So the king said, “Go and see where he is, so I can send men to capture him.”

When he was told, “Elisha is in Dothan,”

Then Elisha prayed, “Lord, please open his eyes and let him see.” So the Lord opened the servant’s eyes. He looked and saw that the mountain was covered with horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

When the Arameans came against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Please strike this nation with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to Elisha’s word.

As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “My lord the king, help!”

Then the king asked her, “What’s the matter?”

She said, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him today. Then we will eat my son tomorrow.’

So we boiled my son and ate him, and I said to her the next day, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.”

Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger got to him, Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door to keep him out. Isn’t the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”

While Elisha was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. Then he said, “This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”

The king had appointed the captain, his right-hand man, to be in charge of the gate, but the people trampled him in the gateway. He died, just as the man of God had predicted when the king came to him.

This is what happened to him: the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.

When the king asked the woman, she told him the story. So the king appointed a court official for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, along with all the income from the field from the day she left the country until now.”

So the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift with you and go meet the man of God. Inquire of the Lord through him, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him a gift: 40 camel-loads of all kinds of goods from Damascus. When he came and stood before him, he said, “Your son, Ben-hadad king of Aram, has sent me to ask you, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

Elisha told him, “Go say to him, ‘You are sure to recover.’ But the Lord has shown me that he is sure to die.”

Then Elisha stared steadily at him until Hazael was ashamed.

The man of God wept,

Hazael left Elisha and went to his master, who asked him, “What did Elisha say to you?”

He responded, “He told me you are sure to recover.”

The next day Hazael took a heavy cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over the king’s face. Ben-hadad died, and Hazael reigned instead of him.

So Jehoram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. Then at night he set out to attack the Edomites who had surrounded him and the chariot commanders, but his troops fled to their tents.

So King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him in Ramoth-gilead when he fought against Aram’s King Hazael. Then Judah’s King Ahaziah son of Jehoram went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab since Joram was ill.

When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Go in, get him away from his colleagues, and take him to an inner room.

But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought against Aram’s King Hazael. Jehu said, “If you commanders wish to make me king, then don’t let anyone escape from the city to go tell about it in Jezreel.”

Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel. He saw Jehu’s troops approaching and shouted, “I see troops!”

Joram responded, “Choose a rider and send him to meet them and have him ask, ‘Do you come in peace?’”

Jehu said to Bidkar his aide, “Pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember when you and I were riding side by side behind his father Ahab, and the Lord uttered this oracle against him:

‘As surely as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday’—this is the Lord’s declaration—‘so will I repay you on this plot of land’—this is the Lord’s declaration. So now, according to the word of the Lord, pick him up and throw him on the plot of land.”

When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what was happening, he fled up the road toward Beth-haggan. Jehu pursued him, shouting, “Shoot him too!” So they shot him in his chariot at Gur Pass near Ibleam, but he fled to Megiddo and died there.

Then his servants carried him to Jerusalem in a chariot and buried him in his fathers’ tomb in the city of David.

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

So they went back and told him, and he said, “This fulfills the Lord’s word that He spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘In the plot of land at Jezreel, the dogs will eat Jezebel’s flesh.

select the most qualified of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.

However, they were terrified and reasoned, “Look, two kings couldn’t stand against him; how can we?”

When the messenger came and told him, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons,” the king said, “Pile them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning.”

The next morning when he went out and stood at the gate, he said to all the people, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him. But who struck down all these?

So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel—all his great men, close friends, and priests—leaving him no survivors.

When he left there, he found Jehonadab son of Rechab coming to meet him. He greeted him and then asked, “Is your heart one with mine?”

“It is,” Jehonadab replied.

Jehu said, “If it is, give me your hand.”

So he gave him his hand, and Jehu pulled him up into the chariot with him.

Then he said, “Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord!” So he let him ride with him in his chariot.

Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him a lot.

Jehosheba, who was King Jehoram’s daughter and Ahaziah’s sister, secretly rescued Joash son of Ahaziah from the king’s sons who were being killed and put him and the one who nursed him in a bedroom. So he was hidden from Athaliah and was not killed.

Then in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent messengers and brought in the commanders of hundreds, the Carites, and the guards. He had them come to him in the Lord’s temple, where he made a covenant with them and put them under oath. He showed them the king’s son

He brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, gave him the testimony, and made him king. They anointed him and clapped their hands and cried, “Long live the king!”

He took the commanders of hundreds, the Carites, the guards, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king from the Lord’s temple. They entered the king’s palace by way of the guards’ gate. Then Joash sat on the throne of the kings.

Throughout the time Jehoiada the priest instructed him, Joash did what was right in the Lord’s sight.

Joash’s servants conspired against him and killed him at Beth-millo on the road that goes down to Silla.

His servants Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer struck him down, and he died. Then they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Amaziah became king in his place.

Then Jehoahaz sought the Lord’s favor, and the Lord heard him, for He saw the oppression the king of Aram inflicted on Israel.

When Elisha became sick with the illness that he died from, Jehoash king of Israel went down and wept over him and said, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!”

The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times. Then you would have struck down Aram until you had put an end to them, but now you will only strike down Aram three times.”

A conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. However, men were sent after him to Lachish, and they put him to death there.

They carried him back on horses, and he was buried in Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David.

Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was 16 years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against Zechariah. He struck him down publicly, killed him, and became king in his place.

Then Menahem son of Gadi came up from Tirzah to Samaria and struck down Shallum son of Jabesh there. He killed him and became king in his place.

Pul king of Assyria invaded the land, so Menahem gave Pul 75,000 pounds of silver so that Pul would support him to strengthen his grip on the kingdom.

Then his officer, Pekah son of Remaliah, conspired against him and struck him down in Samaria at the citadel of the king’s palace —as well as Argob and Arieh. There were 50 Gileadite men with Pekah. He killed Pekahiah and became king in his place.

Then Hoshea son of Elah organized a conspiracy against Pekah son of Remaliah. He attacked him, killed him, and became king in his place in the twentieth year of Jotham son of Uzziah.

Then Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah son of Remaliah came to wage war against Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but were not able to conquer him.

So the king of Assyria listened to him and marched up to Damascus and captured it. He deported its people to Kir but put Rezin to death.

He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.

Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute money.

But the king of Assyria discovered Hoshea’s conspiracy. He had sent envoys to So king of Egypt and had not paid tribute money to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested him and put him in prison.

They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire and practiced divination and interpreted omens. They devoted themselves to do what was evil in the Lord’s sight and provoked Him.

Then the king of Assyria issued a command: “Send back one of the priests you deported. Have him go and live there so he can teach them the requirements of the God of the land.”

They are still practicing the former customs to this day. None of them fear the Lord or observe their statutes and ordinances, the law and commandments the Lord commanded the descendants of Jacob. He had renamed him Israel.

Instead fear the Lord, who brought you from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. You are to bow down to Him, and you are to sacrifice to Him.

Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.

He remained faithful to Yahweh and did not turn from following Him but kept the commands the Lord had commanded Moses.

The Lord was with him, and wherever he went he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

So Hezekiah gave him all the silver found in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the king’s palace.

Look, you are now trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will enter and pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.

But the people kept silent; they didn’t say anything, for the king’s command was, “Don’t answer him.”

Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the Rabshakeh.

They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.

Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke him for the words that Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.’”

I am about to put a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”

When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he returned and found him fighting against Libnah.

This is the word the Lord has spoken against him:

Virgin Daughter Zion
despises you and scorns you:
Daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head behind your back.

One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then his son Esar-haddon became king in his place.

In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

Isaiah had not yet gone out of the inner courtyard when the word of the Lord came to him:

Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?”

Hezekiah replied, “They came from a distant country, from Babylon.”

He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did a great amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, provoking Him.

“Since Manasseh king of Judah has committed all these detestable things—greater evil than the Amorites who preceded him had done—and by means of his idols has also caused Judah to sin,

Amon’s servants conspired against the king and killed him in his own house.

So the king sent messengers, and they gathered all the elders of Jerusalem and Judah to him.

Then he said, “What is this monument I see?”

The men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done to the altar at Bethel.”

So he said, “Let him rest. Don’t let anyone disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his mind and with all his heart and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him.

In spite of all that, the Lord did not turn from the fury of His great burning anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had provoked Him with.

During his reign, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went to confront him, and at Megiddo when Neco saw him he killed him.

From Megiddo his servants carried his dead body in a chariot, brought him into Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. Then the common people took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.

Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath to keep him from reigning in Jerusalem, and he imposed on the land a fine of 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold.

During Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked. Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, and then he turned and rebelled against him.

Jehoiachin king of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials, surrendered to the king of Babylon.

So the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign.

the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army was scattered from him.

The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.

They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. Finally, the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him in bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.

In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with 10 men and struck down Gedaliah, and he died. Also, they killed the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, in the year Evil-merodach became king of Babylon, he pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.

He spoke kindly to him and set his throne over the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king, a portion for each day, for the rest of his life.

Judah’s sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. These three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanite woman. Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the Lord’s sight, so He put him to death.