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."

But Elisha replied, "As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will not receive anything from you." Though Naaman urged him to take it, Elisha declined.

After Naaman had gone only a short distance, Gehazi, the attendant to Elisha, the man of God, told himself, "Look how my master has spared this Aramean, Naaman! He declined to take from him what he brought. As the LORD lives, I'm going to run after him and get something from him."

So Gehazi ran after Naaman. When Naaman noticed someone running after him, he came down from his chariot, greeted him and asked, "Is everything all right?"

But Naaman said, "Please accept my invitation to take two talents of silver." He urged him, binding two talents of silver in two bags, along with two sets of clothes. He placed them in the care of two of his young men, and they went on ahead of Gehazi.

Later he went to address his master. Elisha asked him, "Where did you go, Gehazi?" "Your servant went nowhere in particular," he said.

So the man of God sent a message to the king of Israel, warning him, "Keep an eye on that area, because the Arameans are going to be there!"

The king of Israel confirmed the matter about which the man of God had warned him. Having been forewarned, he was able to protect himself there on more than one or two occasions.

So the king ordered, "Go and discover where he is, so I may send men to take him into custody." Later somebody told him, "Look! He's in Dothan!"

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!?"

Then Elisha prayed, asking the LORD, "Please make him able to really see!" And so when the LORD enabled the young man to see, he looked, and there was the mountain, filled with horses and fiery chariots surrounding Elisha!

When the army approached him, Elisha spoke to the LORD, asking him, "LORD, I'm asking you please to afflict this group of people with blindness!" So he afflicted them with blindness, just as Elisha had asked.

When the king of Israel saw Elisha, he asked him, "Shall I execute them, my father?"

While the king of Israel was walking along the city wall, a woman cried out to him. "Help me, your majesty!" she said.

She said, "This woman told me, "Give up your son, and we'll eat him today, and we'll eat your son tomorrow.'" So we boiled my son and ate him. The next day, I told her, "Give me your son so we can eat him!' But she has hidden her son!"

Meanwhile, Elisha was sitting in his house, along with the elders, when the king sent a man to kill him, but before the messenger arrived, Elisha told the elders, "Are you watching how this descendant of murderers has ordered my head be cut off? Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and hold it to shut them out! Don't you hear the sound of his master's feet right behind him?"

While he was still talking with them, the messenger arrived to see him and delivered the king's message to Elisha, "Look! This evil has come from the LORD! Why should I wait for the LORD anymore?"

Meanwhile, the king appointed the same royal attendant on whom he depended to take control of the city gate, but the people trampled him to death in the gate, just as the man of God had told the king when the king came down to him.

And so it happened to him, because the people trampled him in the city gate and he died.

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."

Later on, Elisha traveled to Damascus. King Ben-hadad of Aram was ill, but someone informed him, "The man of God has come here!"

So the king told Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go meet the man of God. Inquire of the LORD through him and ask, "Will I recover from this sickness?'"

So Hazael went out to meet with him and took a gift with him 40 camel loads filled with samples of everything good in Damascus. He approached the man of God and said, "Your son King Ben-hadad from Aram has sent me to you to ask you, "Will I recover from this sickness?'"

But Elisha told him, "Go tell him, "You will certainly recover,' but the LORD has shown me that he will certainly die."

So he left Elisha and returned to his master, who asked him, "What did Elisha tell you?" He replied, "He told me that you would certainly get better."

Then Joram crossed over to Zair, along with all of his chariots. At night he attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the commanders of his chariots, but the army ran away to their tents.

After Joram was laid to rest with his ancestors in the City of David, his son Ahaziah replaced him as king.

Then King Joram retreated to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah during the battle against King Hazael of Aram. Jehoram's son Ahaziah, king of Judah, went to visit Ahab's son Joram in Jezreel because Joram was sick.

Elisha called one of the members of the Guild of Prophets and told him, "Get ready to run, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.

As soon as you get there, go find Jehoshaphat's son Jehu, the grandson of Nimshi. When you do, go in, tell him to get up and go apart with you away from his brothers. Lead him into a private chamber,

take the flask of oil, and pour it out on his head. Then tell him, "This is what the LORD says: I'm anointing you king over Israel.' Then open the door and leave. Don't linger there!"

So Jehu got up and went inside the house, and the young man told him, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: "I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD that is, over Israel.

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.

At this, each man quickly grabbed his own garment, placed it under him at the top of the stairs, sounded a trumpet, and announced, "Jehu is king!"

While the watchman was standing guard in the tower at Jezreel, he watched Jehu's entourage arrive. So he called out, "I see a group arriving." Joram ordered, "Take a horseman, send him out to meet them, and have him ask, "Have you come in peace?'"

After this, Jehu called out to Bidkar, his third in command, "Pick up Joram's body and throw it in the field, the property that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite, because you and I remember how when we were riding together in pursuit of his father Ahab, that the LORD pronounced this oracle against him:

As soon as King Ahaziah of Judah observed this, he attempted to flee by the garden house road, but Jehu pursued him. At the ascent toward Gur which is near Ibleam, he ordered, "Shoot him in the chariot, too!"

Jehu looked up toward the window and called out, "Who is on my side? Who?" When two or three eunuchs looked out at him,

select the best and most qualified of your master's sons, set him in place on his father's throne, and fight for your master's dynasty!"

So the household overseer and the city supervisor, along with the elders and the children's guardians, sent word to Jehu, telling him, "We will serve you and do everything you ask. We won't set up a king, so do what you want to do."

Jehu replied, "Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning." The next morning, Jehu went out, stood still, and announced to all the people: "Are you righteous? I conspired against my master and killed him, but who slaughtered all of these?

After he left there, he encountered Rechab's son Jehonadab. After he greeted him, Jehu asked him, "Is your heart right, as my heart is with yours?" "It is," Jehonadab answered.

"If it is," Jehu replied, "Put out your hand." So Jehonadab stuck out his hand, and Jehu took him up to stand in his chariot. He told him, "Come with me and see my enthusiasm for the LORD!" So Jehu had Jehonadab ride in his chariot.

Then Jehu assembled all the people and announced to them, "Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him a lot!

Then Jehu died, as did his ancestors, and they buried him in Samaria. His son Jehoahaz reigned in his place.

But King Joram's daughter Jehosheba, who was Ahaziah's sister, rescued Ahaziah's son Joash from the group of the king's sons who were being executed and hid him and his nurse in her bedroom, concealing him from Athaliah so he was not put to death.

guarding the king and surrounding him with weapons in hand. Whoever comes within range is to be killed. Stay with the king wherever he goes, coming or going."

Then he brought out the king's son, put the royal crown on him, presented him with the Testimony, and installed him as king. They anointed him, applauded, and said, "May the king live!"

Jehoash did what the LORD considered to be right during the entire time when Jehoiada the priest was instructing him,

Shimeath's son Jozacar and Shomer's son Jehozabad, his servants, attacked him and he died. They buried him alongside his ancestors in the City of David, and his son Amaziah became king to replace him.

But Jehoahaz sought the LORD, and the LORD paid attention to him, because the LORD had been watching the oppression that Israel was enduring from the king of Aram.

So Jehoahaz died, as did his ancestors, and he was buried in Samaria while his son Joash replaced him as king.

When Elisha fell ill with the sickness from which he was about to die, King Joash of Israel came down to see him, wept in his presence, and told him, "My father, Israel's chariots and horsemen!"

Elisha told him, "Pick up a bow and some arrows." So he picked up a bow and some arrows.

and ordered him, "Open a window that faces east." So he did so. Elisha ordered him, "Shoot!" So he shot. Then Elisha said, "This is the LORD's arrow of victory the victory arrow against Aram, because you will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you will have utterly finished them off."

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!"

After King Hazael of Aram died, his son Ben-hadad replaced him as king.

Later, Amaziah sent couriers to Jehoahaz's son Jehoash, grandson of King Jehu of Israel, challenging him, "Come on! Let's fight face to face!"

A conspiracy arose against him in Jerusalem, and he ran off to Lachish, but he was pursued to Lachish and killed there.

All the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and installed him as King to take the place of his father Amaziah.

Later, Azariah died, as had his ancestors, and they buried him with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Jotham then reigned in his place.

So Jabesh's son Shallum conspired against him and attacked him in full view of the people, killed him, and reigned in his place.

then Gadi's son Menahem approached Samaria from Tirzah and attacked Jabesh's son Shallum, executed him, and reigned in his place.

At another time, Menahem attacked Tiphsah and all of its inhabitants, including its coastlands from Tirzah, because they would not open the city gate for him. After defeating them, he ripped open all of their pregnant women.

Then Remaliah's son Pekah, Pekahiah's officer, conspired against him with Argob and Arieh. Accompanied by 50 Gileadite men, Pekah attacked Pekahiah inside the palace of the king's compound in Samaria, executed him, and reigned as king in his place.

So during the twentieth year of the reign of Uzziah's son Jotham, Elah's son Hoshea conspired against Remaliah's son Pekah, attacked him, executed him, and became king in his place.

Later, King Rezin of Aram and Remaliah's son Pekah, king of Israel, approached Jerusalem to attack it. They besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him.

So Ahaz sent envoys to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, to tell him, "I am your servant and son. Save me from the king of Aram and the king of Israel, who are attacking me."

Uriah the priest built an altar, following the plans that King Ahaz had sent him from Damascus and finishing the altar before King Ahaz returned from Damascus.

He practiced what the LORD considered to be evil, though not like the kings of Israel who had preceded him.

King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid tribute to him.

But the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy involving Hoshea, who had sent envoys to King So of Egypt and stopped offering tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done annually. As a result, the king of Assyria placed him under arrest and sent him to prison.

They passed their sons and daughters through fire, practiced divination, cast spells, and sold themselves to practice what the LORD considered to be evil, thereby provoking him.

until the LORD removed Israel from his presence, just as he had warned through all of his prophets who served him. So Israel was carried off into exile from their own land into Assyria, where they remain to this day.

So the king of Assyria issued this order: "Take one of the priests whom you carried away and let him go back and live there. Let him teach them the law of the god of the land."

He trusted the LORD God of Israel, and after him there were none like him among all the kings of Judah,

because he depended on the LORD, not abandoning pursuit of him, and keeping the LORD's commands that he had commanded Moses.

So the LORD was with him, and Hezekiah prospered wherever he went, even when he rebelled against the king of Assyria, refusing to serve him.

So Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: "I have offended you. Withdraw from me, and I'll accept whatever tribute you impose." So the king of Assyria required Hezekiah to pay him 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold.

Hezekiah gave him all the silver that could be removed from the LORD's Temple and from the treasuries in the king's palace.

""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!

But the people remained silent and did not answer with even so much as a word, because the king's order was, "Don't answer him."

But Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who managed the household, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph's son Joah the recorder came back to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him what Rab-shakeh had said.

They announced to him:

"This is what the LORD says: "Never be afraid of the words that you have heard by which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Look! I'm going to cause an attitude to grow within him so that he'll hear a rumor and return to his own territory, where I'll make him die by the sword in his own land!"'"

"This is what the LORD has spoken against him: "She despises and mocks you, this virgin daughter of Zion! Behind your back she shakes her head, this daughter of Jerusalem!

Later on, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword and fled into the territory of Ararat. Then Sennacherib's son Esarhaddon became king in his place.

During this time, Hezekiah became sick with a fatal illness, so Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, approached him and told him, "This is what the LORD says: "Put your household in order, because you are dying. You will not survive.'"

Before Isaiah had left the middle court, this message from the LORD came to him.

Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did these men have to say, and where did they come from?" Hezekiah replied, "They came from a country far away from Babylon."

He made his son into a burnt offering, practiced witchcraft, used divination, and consorted with mediums and spirit-channelers. He practiced many things that the LORD considered to be evil and provoked him.

"Because King Manasseh of Judah has committed these despicable things, acting more sinfully than did all of the Amorites who preceded him, including making Judah sin with its idols,

Later on, Amon's staff conspired against him and killed the king inside his own home.

Eighteen years after King Josiah had begun to reign, the king sent Azaliah's son Shaphan, grandson of Meshullam the scribe, to the LORD's Temple. He told him,

Shaphan the scribe reported to King Josiah, brought up the matter to him, and told him, "Your servants have distributed the money that was found in the Temple by giving it to the workmen who supervise the LORD's Temple."

He asked, "What is this monument that I'm looking at?" The men who lived in that city answered him, "It's the grave of that godly man who came from Judah and predicted these things that you've done against the altar at Bethel!"

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.

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.

Even so, the LORD did not turn away from his fierce and great anger that burned against Judah because of everything with which Manasseh had provoked him.

During his reign, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, marched out toward the Euphrates River to meet the king of Assyria. King Josiah went out to engage him in battle, but Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo as soon as he saw him.