But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’

Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘You [Ahaziah] will not leave the bed on which you lie, but you will certainly die.’” So Elijah departed.

They replied, “A man came up to meet us and said to us, ‘Go, return to the king who sent you and tell him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you send to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed on which you lie, but you will certainly die.’”’”

Then Elijah said to Ahaziah, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Since you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, god of Ekron—is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word?—therefore you will not leave the bed on which you lie, but will certainly die.’”

So Ahaziah [the son of King Ahab] died in accordance with the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And because he had no son, Jehoram [his younger brother] became king [of Israel, the northern kingdom] in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah [the southern kingdom].

And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

Elijah said to him, “Elisha, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho.

Elijah said to him, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on.

He said, “You have asked for a difficult thing. However, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.”

But when they urged him until he was embarrassed [to refuse them], he said, “Send them.” So they sent fifty men, and they searched for three days but did not find Elijah.

Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, this city is in a pleasant place, as my lord [Elisha] sees; but the water is bad and the land is barren.”

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not like his father and mother; for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made.

But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. They made a circuit of seven days’ journey, but there was no water for the army or for the cattle that followed them.

But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here from whom we may inquire of the Lord?” One of the servants of the king of Israel answered, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water over Elijah’s hands.”

Now Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What business do you have with me? Go to the prophets of your [wicked] father [Ahab] and to the prophets of your [pagan] mother [Jezebel].” But the king of Israel said to him, “No, for the Lord has called these three kings together to be handed over to Moab.”

But now bring me a musician.” And it came about while the musician played, that the hand (power) of the Lord came upon Elisha.

This is but a simple thing in the sight of the Lord; He will also hand over the Moabites to you.

But 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, killing the Moabites [as they went].

When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not.

Now one of the wives of a man of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha [for help], saying “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant [reverently] feared the Lord; but the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves [in payment for a loan].”

But the woman conceived and gave birth to a son at that season the next year, just as Elisha had said to her.

But he said to his father, “My head, my head.” The man said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

When she came to the mountain to the man of God, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away; but the man of God said, “Let her alone, for her soul is desperate and troubled within her; and the Lord has hidden the reason from me and has not told me.”

Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response [from the boy]. So he turned back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened (revived).”

So they served it for the men to eat. But as they ate the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot.” And they could not eat it.

But he said, “Bring flour.” And he threw it into the pot and said, “Serve it for the people so that they may eat.” Then there was nothing harmful in the pot.

Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram (Syria), was considered a great man by his king, and was highly respected because through Naaman the Lord had given victory to Aram (Syria). He was also a man of courage, but he was a leper.

But Naaman was furious and went away and said, “Indeed! I thought ‘He would at least come out to [see] me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place [of leprosy] and heal the leper.’

Then Naaman returned to the man of God, he and all the people in his group, and stood before him. He said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; so now accept a blessing and gift from your servant.”

But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will accept nothing.” He urged him to take it, but Elisha refused.

Naaman said, “If not, then please, let your servant be given a load of earth for a team of mules; for [from this day on] your servant will no longer offer a burnt offering nor a sacrifice to other gods, but only to the Lord, [the God of Israel].

when Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “My master has spared this Naaman the Aramean (Syrian), by not accepting from him what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.”

But it happened that as one was cutting down a beam, the axe head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Oh no, my master! It was borrowed!”

One of his servants said, “None [of us is helping him], 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.”

So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give your son so that we may eat him’; but she had hidden her son.”

Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man ahead of him [to behead Elisha]; but before the messenger arrived, Elisha told the elders, “Do you see how this son of [Jezebel] a murderer has sent [a man] to remove my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it securely against him. Is not the sound of his master’s feet [just] behind him?”

Then the royal officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “If the Lord should make windows in heaven [for the rain], could this thing take place?” Elisha said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but [because you doubt] you will not eat of it.”

If we say, ‘We will enter the city’—then the famine is in the city and we will die there; and if we sit still here, we will also die. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans (Syrians). If they let us live, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die.”

So they got up at twilight to go to the Aramean camp. But when they came to the edge of the camp, there was no one there.

The royal officer had answered the man of God and said, “Now behold, [even] if the Lord should make windows in heaven, could such a thing happen?” And Elisha had answered, “You will see it with your own eyes, but [because of your doubt] you will not eat it.”

And Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You will certainly recover,’ but the Lord has shown me that he will certainly die.”

But the next day Hazael took the bedspread and dipped it in water and covered the king’s face, so that he died. And Hazael became king in his place.

but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to heal from the wounds which the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Aram. So Jehu said, “If this is your intent, let no one survive and leave the city (Ramoth-gilead) to go and tell of the plan in Jezreel [the capital].”

So the horseman went to meet him and said, “Thus says the king: ‘Do you come in peace?’” And Jehu said, “What have you to do with peace? Rein in behind me.” And the watchman reported, “The messenger approached them, but he has not returned.”

And the watchman reported, “He approached them, but he has not returned; and the driving [of the chariot] is like that of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.”

But Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and shot Joram between his shoulders; and the arrow went out through his heart and he sank down in his chariot.

They went to bury her, but they found nothing left of her except the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.

But they were extremely afraid and said, “Look, the two kings did not stand before Jehu; so how can we stand?”

And the one who was in charge of the household, and the one who was overseer of the city, the elders, and the guardians [of the children] sent word to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants and we will do whatever you tell us, but we will not make any man king; do what is good in your eyes.”

The next morning he went out and stood and said to all the people, “You are just and innocent; behold, I conspired against [Joram] my master and killed him, but who killed all these?

Jehu assembled all the people and said [in pretense] to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much [more].

Now, summon unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers and all his priests. Let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal; whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu did it with trickery, in order to destroy the worshipers of Baal.

Then Jehu with Jehonadab the son of Rechab went into the house of Baal; and he said to the worshipers of Baal, “Search carefully and see that there are no servants of the Lord here with you, but only the worshipers of Baal.”

However, Jehu did not turn from the [idolatrous] sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, that is, [led them to worship] the golden calves which were at Bethel and Dan.

But Jehu did not take care to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart; he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin.

But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram [of Judah and half] sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and abducted him from among the king’s sons who were to be killed, and hid him and his nurse in the bedroom. So they hid him from Athaliah, and he was not put to death.

But it came about in the twenty-third year of [the reign of] King Jehoash, that the priests still had not repaired the damages of the Lord’s house.

Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest and the [other] priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the damage of the house (temple)? Now then, do not take any more money from your acquaintances, but turn it all over for [the repair of] the damages of the house.” [You are no longer responsible for this work. I will take it into my own hands.]

but they gave that to those who did the work, and with it they repaired the house of the Lord.

But Jehoahaz sought the favor of the Lord, and the Lord listened to him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Aram oppressed them.

Yet they did not turn from the [idolatrous] sins of the [royal] house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin; but walked in them. And the Asherah [set up by Ahab] also remained standing in Samaria [Israel’s capital].

So the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Aram until you had destroyed it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times.”

But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned toward them for the sake of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He was unwilling to destroy them, and did not cast them from His presence until now.

However, the high places were not removed; the people were still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

But he did not put the sons of the murderers to death, in compliance with what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, in which the Lord commanded, saying, “The fathers shall not be put to death for the sons, nor shall the sons be put to death for the fathers; but each shall be put to death [only] for his own sin.”

But Amaziah would not listen. So Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other [in combat] at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah.

Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to his tent.

Now a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, and Amaziah fled [south] to Lachish; but they sent [men] after him to Lachish and killed him there.

But the Lord had not said that He would blot out the name of Israel from under the heavens, so He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam [II] the son of Joash [king of Israel].

But Pekah the son of Remaliah, his officer, conspired against Pekahiah and struck him in Samaria, in the citadel of the king’s house, with Argob and Arieh; and with Pekah were fifty Gileadites. So he killed Pekahiah and became king in his place.

Instead he walked in the way of the [idolatrous] kings of Israel, and even made his son pass through the fire [as a human sacrifice], in accordance with the repulsive [and idolatrous] practices of the [pagan] nations whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.

Then Rezin the king of Aram (Syria) and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war. They besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome and conquer him.

Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “Upon the great [new] altar, burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offering and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on the new altar all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the [old] bronze altar shall be kept for me to use to examine the sacrifices.”

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who came before him.

But the king of Assyria discovered a conspiracy in Hoshea, who 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 arrested him and bound him in prison.

However they did not listen, but stiffened their necks as did their fathers who did not believe (trust in, rely on, remain steadfast to) the Lord their God.

Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none [of the tribes] was left except the tribe of Judah.

Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God either, but walked in the customs which Israel introduced.

But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the houses (shrines) of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they lived.

But the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice.

But the Lord your God you shall fear [and worship]; then He will rescue you from the hands of all your enemies.”

However, they did not listen, but they acted in accordance with their former custom.

He removed the high places [of pagan worship], broke down the images (memorial stones) and cut down the Asherim. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the Israelites had burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan [a bronze sculpture].

For he clung to the Lord; he did not turn away from [faithfully] following Him, but he kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.

because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but broke His covenant, everything that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded; and they would not listen nor do it.

You say (but they are only empty words) ‘I have counsel and strength for the war.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?

But if you tell me, ‘We trust in and rely on the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship [only] before this altar in Jerusalem’?

But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to say these things? Has he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall, [who are doomed by the siege] to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you?”

But the people kept silent and did not answer him, for the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

and have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not [real] gods but [only] the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they [could destroy them and] have destroyed them.

‘Have you not heard [asks the God of Israel]?
Long ago I did it;
From ancient times I planned it.
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you [king of Assyria] should [be My instrument to] turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

‘But I [the Lord] know your sitting down [O Sennacherib],
Your going out, your coming in,
And your raging against Me.

‘Then this shall be the sign [of these things] to you [Hezekiah]: this year you will eat what grows of itself, in the second year what springs up voluntarily, and in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

But they did not listen; and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons (descendants) of Israel.

He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Manasseh had done.

Then the people of the land [of Judah] killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.

But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, you shall say this to him: ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Regarding the words which you have heard,

However, the priests of the high places were not allowed to go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem [to serve], but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.

But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover to the Lord was kept in Jerusalem.