and fled. Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, "Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?" He said to them, "You know the man and what his talk was." They said, "That is a lie. Tell us now." He said, "He said to me, 'Thus says the LORD, I have anointed you king over Israel.'" Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, "Jehu is king." So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria; but 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.) Jehu said, "If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel." So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram. Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, "I see a company." Joram said, "Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, 'Is it peace?'" So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu said, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me." The watchman said, "The messenger came to them, but he isn't coming back." Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu answered, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me." The watchman said, "He came to them, and isn't coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he drives furiously." Joram said, "Get ready." They got his chariot ready. 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 in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. It happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?" Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, "There is treason, Ahaziah." Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, "Pick him up, and throw him in the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how, when you and I rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden on him: 'Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,' says the LORD; 'and I will repay you in this plot of ground,' says the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to the word of the LORD."
Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he rendered to the king of Israel the wool of one hundred thousand lambs, and of one hundred thousand rams. But it happened, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel. He went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me against Moab to battle?" He said, "I will go up. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." He said, "Which way shall we go up?" He answered, "The way of the wilderness of Edom." So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom; and they made a circuit of seven days' journey. There was no water for the army, nor for the animals that followed them. The king of Israel said, "Alas. For the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab." But Jehoshaphat said, "Isn't there here a prophet of the LORD, that we may inquire of the LORD by him?" One of the king of Israel's servants answered, "Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah." 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. 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." The king of Israel said to him, "No; for the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab." Elisha said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I respect the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward you, nor see you. But now bring me a minstrel." It happened, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came on him. He said, "Thus says the LORD, 'Make this valley full of trenches.' For thus says the LORD, 'You will not see wind, neither will you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, and you will drink, both you and your livestock and your animals. This is but a light thing in the sight of the LORD. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. You shall strike every fortified city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.'" It happened in the morning, about the time of offering the offering, that behold, water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water. Now when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, they gathered themselves together, all who were able to put on armor, and upward, and stood on the border. They rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water over against them as red as blood. They said, "This is blood. The kings are surely destroyed, and they have struck each other. Now therefore, Moab, to the spoil." When they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land smiting the Moabites. They beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land they cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the springs of water, and felled all the good trees, until in Kir Hareseth only they left its stones; however the men armed with slings went about it, and struck it. When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too severe for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew sword, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not. Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. There was great wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves." Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil." Then he said, "Go, borrow containers from of all your neighbors, even empty containers. Do not borrow just a few. You shall go in, and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour out into all those containers; and you shall set aside that which is full." So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons; they brought the containers to her, and she poured out. It happened, when the containers were full, that she said to her son, "Bring me another container." He said to her, "There isn't another container." The oil stopped flowing. Then she came and told the man of God. He said, "Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest." It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. She said to her husband, "See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually. Please let us make a little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there." One day he came there, and he turned into the room and lay there. He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she stood before him. He said to him, "Say now to her, 'Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?'" She answered, "I dwell among my own people." He said, "What then is to be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old." He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the door. He said, "At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid." The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her. When the child was grown, it happened one day that he went out to his father to the reapers. He said to his father, "My head. My head." He said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother." When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went out. She called to her husband, and said, "Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God, and come again." He said, "Why would you want to go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She said, "It's alright." Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, "Drive, and go forward. Do not slow down for me, unless I ask you to." So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. It happened, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, "Behold, there is the Shunammite. Please run now to meet her, and ask her, 'Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?'" She answered, "It is well." When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, "Leave her alone; for her soul is troubled within her; and the LORD has hidden it from me, and has not told me." Then she said, "Did I ask a son from my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?" Then he said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him again. Then lay my staff on the face of the child." The mother of the child said, "As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." He arose, and followed her. Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, "The child has not awakened." When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lay on his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to the LORD. He went up, and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child grew warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. He called Gehazi, and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, "Take up your son." Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out. Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, "Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets." One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of stew; for they did not recognize them. So they poured out for the men to eat. It happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, "Man of God, there is death in the pot." They could not eat of it. But he said, "Then bring meal." He cast it into the pot; and he said, "Pour out for the people, that they may eat." There was no harm in the pot. A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, "Give to the people, that they may eat." His servant said, "What, should I set this before a hundred men?" But he said, "Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says the LORD, 'They will eat, and will have some left over.'" So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to the word of the LORD. Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria. Then he would heal him of his leprosy." Someone went in, and told his lord, saying, "The maiden who is from the land of Israel said this." The king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "Now when this letter has come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy." It happened, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he tore his clothes, and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me." It was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean." But Naaman was angry, 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 wave his hand over the place, and heal the leper.' Aren't Abanah 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 went away in a rage. His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, "My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean?'" Then went he down, and dipped himself 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. He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, "See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant." But he said, "As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none." He urged him to take it; but he refused. Naaman said, "If not, then, please let two mules' burden of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will from now on offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD. In this thing may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, may the LORD pardon your servant in this thing." He said to him, "Go in peace." So he departed from him a little way. But Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, "Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him, and take something from him." So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him, and said, "Is all well?" He said, "All is well. My master has sent me, saying, 'Behold, even 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 clothing.'" Naaman said, "Be pleased to take two talents." He urged him, and bound 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 him. When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, "Where did you come from, Gehazi?" He said, "Your servant went nowhere." He said to him, "Did not my heart go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive groves and vineyards, and sheep and cattle, and male servants and female servants? Therefore the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your seed forever." He went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow. The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "See now, the place where we dwell before you is too small for us. Please let us go to the Jordan, and every man take a beam from there, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell." He answered, "Go." One said, "Please be pleased to go with your servants." He answered, "I will go." So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water. Then he cried, and said, "Alas, my master. For it was borrowed." The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" He showed him the place. He cut down a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float. He said, "Take it." So he put out his hand and took it. Now the king of Syria was warring against Israel; and he took counsel with his servants, saying, "My camp will be in such and such a place." The man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, "Beware that you not pass such a place; for the Syrians are coming down there." The king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of; and he saved himself there, not once nor twice. The heart of the king of Syria was very troubled about this. He called his servants, and said to them, "Won't you show me which of us is for the king of Israel?" One of his servants said, "No, 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." He said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him." It was told him, saying, "Behold, he is in Dothan." Therefore he sent horses, chariots, and a great army there. They came by night, and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God had risen early, and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was around the city. His servant said to him, "Alas, my master. What shall we do?" He answered, "Do not be afraid; for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "LORD, please open his eyes, that he may see." The LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, "Please strike this people with blindness." He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. Elisha said to them, "This is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek." He led them to Samaria. It happened, when they had come into Samaria, that Elisha said, "LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see." The LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. The king of Israel said to Elisha, when he saw them, "My father, shall I strike them? Shall I strike them?" He answered, "You shall not strike them. Would you strike 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." He prepared great feast for them. When they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. The bands of Syria stopped raiding the land of Israel. It happened after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. There was a great famine in Samaria. Behold, they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king." He said, "If the LORD doesn't help you, from where could I help you? From of the threshing floor, or from the winepress?" The king said to her, "What ails you?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' So we boiled my son, and ate him: and I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him;' and she has hidden her son." It happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes (now he was passing by on the wall); and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth underneath on his flesh. Then he said, "God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stay on him this day." But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Then the king sent a man from before him; but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, "Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Behold, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door shut against him. Isn't the sound of his master's feet behind him?" While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him. Then he said, "Behold, this disaster is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?" Elisha said, "Hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the LORD, 'Tomorrow about this time a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.'" Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, "Behold, if the LORD made windows in heaven, could this thing be?" He said, "Behold, you shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat of it." Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. They said one to another, "Why do we sit here until we die? If we say, 'We will enter into the city,' then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. If we sit still here, we also die. Now therefore come, and let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die." They rose up in the twilight, to go to the camp of the Syrians. When they had come to the outermost part of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great army: and they said one to another, Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come on us. Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their donkeys, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. When these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drink, and carried there silver, and gold, and clothing, and went and hid it. Then they came back, and entered into another tent, and carried there also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, "We aren't doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we keep silent. If we wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household." So they came and called to the gatekeepers 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 the horses tied, and the donkeys tied, and the tents as they were." The gatekeepers called out, and it was reported to the king's household within. The king arose in the night, and said to his servants, "I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are 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 take them alive, and get into the city.'" One of his servants answered, "Please let some take five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel who are left in it. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel who are consumed. Let us send and see." They took therefore two chariots with horses; and the king sent after the army of the Syrians, saying, "Go and see." They went after them to the Jordan; and behold, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. The messengers returned, and told the king. The people went out, and plundered the camp 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. The king appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to be in charge of the gate: and the people trod on him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him. It happened, 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 tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria"; and that captain 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, you shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat of it." It happened like that to him; for the people trod on him in the gate, and he died. Now Elisha had spoken to the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, "Arise, and go, you and your household, and stay for a while wherever you can; for the LORD has called for a famine. It shall also come on the land seven years." The woman arose, and did according to the word of the man of God. She went with her household, and lived in the land of the Philistines seven years. It happened at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines. Then she went forth to cry to the king for her house and for her land. Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, "Please tell me all the great things that Elisha has done." It happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored to life him who was dead, that behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. Gehazi said, "My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life." When the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed to 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." Elisha came to Damascus; and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick. It was told him, saying, "The man of God has come here." The king said to Hazael, "Take a present in your hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD by him, saying, 'Will I recover from this sickness?'" So 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, "Your son Benhadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, 'Will I recover from this sickness?'" Elisha said to him, "Go, tell him, 'You shall surely recover;' however the LORD has shown me that he shall surely die." He settled his gaze steadfastly on him, until he was ashamed. Then the man of God wept. Hazael said, "Why do you weep, my lord?" He answered, "Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child." Hazael said, "But 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 will be king over Syria." Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said to him, "What did Elisha say to you?" He answered, "He told me that you would surely recover." It happened on the next day, that he took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died. Then Hazael reigned in his place. In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being king of Judah then, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign. He reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab; for he had the daughter of Ahab as wife. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. However the LORD would not destroy Judah, for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always. In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves. Then Joram passed over to Zair, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and struck the Edomites who surrounded him, and the captains of the chariots; and the people fled to their tents. So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time. The rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place. In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. Twenty-two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel. He walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did that which was 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. He went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth Gilead: and the Syrians wounded Joram. King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick. Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, "Put your belt on your waist, take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead. When you come there, find Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brothers, and carry him to an inner room. Then take the vial 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, flee, and do not wait." So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead. When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting. Then he said, "I have a message for you, captain." Jehu said, "To which of us all?" He said, "To you, O captain." He arose, and went into the house. Then he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel. You shall strike 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. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish. I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. 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. The dogs will eat Jezebel on the plot of ground of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her.'" He opened the door, and fled. Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, "Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?" He said to them, "You know the man and what his talk was." They said, "That is a lie. Tell us now." He said, "He said to me, 'Thus says the LORD, I have anointed you king over Israel.'" Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, "Jehu is king." So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria; but 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.) Jehu said, "If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel." So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram. Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, "I see a company." Joram said, "Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, 'Is it peace?'" So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu said, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me." The watchman said, "The messenger came to them, but he isn't coming back." Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu answered, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me." The watchman said, "He came to them, and isn't coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he drives furiously." Joram said, "Get ready." They got his chariot ready. 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 in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. It happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?" Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, "There is treason, Ahaziah." Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, "Pick him up, and throw him in the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how, when you and I rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden on him: 'Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,' says the LORD; 'and I will repay you in this plot of ground,' says the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to the word of the LORD."
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Zachariah
In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done: he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and struck him before the people, and killed him, and reigned in his place. read more.
Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. This was the word of the LORD which he spoke to Jehu, saying, "Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel." So it came to pass.
Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. This was the word of the LORD which he spoke to Jehu, saying, "Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel." So it came to pass.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Elah
In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah for two years. His servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him. Now he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah. And Zimri went in and struck him, and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place. read more.
It happened, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he struck all the house of Baasha: he did not leave him a single one who urinates on a wall, neither of his relatives, nor of his friends. Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, for all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, which they sinned, and with which they made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities. Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
It happened, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he struck all the house of Baasha: he did not leave him a single one who urinates on a wall, neither of his relatives, nor of his friends. Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, for all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, which they sinned, and with which they made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities. Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Hoshea
In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel for nine years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him tribute. read more.
The king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
The king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Kings » Who reigned over israel » Jehoahaz
In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria for seventeen years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from it. The anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, continually. read more.
Jehoahaz begged the LORD, and the LORD listened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how that the king of Syria oppressed them. (The LORD gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel lived in their tents as before. Nevertheless they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin, but walked therein: and there remained the Asherah also in Samaria.) For he did not leave to Jehoahaz of the people any more than fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria: and Joash his son reigned in his place.
Jehoahaz begged the LORD, and the LORD listened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how that the king of Syria oppressed them. (The LORD gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel lived in their tents as before. Nevertheless they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin, but walked therein: and there remained the Asherah also in Samaria.) For he did not leave to Jehoahaz of the people any more than fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria: and Joash his son reigned in his place.