As surely as the LORD your God lives, there isn't a nation or kingdom where my master hasn't tried to find you. Whenever they would say "He isn't here,' he forced that kingdom or nation to swear that they hadn't seen you.

But now you're saying "Go tell your master, "Elijah is here!"'

Now you're saying, "Go tell your master, "Elijah's here!"' He's sure to kill me!"

Eventually, Elijah told everybody, "Come here!" So everybody approached him, and he repaired the LORD's altar that had been torn down.

Elijah arrived at a cave and stayed there. All of a sudden this message came from the LORD: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

As soon as Elijah heard it, he covered his face in his mantle, went outside, and stood at the entrance to the cave. And there a voice spoke to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Then the king of Israel called together all of the elders of the land and told them, "Please note that this man is here looking for trouble. He sent a message to me, demanding my wives, my children, and my silver and gold, and I haven't refused him."

"Look, now," his advisors suggested, "we've heard that the Israeli kings are merciful. So let's clothe ourselves with sackcloth, tie our hair back with ropes, and go out to the king of Israel. Maybe he'll spare your life."

So they put on some sackcloth, tied their hair back with ropes, and approached the king of Israel. "Your servant Ben-hadad says this," they said. "Please let me live." "Is he still alive?" Ahab asked. "He's my brother."

so he told him, "Because you haven't obeyed the LORD's voice, as soon as you leave here, a lion will kill you." As soon as the man left, a lion found him and killed him.

While your servant was busy here and there, the prisoner escaped." The king told him, "By your actions you've earned the proper judgment!"

But Jehoshaphat asked, "Isn't there a prophet of the LORD left here that we could talk to?"

Elijah instructed Elisha, "Remain here on this side, please, because the LORD is sending me as far as Bethel." But Elisha replied, "As the LORD lives, I'm not going to leave you while you're still alive!" So they both went on to Bethel.

Elijah also spoke to him, "Elisha, remain here on this side, please, because the LORD is sending me to Jericho." But Elisha responded, "As the LORD lives, and while you're still alive, I'm not going to leave you!" So they went to Jericho.

Elijah also spoke to him, "Elisha, remain here on this side, please, because the LORD is sending me to the Jordan River."

Then they asked Elisha, "Look! We have 50 valiant men here with your servant! Please let them go out and search for your master Elijah. Perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has taken him up on a mountain or into a valley." Elisha responded, "Don't bother searching."

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."

Jehoshaphat asked, "Isn't there a prophet who belongs to the LORD and through whom we can ask the LORD a question?" One of the king of Israel's attendants replied, "Shaphat's son Elisha lives here. He used to be Elijah's personal attendant."

He told her, "Go out to all of your neighbors in the surrounding streets and borrow lots of pots from them. Don't get just a few empty vessels, either.

So she left Elisha, shut the door behind her and her children, and while they kept on bringing vessels to her, she kept on pouring oil.

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

Some time later, Elisha went to Shunem, where he met a prominent and wealthy woman who persuaded him to have a meal with her. As a result, whenever he was in the area, he stopped by to eat with her.

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.

He told his attendant Gehazi, "Call this Shunammite." So when he had summoned her, she stood in front of him.

Elisha told him, "Ask her, "Look how you've gone to all this trouble to care for us! What can I do for you? Do you wish to be mentioned to the king or to the head of the army?'" She replied, "I'm at home living among my own people."

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

"Call her," Elisha ordered. After he called her, she came and stood in the doorway,

and he told her, "About this time next year you will be embracing a son."

"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.

So his father ordered his servant, "Carry him over to his mother!" So the servant carried him over to his mother, where he rested on her lap until mid-day, and then he died.

Then she called to her husband and asked him, "Please send me one of the servants, along with one of the donkeys, so I can ride quickly to see that godly man. I'll be right back."

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."

So she saddled a donkey and told her servant, "Forward, driver! Don't slow down on my account, unless I tell you!"

When the man of God noticed her from a distance, he told his attendant Gehazi, "Look! There's the woman from Shunem! Please run out quickly and greet her. Ask her, "Are things going well with you? Are things going well with your husband? Are things going well with your child?'" She answered Gehazi, "Things are going well."

As she came near the man of God on the mountain, she grabbed his feet. When Gehazi intervened to push her away, the man of God said, "Leave her alone! She is deeply troubled! The LORD has concealed the thing from me, and hasn't informed me."

At this, the youngster's mother replied, "As long as you and the LORD live, I'm not leaving you!" So he got up and followed her.

He called out to Gehazi, "Go get the Shunammite woman!" So he called her. When she came in to see Elisha, he told her, "Take back your son!"

Then she approached him, fell at his feet, bowing low to the ground, took back her son, and went out.

She mentioned to her mistress, "If only my master were to visit the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."

Then the king asked her, "What's bothering you?"

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?"

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?

If we tell ourselves, "Let's remain in the city,' we'll die there since there's famine in the city. But if we sit here, we'll die, too. So let's go over to the Arameans! If they spare our lives, we'll live, and if they kill us"we're dying anyway!"

The LORD had made the Aramean army hear the sounds of chariots, horses, and a large army, so they told one another, "Look! The king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the Egyptians to come attack us!"

One of his attendants suggested, "Please, let's take five of the remaining horses, since those who remain here will end up like the rest of Israel, which has already died, and we'll send them out to look."

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!"

So the woman followed the instructions given to her by the man of God, and she went to the territory of the Philistines to live for seven years with her household.

At the end of the seven years, the woman returned from the territory of the Philistines and went to the king in order to file an appeal regarding her house and her grain field.

Just as he was telling the king about Elisha's having restored the dead to life, the woman whose son had been restored arrived and appealed to the king for her house and her land! Gehazi told the king, "Your majesty, this is the woman! And here's her son, whom Elisha restored to life!"

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!"

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 soon as Joram noticed Jehu, he cried out, "Peace, Jehu?" Jehu replied, "What peace, given your mother Jezebel's prostitution and all of her witchcraft?"

As soon as Jehu arrived at Jezreel, Jezebel adorned her eyes, arranged her hair, and peered out a window.

he ordered, "Throw her down!"

So they did, and her blood splashed against the wall and on the horses, while Jehu trampled her underfoot. Later on, after he had come in to eat and drink, he ordered, "Go and see to this cursed woman, and bury her, because she was a king's daughter."

But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing left of her except her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands.

"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."'"

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."

As soon as Ahaziah's mother Athaliah learned that her son had died, she seized the throne and executed the entire royal bloodline.

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.

So Joash remained hidden with her in the LORD's Temple for six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.

But during the seventh year of her reign, Jehoiada went out and called together the rulers of hundreds, the captains, and the guards, and assembled them together inside the LORD's Temple. He made a covenant with them, making them take an oath in the LORD's Temple, and then he revealed the king's son to them.

"Here's what we'll do: A third of you will enter here on this coming Sabbath dressed as guardians of the watch for the king's palace, with a third of you at the Sur gate, and a third at the gate behind the guards. Keep watch over the palace and defend it.

Two of you who enter here on this coming Sabbath are to stand watch at the LORD's Temple,

She looked around and there was the king, standing near a column, as was the royal custom! He was accompanied by the commanding officers, along with trumpeters who stood beside the king. All the people of the land sounded trumpets in their excitement. But Athaliah tore her clothes and bellowed, "It's a plot! A conspiracy!"

Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains in charge of the army, "Take her out the back way and execute anybody who follows her," since the priest had also issued this order: "Let's not put her to death in the LORD's Temple."

So they arrested Athaliah, took her out through the same entrance used by the horses for entering the king's palace, and executed her.

In reply, Isaiah responded to them, "Here's how you're to report to your master:

"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!

"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

therefore this is what the LORD God of Israel says: "Look! I'm going to bring such a disaster to Jerusalem and Judah that both ears of those who hear about it will ring.

So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophet Huldah, the wife of Tikvah's son Shallum, the grandson of Harhas and supervisor of the royal wardrobe, who lived in the Second Quarter in Jerusalem. They spoke with her,

Lotan's descendants were Hori and Homam. Lotan's sister was Timna.

Here's a list of kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelis, beginning with Beor's son Bela (his city was named Dinhabah).

Here's a list of Israel's sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun,

Hezron's son Caleb had children by his wife Azubah and by Jerioth. These were her sons: Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon.

When Azubah died, Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur.

Hur fathered Uri, and Uri fathered Bezalel.

Later, Hezron married the daughter of Machir, who had fathered Gilead. He married her when he was 60 years old, and she bore him Segub.

The son of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, was Shobal, who fathered Kiriath-jearim, Salma, who fathered Bethlehem, and Hareph, who fathered Beth-gader.

Shobal, who fathered Kiriath-jearim, had other sons, including Haroeh, half of the Menuhoth.

Judah's descendants were Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal.

These were the descendants of Hur, Ephrathah's firstborn, who fathered Bethlehem: Tekoa's father Ashhur had two wives, Helah and Naarah.

Here is a record of the descendants of Reuben, Israel's firstborn. (He was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's marriage bed, his birthright was transferred to the descendants of Israel's son Joseph. As a result, Reuben is not enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright.

These were the descendants of Huri's son Abihail, who was fathered by Jaroah, who was fathered by Gilead, who was fathered by Michael, who was fathered by Jeshishai, who was fathered by Jahdo, and who was fathered by Buz:

So the God of Israel incited King Pul of Assyria (also known as King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria), who took them prisoner and brought the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to Halah, Habor, Hara, and to the Gozan River, where they remain to this day.

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.

Hurai from the wadis of Gaash, Abiel the Arbathite,

Here's a list of those who came to David at Ziklag when he was unable to travel freely due to Saul son of Kish. They were among the elite soldiers who assisted him in battle.

Here's a list of the children whom he fathered while in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

When you hear the sound of marching coming from the tops of the balsam trees, then go out to battle, because God will have gone out ahead of you to destroy the Philistine army."

But as the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD approached the City of David, Saul's daughter Michal was peering out a window, watching King David dancing and cavorting around, and she despised him in her heart.

After David had settled down to live in his palace, he spoke with the prophet Nathan. "Look, here I am living in this cedar palace, but the ark of the LORD's covenant remains surrounded by curtains!"

When the Ammonites realized that they had created quite a stink with David, Hanun and the Ammonites spent 1,000 silver talents to hire chariots and mercenaries from Mesopotamia, from Aram-maacah, and from Zobah.

But Ornan replied to David, "Take it! Let your majesty the king do whatever seems like a good idea to him. Look here! I'm giving the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing machinery for the wood, and the wheat for a grain offering. I'm giving all of it."

Now look! Here are the ranks of the priests and the descendants of Levi for the entire service of the Temple of God, and in all of the work there will be all types of volunteers who have skills for anything needed for the services. Furthermore, the officers and all of the people will be at your complete command."