Now therefore thus says Yahweh, "You shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but shall surely die."'" Elijah departed.

The messengers returned to him, and he said to them, "Why is it that you have returned?"

They said to him, "A man came up to meet us, and said to us, 'Go, return to the king who sent you, and tell him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you send to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but shall surely die.'"'"

He said to them, "What kind of man was he who came up to meet you, and told you these words?"

Then [the king] sent a captain of fifty with his fifty to him. He went up to him; and behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. He said to him, "Man of God, the king has said, 'Come down!'"

Elijah answered to the captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!" Fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.

Again he sent to him another captain of fifty and his fifty. He answered him, "Man of God, the king has said, 'Come down quickly!'"

Again he sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. The third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, and said to him, "Man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty your servants, be precious in your sight.

Behold, fire came down from the sky, and consumed the two former captains of fifty with their fifties. But now let my life be precious in your sight."

The angel of Yahweh said to Elijah, "Go down with him. Don't be afraid of him." He arose, and went down with him to the king.

He said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but shall 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.

Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Elijah said to Elisha, "Please wait here, for Yahweh has sent me as far as Bethel." Elisha said, "As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.

The sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that Yahweh will take away your master from your head today?" He said, "Yes, I know it; hold your peace."

Elijah said to him, "Elisha, please wait here, for Yahweh has sent me to Jericho." He said, "As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." So they came to Jericho.

The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came near to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that Yahweh will take away your master from your head today?" He answered, "Yes, I know it. Hold your peace."

Elijah said to him, "Please wait here, for Yahweh has sent me to the Jordan." He said, "As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." They both went on.

Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and struck the waters, and they were divided here and there, so that they two went over on dry ground.

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."

Elisha saw it, and he cried, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" He saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and tore them in two pieces.

When the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho over against him saw him, they said, "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha." They came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.

They said to him, "See now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master. Perhaps the Spirit of Yahweh has taken him up, and put him on some mountain, or into some valley. He said, "You shall not send them."

When they urged him until he was ashamed, he said, "Send them." They sent therefore fifty men; and they searched for three days, but didn't find him.

They came back to him, while he stayed at Jericho; and he said to them, "Didn't I tell you, 'Don't go?'"

The men of the city said to Elisha, "Behold, please, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land miscarries."

He said, "Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it." They brought it to him.

He went out to the spring of the waters, and threw salt into it, and said, "Thus says Yahweh, 'I have healed these waters. There shall not be from there any more death or miscarrying.'"

So the waters were healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.

He went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, "Go up, you baldy! Go up, you baldhead!"

He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of Yahweh. Two female bears came out of the woods, and mauled forty-two of those youths.

He went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.

Nevertheless he held to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin; he didn't depart from it.

Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he rendered to the king of Israel the wool of one hundred thousand lambs, and of one hundred thousand rams.

He went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me against Moab to battle?" He said, "I will go up. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses."

The king of Israel said, "Alas! For Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab."

But Jehoshaphat said, "Isn't there here a prophet of Yahweh, that we may inquire of Yahweh by him?" One of the king of Israel's servants answered, "Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah."

Jehoshaphat said, "The word of Yahweh is with him." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father, and to the prophets of your mother." The king of Israel said to him, "No; for Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab."

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.

They said, "This is blood. The kings are surely destroyed, and they have struck each other. Now therefore, Moab, to the spoil!"

When they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land smiting the Moabites.

When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too severe for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew sword, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not.

Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. There was great wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves."

Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil."

Then he said, "Go, borrow containers from of all your neighbors, even empty containers. Don't borrow just a few.

So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons; they brought the containers to her, and she poured out.

It happened, when the containers were full, that she said to her son, "Bring me another container." He said to her, "There isn't another container." The oil stopped flowing.

It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.

She said to her husband, "See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually.

Please let us make a little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there."

One day he came there, and he turned into the room and lay there.

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

He said to him, "Say now to her, 'Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?'" She answered, "I dwell among my own people."

He said, "What then is to be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old."

He said, "At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid."

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

When the child was grown, it happened one day that he went out to his father to the reapers.

He said to his father, "My head! My head!" He said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."

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

She called to her husband, and said, "Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God, and come again."

He said, "Why would you want go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She said, "It's alright."

Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, "Drive, and go forward! Don't slow down for me, unless I ask you to."

So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. It happened, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, "Behold, there is the Shunammite.

Please run now to meet her, and ask her, 'Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?'" She answered, "It is well."

When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, "Leave her alone; for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me."

Then she said, "Did I desire a son of my lord? Didn't I say, Do not deceive me?"

Then he said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don't greet him; and if anyone greets you, don't answer him again. Then lay my staff on the face of the child."

Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, "The child has not awakened."

He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh.

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."

Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out.

Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, "Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."

One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of stew; for they didn't recognize them.

So they poured out for the men to eat. It happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, "Man of God, there is death in the pot!" They could not eat of it.

A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, "Give to the people, that they may eat."

So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to the word of Yahweh.

Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, [but he was] a leper.

She said to her mistress, "I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his leprosy."

The king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing.

He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "Now when this letter has come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy."

It happened, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he tore his clothes, and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me."

It was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel."

Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean."

But Naaman was angry, and went away, and said, "Behold, I thought, 'He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leper.'

Aren't Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them, and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.

His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, "My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean?'"

Then went he down, and dipped [himself] seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, "See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant."

But he said, "As Yahweh lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none." He urged him to take it; but he refused.

Naaman said, "If not, then, please let there be given to your servant two mules' burden of earth; for your servant will from now on offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to Yahweh.

In this thing may Yahweh pardon your servan: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, may Yahweh pardon your servant in this thing."

He said to him, "Go in peace." So he departed from him a little way.

So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him, and said, "Is all well?"

He said, "All is well. My master has sent me, saying, 'Behold, even now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.'"

Naaman said, "Be pleased to take two talents." He urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and laid them on two of his servants; and they carried them before him.

When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed.

But he went in, and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, "Where did you come from, Gehazi?" He said, "Your servant went nowhere."