Now therefore this is what the LORD says: "You won't be getting up from that bed of yours on which you're lying. You will most certainly die!"'" So Elijah got up and went.

They replied, "We met a man who told us, "Go back to the king who sent you and ask him, "Is it because there is no God in Israel that you're going to consult with Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you won't be getting up from that bed on which you're lying. You will most certainly die!"'"

Look how fire fell from heaven and devoured the two other companies of 50 soldiers, along with their captains, but now please treat me as if my life were precious!"

Then Elijah spoke to the king, "This is what the LORD says: "Since you sent messengers to consult with Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron is it because there is no God in Israel with whom to consult regarding his word? therefore you're not getting up from the bed on which you're lying. You certainly will die!'"

After this, Jehoram ascended to the throne during the second year of the reign of Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram from Judah. He took the place of Ahaziah, who had no son. The rest of Ahaziah's activities are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, are they not?

The men who lived in the city addressed Elisha. "Look now," they said, "our city's location is good, as you have been observing, but the water springs here are bad and the land isn't sustaining crops."

Elisha ordered them, "Bring me a new bowl and put some salt in it." So they brought him what he had requested.

So the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom made a complete circuit on the road for seven days, but there was no water for the army or for the livestock that accompanied them.

Then the king of Israel remarked, "Oh no! The LORD has summoned us three kings so he can hand us over to Moab, hasn't he?"

Elisha asked the king of Israel, "What do I have in common with you? Go visit your parents' prophets." The king of Israel replied, "No! The LORD has summoned these three kings so he can hand them over to Moab!"

Now bring me a musician."

Now there happened to be a certain woman who had been the wife of a member of the Guild of Prophets. She cried out to Elisha, "My husband who served you has died, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. But a creditor has come to take away my children into indentured servitude!"

Now then, let's build a small upper room and put a bed in it for him there, along with a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. That way, when he comes to visit, he can rest there."

He responded, "What, then, is to be done on her behalf?" Gehazi answered, "Well, she has no son and her husband is growing old."

"No, sir! Please, as a godly man, don't mislead your servant!" But the woman did conceive and did bear a son at that very same time the next year, just as Elisha had told her.

He asked her, "What's the point of visiting him today? It's not a New Moon, and it isn't the Sabbath!" But she kept saying, "Things will go well."

Meanwhile, Gehazi went on ahead of them and placed the staff on the youngster's face, but when there was no sound or reaction, he returned, met Elisha, and told him, "The youngster has shown no sign of awakening."

Somebody went out into the fields to grab some herbs, found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds, which he came and sliced up into the stew pot, but nobody else knew.

The king of Aram replied, "Go now, and I'll send a letter to the king of Israel." So he left and took with him ten talents of silver and 6,000 units of gold, along with ten sets of clothing.

He also brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read as follows: ""and now as this letter finds its way to you, look! I've sent my servant Naaman to you so you may heal him of his leprosy."

Elisha sent a messenger out to him, who told him, "Go bathe in the Jordan River seven times. Your flesh will be restored for you. Now stay clean!"

Naaman went back to the man of God, along with his entire entourage, and stood before him. "Please look!" he said. "I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel! So please, take a present from your servant."

So Naaman asked, "No? Then please let your servant load two mules with dirt from Israel, because your servant will no longer offer any burnt offering or sacrifice to any other god but the LORD.

Gehazi said, "Everything's all right. My master sent me to tell you, "Just now two men from the Guild of Prophets have arrived from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them each a talent of silver bullion and two sets of clothes.'"

But Elisha responded, "Didn't my heart break as the man was turning from his chariot to greet you? Is now the time to receive money? To receive clothes? And olive groves, vineyards, sheep, oxen, servants, or female attendants?

It happened that as one of them was felling a beam, his axe head fell into the water. He cried out, "Oh no! Master! The axe was on loan to me!"

"No, your majesty," one of his servants said. "Elisha the prophet, who lives in Israel, tells the king of Israel what you talk about in your bedroom!"

Meanwhile, the attendant to the man of God got up early in the morning and went outside, and there were the elite forces, surrounding the city, accompanied by horses and chariots! So Elisha's attendant cried out to him, "Oh no! Master! What will we do!?"

But he replied, "No! You're not to kill them! Would you execute those whom you've taken captive at the point of a sword or with your bow? Give them food and water so they can eat and drink. Then send them back to their master!"

He replied, "No! Since the LORD won't give you victory, how will I be able to deliver you? From the threshing floor? From the wine press?"

But the royal attendant on whom the king depended responded to the man of God: "Look here! Even if the LORD were to open a window in the sky, how could this happen?" He replied, "No, you look! You'll see it with your eyes, but you won't eat any of it!"

Now there happened to be four lepers who were at that very moment at the entrance to the city gate. As they were talking with one another, they said, "Why are we sitting here waiting to die?

So they got up at dusk and went out to the Aramean encampment. But when they arrived at the outskirts of the Aramean encampment, there was no one there!

so the king got up in the middle of the night and ordered his servants: "Let me explain what the Arameans have done to us. They know that we're hungry, so they've left their encampment to conceal themselves in the surrounding fields. They're telling themselves, "When they come out of the city, we'll capture them alive and enter the city!'"

But the royal attendant on whom the king depended responded to the man of God: "Look here! Even if the LORD were to make a window in the sky, how could this happen?" He replied, "No, you look! You'll see it with your eyes, but you won't eat any of it!"

The king consulted with the woman, who related the story. So the king appointed a court official to represent her and ordered him: "Restore to her everything that belonged to her, including all of the produce that her fields yielded from the day she left the land until now."

"Why are you crying, sir?" Hazael asked. "Because I know the evil that you're about to bring on the Israelis," he replied. "You'll burn down their fortified cities, execute their young men with swords, dash to pieces their little ones, and you'll tear open their pregnant women!"

Furthermore, the dogs will eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel. There will be no burial for her.'" Then he opened the door and left.

As Jehu was coming out to his master's attendants, one of them asked him, "Is everything all right? Why did this maniac visit you?" "You know the man and how he speculates," Jehu replied.

King Jehoram had returned to Jezreel to recover from wounds he had sustained from the Arameans when he had fought against King Hazael from Aram. So Jehu concluded, "Since this is what you've decided, then let no one get away, leave the city, and go report to Jezreel!"

"Dogs will eat Jezebel's flesh on the property of Jezreel, and her corpse will lie like dung on the surface of the field on the property in Jezreel, but no one will say, "This is Jezebel."'"

Now the king's sons, totaling 70 men, were living with the leading men of the city, who were their guardians. When the letter from Jehu arrived, the city leaders arrested the king's sons, slaughtered all 70 of them, put their heads in baskets, and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.

Jehu and Rechab's son Jehonadab entered Baal's temple, and Jehu told the Baal worshipers, "Look around and be sure that no servant of the LORD is here among you, but only worshipers of Baal."

Now as to the rest of Jehu's activities, including his valiant deeds, they are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, are they not?

So the priests agreed to receive no more cash from the people, but they didn't repair the leaks in the Temple, either.

But no provision was included for the LORD's Temple from the money that was brought into the LORD's Temple for silver basins, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels made of gold or silver,

Furthermore, they required no accounting from the men into whose hand they had paid the money to do the work, because the workers acted in good faith.

Now the rest of the Joash's activities everything he did are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are they not?

Now the rest of the activities of Jehoahaz, including everything he did and his grandeur, are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, are they not?

At this, the man of God became angry at him and told him, "You should have struck five or six times! Then you would have attacked Aram until you would have destroyed it! But as it is now, you'll defeat Aram only three times!"

Later, Elisha died and was buried. Now at that time, various Moabite marauders had been invading the land each spring.

For the LORD observed Israel's bitter misery, and there was no one left, neither slave nor free, and there was no deliverer for Israel.

Now the rest of Azariah's activities, including everything he did, are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are they not?

Now the rest of Ahaz's activities are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are they not?

As a result, the LORD was angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. No one was left except for the tribe of Judah.

As a result, they reported to the king of Assyria, "Because the nations whom you exiled to live in the cities of Samaria don't know the law of the god of the land, he has sent lions among them. Look how the lions are killing them, because they don't know the law of the god of the land!"

Now it happened that during the third year of the reign of Elah's son Hoshea, king of Israel, that Ahaz' son Hezekiah became king.

Rab-shakeh told them, "Tell Hezekiah right now, "This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says:

""Now who are you relying on, that you have rebelled against me? Look, you're trusting on Egypt to lean on like a staff, but it's a crushed reed, and if you lean on it, it will collapse and pierce your hand. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is just like that to everyone who relies on him!

""Come now, and make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria, and I'll give you 2,000 horses, if you can furnish them with riders.

"Now then, haven't I come up apart from the LORD to attack and destroy this place? The LORD told me, "Go up against this land and destroy it!'"'"

until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, one overflowing with grain and new wine, a land filled with bread and vineyards, with olive trees and honey, so you may live and not die."

"This is what Hezekiah says: "Today is a day of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy, because children are about to be born, but there is no strength to bring them to birth. Perhaps the LORD your God will take note of everything that Rab-shakeh has said, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to taunt the living God, and then he will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore offer a prayer for the survivors who remain.'"

Now, LORD our God, I'm praying that you will deliver us from his control, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, LORD, are God!"

"Didn't you hear? I determined it years ago! I planned this from ancient times, and now I've brought it to pass, to turn fortified cities into piles of ruins

"Return to Hezekiah," he said, "and tell the Commander-in-Chief of my people: "This is what the LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says: "I've heard your prayer and I've observed your tears. Look! I'm healing you. Three days from now, you'll go visit the LORD's Temple.

Now Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, "What is to be the sign that the LORD is healing me and that I'll be going up to the LORD's Temple three days from now?"

Now the rest of Hezekiah's actions, as well as his glorious deeds, including how he constructed the pool and the conduit to bring water into the city, are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are they not?

Now the rest of Amon's activities that he undertook are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are they not?

Nevertheless, tell the king of Judah who sent you to ask the LORD about this, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "Now about what you've heard,

He also defiled Topheth, which is located in the Ben-hinnom Valley, so that no one would force his son or daughter to pass through the fire in dedication to Molech.

Josiah replied, "Leave him alone. No one is to disturb his bones." So they preserved his bones undisturbed, along with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

From the days of the judges who ruled in Israel, no Passover had been celebrated like this, not even in all the reigns of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

There had been no king like him before him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, in obeying everything in the Law of Moses. No king arose like Josiah after him.

Now the rest of Josiah's actions, including everything that he did, are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are they not?

Now the rest of Jehoiakim's actions, and everything that he undertook, are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are they not?

By the ninth day of the fourth month, the resulting famine had become so severe in the city that no food remained for the people who lived in the land.

Now as for the people who remained in the land of Judah whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had left behind, he appointed Ahikam's son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, to rule.

who fathered Noah, who fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now Sheshan had no sons, only daughters. However, Sheshan had an Egyptian slave named Jarha.

and Mikloth, who fathered Shimeah. Now these also lived with their relatives across town in Jerusalem from their other relatives.

The inhabitants of Jebus told David, "You're not coming in here!" Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, now known as the City of David.

So David received them and assigned them to be officers over troops. Some of the descendants of Manasseh joined David when he was going to fight against Saul, accompanied by the Philistines. Even so, David was of no help to them, because the Philistine rulers were counseled to send him away. They told themselves, "He's going to go over to his master Saul at the cost of our heads."

The tribe of Issachar supplied 200 leaders, along with all of their relatives under their command. They kept up-to-date in their understanding of the times and knew what Israel should do.

They mounted the Ark of God on a new cart, bringing it from Abinadab's home, with Uzzah and Ahio driving the cart.

Then David ordered that the Ark of God was to be carried by no one except the descendants of Levi, because the LORD had chosen them to carry the ark of the LORD and to serve him forever.

"Now therefore this is what you are to tell my servant David: "This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "I took you from the pasture myself from tending sheep to become Commander-in-Chief over my people Israel.

"What more can David say to you about how you are honoring your servant, and you surely know your servant.

LORD, for the sake of your servant, and consistent with your heart, you have done all of these great things and are now making these great things known.

"LORD, there is no one like you, and we have heard from no god other than you.

"And now, LORD, let what you have spoken concerning your servant and his household be done forever and let it be done just as you've promised.

And now, LORD, you are God, and you have promised all of these good things to your servant.

David responded to God, "I sinned greatly by behaving this way. But now I am asking you, please remove the guilt of your servant, since I have acted very foolishly."

Either three years of famine, or three months of reversals as you are swept away by your enemies while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or three days with the sword of the LORD, consisting of pestilence infecting the land, with the angel of the LORD wreaking destruction from border to border throughout all of Israel.' Decide right now what I am to answer to the one who sent me."

So David replied to Gad, "This is a very bad choice for me to make! Let me now please fall into the hand of the LORD, because his mercy is very great, but may I never fall into human hands!"

David told God, "Wasn't I the one who ordered the census of the population? Wasn't it I who sinned and acted wickedly? Now as for these sheep, what have they done? LORD God, please let your hand be against me and my ancestral household, but don't let your people be ravaged by plague!"

But King David told Ornan, "No. I will buy them for the full price because I will not offer to the LORD what is yours or offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing."

So now, my son, may the LORD be with you, so that you are successful in constructing the Temple of the LORD your God, just as he has spoken about you.

The descendants of Eliezer included Rehabiah as their chief. Eliezer had no other sons, but Rehabiah had many descendants.

but Eleazar died having no sons, but only daughters. Their relatives (the descendants of Kish) married them.