When the messengers returned to him, he asked them, "Why have you returned?"

Then they said to him, "A man came up to meet us, and he said to us, 'Go, return to the king who sent you and speak to him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you [are] sending to inquire of Baal-Zebub the god of Ekron? Therefore the bed upon which you have gone, you will not come down from it, for you will surely die.'" '"

They answered him, "A {hairy man} with a leather belt girded around his waist." And he said, "It [is] Elijah the Tishbite."

So {Ahaziah} sent to him the commander of fifty with his fifty [men], and he went up to him while he was sitting on the top of the hill. He said to him, " man of God, the king says, 'Come down.'"

Then Elijah answered and said to the commander of the fifty, "If I [am] a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty!" Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

So he {again sent} another commander of fifty and his fifty [men]. He answered and said to him, " man of God, thus says the king, 'Come down quickly!'"

Then Elijah answered and said to them, "If I [am] a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty!" Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

So he {again sent} a third [time] a commander of fifty and his fifty, and the commander of the third fifty went up and came and knelt down on his knees before Elijah and entreated him. He said to him, " man of God, please let my life and the lives of your servants, these fifty, be precious in your eyes.

Then the angel of Yahweh spoke to Elijah, "Go down with him. Do not be afraid because of him." So he got up and went down with him to the king,

and 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 [from whom] to inquire his word?--therefore the bed upon which you went, you shall not come down from it, for you shall surely die.'"

Then the sons of the prophets who [were in] Bethel came out to Elisha, and they said to him, "Do you know that Yahweh [is] going to take your master {from you} today?" He said, "I also know; be quiet!"

Elijah said to him, "Elisha, please stay here because Yahweh has sent me to Jericho." And he said, "{As Yahweh lives} and {as your soul lives}, I will certainly not leave you!" So they came to Jericho.

Then the sons of the prophets who [were] in Jericho came near to Elisha, and they said to him, "Do you know that Yahweh [is] going to take your master {from you} today?" He said, "I also know; be quiet!"

Then Elijah said to him, "Please stay here, because Yahweh has sent me to the Jordan." He said, "{As Yahweh lives} and {as your soul lives}, I will certainly not leave you!" So the two of them went on.

while Elisha [was] watching and crying out, "My father, my father; the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!" But he could not see him any longer, and he grasped his clothes and tore them in two pieces.

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 Elijah's cloak that had fallen from upon him and struck the water. Then he said, "Where is Yahweh, the God of Elijah?" So he also struck the water, and it divided {in two}, and Elisha crossed over.

When the sons of the prophets who [were] at Jericho saw him from [the] other side, they declared, "The spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha," and they came to meet him and bowed down to him to the ground.

Then they said to him, "Look, there are with your servants fifty able men. Please let them go and look for your master, lest the Spirit of Yahweh has lifted him up and thrown him on one of the mountains or into one of the valleys," but he said, "You must not send them."

But they urged him until embarrassing [him], so he said, "Send them." So they sent fifty men, and they looked for three days, but they could not find him.

Then they returned to him while he [was] staying in Jericho. He said to them, "Did I not tell you not to go?"

So he said, "Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.

Then he went up from there [to] Bethel; as he [was] going up along the way, young boys came out from the city and mocked at him and said to him, "Go up, baldhead; go up, baldhead!"

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

Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, "{What do we have in common}? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother." Then the king of Israel said to him, "No, for Yahweh has called for these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab."

But now, bring me a musician." It happened that at the moment the musician played, the hand of Yahweh came upon him.

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

He took his firstborn son who was to become king in his place and offered him [as] a burnt offering on the wall. Great wrath came upon Israel, and they withdrew from him and returned to the land.

So she went from him, and she shut the door behind her and her children. They [were] bringing [containers] to her, and she [kept] pouring.

It happened one day that Elisha passed through to Shunem where there [was] a wealthy woman, and she urged him to eat bread; so it happened each time he passed through, he would stop there to eat.

let us make a small enclosed room [upstairs] and put a bed, table, chair, and lampstand there for him, so that when he comes to us, he can turn and stay there.

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

He said to him, "Please say to her, 'Look, you took all this trouble, showing care for us; what is there [for me] to do for you? To speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army?'" She said, "I [am] living among my people."

Then he said to his father, "My head, my head!" So he said to the servant, "Carry him to his mother."

So they carried him and brought him to his mother; he sat on her lap until noon and then died.

She went up, laid him on the bed of the man of God, closed [the door], and went out behind it.

And he said, "Why are you going to him today? [It is] neither the new moon nor the Sabbath!" And she said, "Peace."

Gehazi crossed over before them, and he put the staff on the face of the boy; but there was no sound, and there was no sign of life, so he returned to meet him. He told him, saying, "The boy did not wake up."

Then he went up and lay upon the child and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his palms on his palms. As he bent down over him, the flesh of the boy became warm.

He returned and went {to and fro} in the house one time, then he went up and bent over him. Then the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

[Elisha] called to Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her and she came to him; then he said, "Pick up your son."

So Elisha returned to Gilgal. Now the famine [was] in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. He said to his servant, put on the large pot and cook a stew for the sons of the prophets.

Now Naaman was the commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man before his master and {highly regarded}, for by him Yahweh had given victory to Aram. Now the man was a mighty warrior, [but he was] afflicted with a skin disease.

So the king of Aram said, "Go, I will send a letter to the king of Israel." He went and took {with him} ten talents of silver, six thousand [shekels of] gold, and ten sets of clothing.

So he brought the letter of the king to Israel, saying, "Now, when this letter comes to you, I have just sent Naaman my servant to you that you may cure him from his skin disease."

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

But his servants came near and spoke to him and said, "My father, [if] the prophet had spoken a difficult thing to you to do, would you not have done [it]? [Why not] even when he says to you, 'Wash and you shall be clean'?"

When he returned to the man of God, he and all of his army, he came and stood before him and said, "Please now, I know that there is no God in all of the world except in Israel. So then, please take a gift from your servant."

And he said, "{As Yahweh lives}, before whom I stand, I surely will not take [it]." [Still] he urged him to take [it], but he refused.

He said to him, "Go in peace," so he went from him {a short distance}.

But Gehazi the servant of Elisha, the man of God, thought, "Look, my master has refrained from taking what this Aramean Naaman brought from his hand. {As Yahweh lives}, I will certainly run after him, and I will accept something from him."

So Gehazi pursued after Naaman. When Naaman saw [someone] running after him, he jumped off his chariot to meet him and asked him, "[Is it] peace?"

Then Naaman said, "Be prepared to accept two talents." So he urged him and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing and gave it to two of his servants and they carried it before him.

When he went and stood by his master, Elisha asked him, "From where have you come, Gehazi?" And he said, "Your servant has not gone {anywhere}."

Then he said to him, "Did not my heart go [with you] as the man turned from on his chariot to meet you? [Is] it time to take silver, clothes, olive orchards, vineyards, sheep, oxen, male slaves, and female slaves?

The skin disease of Naaman shall cling to you and to your offspring forever." Then he went out from before him having a skin disease like the snow.

Then the man of God said, "Where did it fall?" So he showed him the place, and then he cut off a stick and threw [it] there and made the iron ax float.

So the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God said to him and warned him, so he was on guard there {continually}.

Then he said, "Go and see where he [is] so that I can send and capture him." Then he was told to him, "Look, [he is] in Dothan."

The attendant of the man of God arose early and went out, and look, the army [was] surrounding the city with horses and chariots. His servant said to him, "Oh no, my master! What shall we do?"

They came down to him, and Elisha prayed to Yahweh and said, "Please strike this people with blindness," so he struck them with blindness as {Elisha had spoken}.

It happened that the king of Israel [was] crossing over on the wall, and a woman called out to him, saying, "Help, my lord the king!"

The king said to her, "{What is the problem}?" Then the woman said, "This woman said to me, 'Give me your son, and let us eat him today, then tomorrow we will eat my son.'

So we cooked my son and ate him, and I said to her the next day, 'Give your son that we may eat him.' But she had hidden her son."

Then he said, "May God do to me and thus may he add, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today!"

Now Elisha [was] sitting in his house and the elders [were] sitting with him, and [the king] dispatched a man from before him, but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, "Did you see that this son of a murderer has sent to remove my head? Look, when the messenger comes, close the door; and you must {hold the door closed against him}. [Is] not the sound of the feet of his master behind him?"

While he [was] still speaking with them, suddenly the messenger [was] coming down to him, and he said, "Look this trouble [is] from Yahweh. Why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?"

Then the king appointed the officer he was depending on over the gate, but the people trampled him and he died, according to that which the man of God had said which he spoke when the king came down to him.

So it had happened to him; the people trampled him in the gate and he died.

So the king asked the woman, and she told him. So the king appointed for her a certain court official, saying, "Restore all that [is] hers and all the yield of the field from [the] day she left the land up to now."

Then the king said to Hazael, "Take a gift in your hand and go meet the man of God. Inquire of Yahweh from him, saying, 'Shall I recover from this illness?'"

So Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand of all of the good things of Damascus, a load [on each] of forty camels, and he came and stood before him. Then he said, "Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, 'Shall I recover from this illness?'"

Elisha said to him, "Go; say to him, 'You shall certainly recover,' but Yahweh has shown me that he certainly will die."

Then the man {fixed his gaze and stared at him} until he was ashamed and the man of God cried.

So he departed from Elisha and came to his master. He asked him, "What did Elisha say to you." So he said, "He said to me that you will certainly recover."

Yet Yahweh was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, as he had promised to give him a lamp for his sons always.

So Joram crossed over to Zair and all the chariots with him. It happened that he arose [by] night and attacked Edom who had surrounded him and the commanders of the chariots; but the army fled to their tents.

So Joram slept with his ancestors, and he was buried with his ancestors in the city of David, and Ahaziah his son became king in place of him.

Joram the king returned to Jezreel to heal from the wounds which the Arameans had inflicted at Ramah when Hazael king of Aram fought him. Ahaziah the son of Joram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he [was] ill.

Now Elisha the prophet called for one of the sons of the prophets, and he said to him, "Gird your loins, and take this flask of olive oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-Gilead.

Go there and look there for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi. Go, for you must cause him to arise from among his brothers, and you must bring him into an {inner room}.

He got up and went to the house, and poured the olive oil on his head and said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'I hereby anoint you as king over the people of Yahweh, over Israel.

Then Jehu came out to the officers of his master, and they said to him, "Peace? Why did this madman come to you?" And he said to them, "You know the man and his foolish talk."

So they hastened each one to take his cloak, and they spread [them] under him on the bare steps, blew on the trumpet, and said, "Jehu is king!"

But Joram the king had returned to heal in Jezreel from the wound which the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Aram. Jehu said, "{If this is what you want}, do not let him go out as a fugitive from the city to go to make it known in Jezreel."

Now the watchman [was] standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu when he came, and he said, "I see a company." Joram said, "Take a horseman and send [him] to meet them." And he said, "Is it peace?"

So the rider of the horse went out to meet him, and he said, "Thus the king asks, 'Is it peace?'" Then Jehu said, "{What do you have to do with peace}? Turn after me." Then the watchman reported, saying, "The messenger went up to them, but he did not return."

Then Joram said, "Get ready," so he got his chariot ready. Joram king of Israel went out, and Ahaziah king of Judah, each with his chariot. They went out to meet Jehu, and they found him at the tract of land of Naboth the Jezreelite.

He said to Bidkar his third [servant], "Lift [him] out and throw him on the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for remember, you and I [were] with the pair [of chariots] behind Ahab his father when Yahweh pronounced this oracle against him:

'"Since I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his children yesterday," declares Yahweh, "I will requite it for you in this tract of land," declares Yahweh.' So then lift him out and throw him on the tract of land according to the word of Yahweh."

When Ahaziah king of Judah saw, he fled the way of Beth-Haggen. Jehu pursued after him and said, "Shoot him also, in the chariot." [They shot him] at the ascent of Gur which [is] in Ibleam, and he fled [to] Megiddo, but he died there.

Then his officers carried him to Jerusalem, and they buried him in his tomb with his ancestors in the city of David.

When he lifted up his face to the window, he asked, "Who [is] with me?" Two or three eunuchs looked down to him.

They returned and told him, and he said, "This [is] the word of Yahweh which he spoke by the hand of his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'On the plot of ground of Jezreel, the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel.'"

then you must select the best and the most suitable from the sons of your master, and you must place [him] on the throne of his father, and they must fight for the house of your masters."

But they were very afraid, and they said, "Look, two kings could not stand before him; how can we stand?"

When the letter came to them, they took the sons of the king, and they killed seventy men. Then they put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.

Then the messenger came and told him, saying, "They have brought the heads of the king's sons," and he said, "Put them [in] two piles [at] the entrance of the gate until morning."

It happened in the morning that he went out, stood, and said to all of the people, "You [are] righteous. Look, I conspired against my master and killed him. But who killed all of these?

Then Jehu killed all of the remainder of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all of his leaders, his close friends, and his priests, until there was no survivor left for him.