The king sent a captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. The captain went up to him, while he was sitting on the top of a hill. He told him, "Prophet, the king says, 'Come down!'"

Elijah replied to the captain, "If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!" Fire then came down from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

The king sent another captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. He went up and told him, "Prophet, this is what the king says, 'Come down at once!'"

Elijah replied to them, "If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!" Fire from God came down from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

Indeed, fire came down from the sky and consumed the two captains who came before me, along with their men. So now, please have respect for my life."

The Lord's angelic messenger said to Elijah, "Go down with him. Don't be afraid of him." So he got up and went down with him to the king.

Elijah told Elisha, "Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel." But Elisha said, "As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.

Elijah replied, "That's a difficult request! If you see me taken from you, may it be so, but if you don't, it will not happen."

When the members of the prophetic guild in Jericho, who were standing at a distance, saw him do this, they said, "The spirit that energized Elijah rests upon Elisha." They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.

They said to him, "Look, there are fifty capable men with your servants. Let them go and look for your master, for the wind sent from the Lord may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys." But Elisha replied, "Don't send them out."

When they came back, Elisha was staying in Jericho. He said to them, "Didn't I tell you, 'Don't go'?"

When he turned around and saw them, he called God's judgment down on them. Two female bears came out of the woods and ripped forty-two of the boys to pieces.

Jehoshaphat said, "The Lord speaks through him." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to visit him.

You will defeat every fortified city and every important city. You must chop down every productive tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones."

Sure enough, the next morning, at the time of the morning sacrifice, water came flowing down from Edom and filled the land.

The Moabites said, "It's blood! The kings are totally destroyed! They have struck one another down! Now, Moab, seize the plunder!"

When they approached the Israelite camp, the Israelites rose up and struck down the Moabites, who then ran from them. The Israelites thoroughly defeated Moab.

They tore down the cities and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree. Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

She went up and laid him down on the prophet's bed. She shut the door behind her and left.

She said, "Did I ask my master for a son? Didn't I say, 'Don't mislead me?'"

Elisha told Gehazi, "Tuck your robes into your belt, take my staff, and go! Don't stop to exchange greetings with anyone! Place my staff on the child's face."

He got up on the bed and spread his body out over the boy; he put his mouth on the boy's mouth, his eyes over the boy's eyes, and the palms of his hands against the boy's palms. He bent down over him, and the boy's skin grew warm.

Elisha went back and walked around in the house. Then he got up on the bed again and bent down over him. The child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed down. Then she picked up her son and left.

The king of Syria said, "Go! I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten suits of clothes.

So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times, as the prophet had instructed. His skin became as smooth as a young child's and he was healed.

May the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to worship, and he leans on my arm and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this."

So Gehazi ran after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him and asked, "Is everything all right?"

Elisha replied, "I was there in spirit when a man turned and got down from his chariot to meet you. This is not the proper time to accept silver or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and male and female servants.

So he went with them. When they arrived at the Jordan, they started cutting down trees.

But the prophet sent this message to the king of Israel, "Make sure you don't pass through this place because Syria is invading there."

He replied, "Don't be afraid, for our side outnumbers them."

When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, "Should I strike them down, my master?"

He replied, "Do not strike them down! You did not capture them with your sword or bow, so what gives you the right to strike them down? Give them some food and water, so they can eat and drink and then go back to their master."

Then they said to one another, "It's not right what we're doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven't told anyone. If we wait until dawn, we'll be punished. So come on, let's go and inform the royal palace."

The king got up in the night and said to his advisers, "I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, 'When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.'"

Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the prophet's servant, and said, "Tell me all the great things which Elisha has done."

He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab's dynasty had done, for he married Ahab's daughter. He did evil in the sight of the Lord.

King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians in Ramah when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. King Ahaziah son of Jehoram of Judah went down to visit Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was ill.

But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. Jehu told his supporters, "If you really want me to be king, then don't let anyone escape from the city to go and warn Jezreel."

Jehu drove his chariot to Jezreel, for Joram was recuperating there. (Now King Ahaziah of Judah had come down to visit Joram.)

He looked up at the window and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked down at him.

He said, "Throw her down!" So they threw her down, and when she hit the ground, her blood splattered against the wall and the horses, and Jehu drove his chariot over her.

In the morning he went out and stood there. Then he said to all the people, "You are innocent. I conspired against my master and killed him. But who struck down all of these men?

Therefore take note that not one of the judgments the Lord announced against Ahab's dynasty has failed to materialize. The Lord had done what he announced through his servant Elijah."

Jehu encountered the relatives of King Ahaziah of Judah. He asked, "Who are you?" They replied, "We are Ahaziah's relatives. We have come down to see how the king's sons and the queen mother's sons are doing."

When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard and officers, "Come in and strike them down! Don't let any escape!" So the royal guard and officers struck them down with the sword and left their bodies lying there. Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal.

However, Jehu did not repudiate the sins which Jeroboam son of Nebat had encouraged Israel to commit; the golden calves remained in Bethel and Dan.

The Lord said to Jehu, "You have done well. You have accomplished my will and carried out my wishes with regard to Ahab's dynasty. Therefore four generations of your descendants will rule over Israel."

He took the officers of the units of hundreds, the Carians, the royal bodyguard, and all the people of land, and together they led the king down from the Lord's temple. They entered the royal palace through the Gate of the Royal Bodyguard, and the king sat down on the royal throne.

His servants conspired against him and murdered Joash at Beth-Millo, on the road that goes down to Silla.

Jehoahaz had no army left except for fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and 10,000 foot soldiers. The king of Syria had destroyed his troops and trampled on them like dust.

Now Elisha had a terminal illness. King Joash of Israel went down to visit him. He wept before him and said, "My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!"

King Jehoash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah, "A thornbush in Lebanon sent this message to a cedar in Lebanon, 'Give your daughter to my son as a wife.' Then a wild animal of Lebanon came by and trampled down the thorn.

You thoroughly defeated Edom and it has gone to your head! Gloat over your success, but stay in your palace. Why bring calamity on yourself? Why bring down yourself and Judah along with you?"

King Jehoash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Jehoash son of Ahaziah, in Beth Shemesh. He attacked Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate -- a distance of about six hundred feet.

He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Amaziah had done.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his ancestors had done. He did not repudiate the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin.

At that time Menahem came from Tirzah and attacked Tiphsah. He struck down all who lived in the city and the surrounding territory, because they would not surrender. He even ripped open the pregnant women.

He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Uzziah had done.

King Ahaz took off the frames of the movable stands, and removed the basins from them. He took "The Sea" down from the bronze bulls that supported it and put it on the pavement.

They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God; they made two metal calves and an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the stars in the sky, and worshiped Baal.

The Lord made an agreement with them and instructed them, "You must not worship other gods. Do not bow down to them, serve them, or offer sacrifices to them.

Instead you must worship the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt by his great power and military ability; bow down to him and offer sacrifices to him.

You must carefully obey at all times the rules, regulations, law, and commandments he wrote down for you. You must not worship other gods.

These nations are worshiping the Lord and at the same time serving their idols; their sons and grandsons do just as their fathers have done, to this very day.

He did what the Lord approved, just as his ancestor David had done.

He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan.

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, "Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don't speak with us in the Judahite dialect in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

This is what the king says: 'Don't let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you from my hand!

Don't let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord when he says, "The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."

Don't listen to Hezekiah!' For this is what the king of Assyria says, 'Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

until I come and take you to a land just like your own -- a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Then you will live and not die. Don't listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, "The Lord will rescue us."

The people were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, "Don't respond to him."

Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master this: 'This is what the Lord says: "Don't be afraid because of the things you have heard -- these insults the king of Assyria's servants have hurled against me.

Look, I will take control of his mind; he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down with a sword in his own land."'"

"Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: 'Don't let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, "Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."

Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, 'With my many chariots I climbed up the high mountains, the slopes of Lebanon. I cut down its tall cedars, and its best evergreens. I invaded its most remote regions, its thickest woods.

One day, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They escaped to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

Isaiah replied, "This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said. Do you want the shadow to move ahead ten steps or to go back ten steps?"

Hezekiah answered, "It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for it to go back ten steps."

Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.

He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky and worshiped them.

because they have done evil in my sight and have angered me from the time their ancestors left Egypt right up to this very day!'"

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

He followed in the footsteps of his father and worshiped and bowed down to the disgusting idols which his father had worshiped.

"Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him melt down the silver that has been brought by the people to the Lord's temple and has been collected by the guards at the door.

Shaphan the scribe went to the king and reported, "Your servants melted down the silver in the temple and handed it over to the construction foremen assigned to the Lord's temple."

He tore down the quarters of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord's temple, where women were weaving shrines for Asherah.

He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. He tore down the high place of the goat idols situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.

The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz's upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord's temple. He crushed them up and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley.

He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah pole, and filled those shrines with human bones.

He also tore down the altar in Bethel at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin. He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust; including the Asherah pole.

He asked, "What is this grave marker I see?" The men from the city replied, "It's the grave of the prophet who came from Judah and foretold these very things you have done to the altar of Bethel."

Josiah also removed all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had made them and angered the Lord. He did to them what he had done to the high place in Bethel.

Yet the Lord's great anger against Judah did not subside; he was still infuriated by all the things Manasseh had done.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord as his ancestors had done.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord as his ancestors had done.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord as his ancestors had done.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, as Jehoiakim had done.