So Omri died, as had his ancestors, and he was buried in Samaria. His son Ahab became king in his place.

Omri's son Ahab practiced more of what the LORD considered to be evil than anyone who had lived before him.

It happened, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.

He reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.

Ahab also erected an Asherah, doing more to provoke the LORD God of Israel than all of the kings of Israel who had reigned before him.

During Ahab's reign, Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho. Abiram, his firstborn son, died when he laid the foundation; Segub, his youngest son, died when he erected its gates, just as the Lord had warned through Joshua son of Nun.

So Elijah left and did exactly what the LORD had told him to do he went to live near the Wadi Cherith, where it enters the Jordan River.

And it came to pass after a while that the torrent dried up, for there had been no rain in the land.

So she went and did as Elijah said; and she and he and her family had food for a long time.

The meal in the barrel did not waste, neither did the oil in the cruse fail, according to the word of Jehovah which he had spoken through Elijah.

So Elijah went to let Ahab see him. Now there was no food to be had in Samaria.

And Ahab had called for Obadiah, who was over his house. Now, Obadiah, was one who revered Yahweh, exceedingly.

It had happened that when Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them {by fifties} in the cave and sustained them [with] food and water.)

Ahab had instructed Obadiah, "Go throughout the land to all of the water springs and to all of the valleys. Maybe we'll find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive. Also, maybe we won't have to kill some of our cattle."

As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent someone to search for you. When they said, ‘He is not here,’ he made that kingdom or nation swear they had not found you.

Has my lord not had word of what I did when Jezebel was putting the Lord's prophets to death? how I kept a hundred of them in a secret hole in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave them bread and water?

Ahab sent messengers to all the Israelites and had the prophets assemble at Mount Carmel.

And they took the bullock which had been given them, and sacrificed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us! But there was no voice, and none answered. And they leaped about the altar that had been made.

Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me," so all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of Yahweh [that had been] destroyed.

Then Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of tribes that descended from Jacob, to whom the Lord had said, "Israel will be your new name."

Then he said, "Fill four water jars and pour the water on the offering and the wood." When they had done so, he said, "Do it again." So they did it again. Then he said, "Do it a third time." So they did it a third time.

When all the people saw what had happened, they fell flat on their faces and cried out "The LORD is God! The LORD is God!"

Then said Elijah unto them, "Lay hands on the Prophets of Baal - let not one of them escape." And when they had taken them, Elijah brought them down unto the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

And it came to pass, meanwhile, that, the heavens, had enshrouded themselves with clouds and wind, and there came a great rain, and Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel;

After Ahab had left, the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah, and he tucked his mantle into his belt and outran Ahab in a race to the city gate of Jezreel.

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and in detail how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.

Jezebel sent a messenger to tell Elijah, "May the gods do the same to me and even more if tomorrow about this time I haven't made you like one of those prophets you had killed."

while he went a day's journey into the desert. He went and sat down under a shrub and asked the Lord to take his life: "I've had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I'm no better than my ancestors."

And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not kept your agreement; they have had your altars broken down, and have put your prophets to death with the sword: till I, even I, am the only one living; and now they are attempting to take away my life.

Now, Ben-hadad, king of Syria, had gathered together all his forces, and, thirty-two kings, were with him, and horses and chariots, - then came he up, and laid siege to Samaria, and made war against it.

Then called the king of Israel, for all the elders of the land, and said - Mark, I pray you, and see, how this man is seeking, mischief, - for he had sent unto me, for my wives, and for my sons, and for my silver, and for my gold, and I refused him not.

They attacked at noon, just as Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the battle pavilions, along with the 32 kings who had joined him.

But these had come out from the city, the servants of the commanders of the provinces, and the army that [was] after them.

Then said the servants of the kings of Syria to him, "The gods of the hills are their gods, and therefore they had the better of us. But let us fight with them in the plain, and for what ye will, we shall have the better of them.

Then replace the army that you lost, horse-for-horse and chariot-for-chariot. We'll fight them on the plains, and we're certain to be the stronger army." Ben-hadad listened to what they had to say and carried out their advice.

The {Israelites} had been mustered and provisioned, and they went to engage them. The {Israelites} encamped opposite them as two flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the land.

Then those who remained fled to Aphek, to the city, and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who had remained, so Ben-Hadad fled and went to the innermost rooms of the city.

Now the men were looking for a sign of hope, so they quickly picked up on this and responded, “Yes, it is your brother Ben-hadad.”

Then he said, “Go and bring him.”

So Ben-hadad came out to him, and Ahab had him come up into the chariot.

Then said he to him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as thou hast departed from me, a lion will slay thee. And as soon as he had departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him.

And as thy servant had here and there to do, he was gone." And the king of Israel said unto him, "Even so shall thy judgment be, as thou hast defined it thyself."

He said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.'"

It happened after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.

Ahab came into his house sullen and angry because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." He laid himself down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.

She had written in the letters, saying, "Call a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people.

The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, according as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them.

And the two good-for-nothing persons came in and took their seats before him and gave witness against Naboth, in front of the people, saying, Naboth has been cursing God and the king. Then they took him outside the town and had him stoned to death.

It happened at the moment Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and died, Jezebel said to Ahab, "Get up, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite which he had refused to give to you for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead."

Truly, there was no one like Ahab who had sold himself by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh, whose wife Jezebel urged him on.

Also, he acted very abominably by going after idols like all the Amorites had done whom Yahweh had driven out from before the {Israelites}."

The king of Israel had said to his servants, “Don’t you know that Ramoth-gilead is ours, but we have failed to take it from the hand of the king of Aram?”

Then the messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, "Please now, the words of the prophet are {unanimously} favorable to the king. Please let your words be as one word with them, and speak favorably."

When he had come to the king, the king said to him, "Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear?" He answered him, "Go up and prosper; and Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king."

Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, except only with the king of Israel.

And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they thought he had been the king of Israel, and therefore turned to him to fight.

They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked his blood (now, the prostitutes washed themselves [there]) according to the word of Yahweh which he had spoken.

That's how Ahab died, just as his ancestors had, and his son Ahaziah became king in his place.

He did as Asa his father had done, not turning away from it, but doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord; but the high places were not taken away: the people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places.

And he had peace with the king of Israel.

He removed from the land any male cultic prostitutes who had managed to survive the reign of his father Asa.

Jehoshaphat had ten ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold. But they did not go, for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber.

Ahab's son Ahaziah had offered to go. "Let my servants go with your servants in the ships!" he said. But Jehoshaphat was not willing.

He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He walked in the way of his father, in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin.

He served Baal, and worshiped him, and provoked to anger Yahweh, the God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.

Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice in his upper room, which [was] in Samaria, and he was injured. So he sent messengers, and he said to them, "Go, inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, if I will survive this injury."

And the men he had sent came back to the king; and he said to them, Why have you come back?

And they said to him, On our way we had a meeting with a man who said, Go back to the king who sent you and say to him, The Lord says, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you send to put a question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? For this reason, you will not come down from the bed on to which you have gone up, but death will certainly come to you.

They replied, "He was a hairy man and had a leather belt tied around his waist." The king said, "He is Elijah the Tishbite."

And he said unto the king, "Thus sayeth the LORD, 'Forasmuch as thou sentest messengers to ask through Beelzebub the god of Ekron - as though there had been no God in Israel to ask through his word - therefore thou shalt not come off the bed on which thou art ascended, but shalt surely die.'"

So he died according to the word of Yahweh which Elijah had spoken. Jehoram began to reign in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son.

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 time had come for the Lord to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal,

It happened, when they had gone over, that Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you." Elisha said, "Please let a double portion of your spirit be on me."

Then he picked up Elijah's cloak that had fallen off of him, and he returned and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

He took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and struck the waters, and said, "Where is Yahweh, the God of Elijah?" When he also had struck the waters, they were divided here and there; and Elisha went over.

They returned to Elisha while he was staying at Jericho; and he said to them, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not go’?”

He replied, “Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it.”

After they had brought him one,

As a result, the water springs remain pure to this day, just as Elisha had declared.

Now Joram the son of Ahab had become king over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. He reigned twelve years

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

Nevertheless, Joram clung to the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit. He did not turn away from them.

So the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom set out together. They wandered around on the road for seven days and finally ran out of water for the men and animals they had with them.

Now when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, they gathered themselves together, all who were able to put on armor, and upward, and stood on the border.

So they concluded, "This must be blood! The kings must have had one mighty big fight and each man killed the other! So let's go get the battle spoil, Moab!"

and the cities they break down, and on every good portion they cast each his stone, and have filled it, and every fountain of water they stop, and every good tree they cause to fall -- till one had left its stones in Kir-Haraseth, and the slingers go round and smite it.

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!"

So she left.

After she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring.

When the last of the vessels had been filled, she told her son, "Bring me another pot!"

But he replied, "There isn't even one pot left." Then the oil stopped flowing. After this, she went and told the man of God what had happened. So he said, "Go sell the oil, pay your debt, and you and your children will be able to live on the proceeds."

So she had a talk with her husband. "Look here! I've learned that this is a holy and godly man who comes by here on a regular basis.

Now one day, when he had gone there, he went into the little room and took his rest there.

He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she stood before him.

He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the door.

The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her.

After the child had grown up a bit, one day he went out to visit his father, who was with the harvesters.

When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died.

Now, Gehazi, had passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the boy, but there was neither voice, nor attention, - so he returned to meet him, and told him, saying - The boy hath not awaked.

When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid on his bed.

He called Gehazi, and said, "Call this Shunammite!" So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, "Take up your son."

And they poured out for the men to eat. And when they had tasted of the pottage, they cried out and said, "There is death in the pot, thou man of God!" And could not eat thereof.

Later on, a man arrived from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God some bread as a first fruit offering. He had 20 loaves of barley and ripe ears of corn in his sack. So Elisha said, "Give them to the people so they can eat."