2 Kings 7–9

7Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says: ‘About this time tomorrow at Samaria’s gate, six quarts of fine flour will sell for a half ounce of silver and twelve quarts of barley will sell for a half ounce of silver.’ ”^u

²Then the captain, the king’s right-hand man,^v responded to the man of God,^w “Look, even if the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?”^x

Elisha announced, “You will in fact see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it.”^y

³Now four men with a skin disease^z were at the entrance to the city gate. They said to each other, “Why just sit here until we die? ⁴If we say, ‘Let’s go into the city,’ we will die there because the famine is in the city, but if we sit here, we will also die. So now, come on. Let’s surrender to the Arameans’ camp.^aa If they let us live, we will live; if they kill us, we will die.”

⁵So the diseased men got up at twilight to go to the Arameans’ camp. When they came to the camp’s edge, they discovered that no one was there, ⁶for the Lord^A had caused the Aramean camp to hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a large army.^a The Arameans had said to each other, “The king of Israel must have hired the kings of the Hittites^b and the kings of Egypt^c to attack us.” ⁷So they had gotten up and fled^d at twilight, abandoning their tents, horses, and donkeys. The camp was intact, and they had fled for their lives.

⁸When these diseased men came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent to eat and drink. Then they picked up the silver, gold, and clothing and went off and hid them. They came back and entered another tent, picked things up, and hid them.^{e 9}Then they said to each other, “We’re not doing what is right. Today is a day of good news.^f If we are silent and wait until morning light, our punishment will catch up with us. So let’s go tell the king’s household.”

¹⁰The diseased men came and called to the city’s gatekeepers and told them, “We went to the Aramean camp and no one was there—no human sounds. There was nothing but tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents were intact.” ¹¹The gatekeepers called out, and the news was reported to the king’s household.

¹²So the king got up in the night and said to his servants, “Let me tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving,^g so they have left the camp to hide in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will take them alive and go into the city.’ ”^h

¹³But one of his servants responded, “Please, let messengers take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their fate is like the entire Israelite community who will die,^B so let’s send them and see.”

¹⁴The messengers took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, “Go and see.” ¹⁵So they followed them as far as the Jordan. They saw that the whole way was littered with clothes and equipment the Arameans had thrown off in their haste. The messengers returned and told the king.

¹⁶Then the people went out and plundered the Aramean camp.ⁱ It was then that six quarts of fine flour sold for a half ounce of silver and twelve quarts of barley sold for a half ounce of silver, according to the word of the Lord.^{j 17}The king had appointed the captain, his right-hand man,^k to be in charge of the city gate, but the people trampled him in the gate. He died, just as the man of God had predicted when the king had come to him. ¹⁸When the man of God had said to the king, “About this time tomorrow twelve quarts of barley will sell for a half ounce of silver and six quarts of fine flour will sell for a half ounce of silver at Samaria’s gate,” ¹⁹this captain had answered the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?” Elisha had said, “You will in fact see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it.”^{l 20}This is what happened to him: the people trampled him in the city gate, and he died.

THE SHUNAMMITE’S LAND RESTORED

8Elisha said to the woman whose son he had restored to life,^m “Get ready, you and your household, and go live as a resident alien wherever you can. For the Lord has announced a seven-year famine,ⁿ and it has already come to the land.”

²So the woman got ready and did what the man of God said. She and her household lived as resident aliens in the land of the Philistines for seven years. ³When the woman returned from the land of the Philistines at the end of seven years,^o she went to appeal to the king for her house and field.^p

⁴The king had been speaking to Gehazi,^q the attendant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me all the great things Elisha has done.”

⁵While he was telling the king how Elisha restored the dead son to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life came to appeal to the king for her house and field. So Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman and this is the son Elisha restored to life.”^r

⁶When 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.”

ARAM’S KING HAZAEL

⁷Elisha came to Damascus^s while King Ben-hadad^t of Aram was sick, and the king was told, “The man of God^u has come here.” ⁸So the king said to Hazael,^a “Take a gift^b with you and go meet the man of God. Inquire of the Lord through him, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’ ”^c

⁹Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him a gift: forty camel-loads of all the finest products of Damascus. When he came and stood before him, he said, “Your son,^d King Ben-hadad of Aram, has sent me to ask you, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’ ”

¹⁰Elisha told him, “Go say to him, ‘You are sure to^A recover.’ But the Lord has shown me that he is sure to die.” ¹¹Then he stared steadily at him until he was ashamed.^e

The man of God wept,^{f 12}and Hazael asked, “Why is my lord weeping?”

He replied, “Because I know the evil you will do to the people of Israel. You will set their fortresses on fire. You will kill their young men with the sword. You will dash their children to pieces. You will rip open their pregnant women.”^g

¹³Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog,^h do such a mighty deed?”

Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”ⁱ

¹⁴Hazael 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.” ¹⁵The 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 in his place.

JUDAH’S KING JEHORAM

¹⁶In the fifth year^j of Israel’s King Joram^k son of Ahab, Jehoram^Al son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah, replacing his father.^{Bm 17}He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.^{n 18}He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.^{o 19}For the sake of his servant David, the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah, since he had promised to give a lamp^pC to David and his sons forever.^q

²⁰During Jehoram’s reign, Edom rebelled against Judah’s control and appointed their own king.^{r 21}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.^{s 22}So Edom is still in rebellion against Judah’s control today. Libnah^t also rebelled at that time.

²³The rest of the events of Jehoram’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.^{u 24}Jehoram rested with his ancestors and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Ahaziah became king in his place.^v

JUDAH’S KING AHAZIAH

²⁵In the twelfth year of Israel’s King Joram son of Ahab,^w Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.^{x 26}Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, granddaughter of Israel’s King Omri.^{y 27}He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the Lord’s sight like the house of Ahab,^z for his father had married into^D the house of Ahab.

²⁸Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to fight against King Hazael^aa of Aram in Ramoth-gilead,^ab and the Arameans wounded Joram. ²⁹So King Joram returned to Jezreel^ac to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him in Ramoth-gilead^E when he fought against Aram’s King Hazael.^ad Then Judah’s King Ahaziah son of Jehoram went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab since Joram was ill.

JEHU ANOINTED AS ISRAEL’S KING

9The prophet Elisha called one of the sons of the prophets^ae and said, “Tuck your mantle^af under your belt, take this flask of oil^ag with you, and go to Ramoth-gilead.^{ah 2}When you get there, look for Jehu^ai son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Go in, get him away from his colleagues, and take him to an inner room. ³Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I anoint you king over Israel.” ’^aj Open the door and escape. Don’t wait.” ⁴So the young prophet^A went to Ramoth-gilead.

⁵When he arrived, the army commanders were sitting there, so he said, “I have a message for you, commander.”

Jehu asked, “For which one of us?”

He answered, “For you, commander.”

⁶So Jehu got up and went into the house. The young prophet poured the oil on his head and said, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord’s people, Israel. ⁷You are to strike down the house of your master Ahab so that I may avenge the blood shed by the hand of Jezebel—the blood of my servants the prophets and of all the servants of the Lord.^{a 8}The whole house of Ahab will perish, and I will wipe out all of Ahab’s males,^B both slave and free,^C in Israel.^{b 9}I will make the…