2 Kings 2–4

Elijah Is Taken Up to Heaven

2The time came for the Lord to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha set out from Gilgal, ²and on the way Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to Bethel.”

But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on to Bethel.

³A group of prophets who lived there went to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”

“Yes, I know,” Elisha answered. “But let’s not talk about it.”

⁴Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to Jericho.”

But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on to Jericho.

⁵A group of prophets who lived there went to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”

“Yes, I know,” Elisha answered. “But let’s not talk about it.”

⁶Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to the River Jordan.”

But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on, ⁷and 50 of the prophets followed them to the Jordan. Elijah and Elisha stopped by the river, and the 50 prophets stood a short distance away. ⁸Then Elijah took off his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water with it; the water divided, and he and Elisha crossed to the other side on dry ground. ^9*There, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what you want me to do for you before I am taken away.”

“Let me receive the share of your power that will make me your successor,”^d Elisha answered.

¹⁰“That is a difficult request to grant,” Elijah replied. “But you will receive it if you see me as I am being taken away from you; if you don’t see me, you won’t receive it.”

¹¹They kept talking as they walked on; then suddenly a chariot of fire pulled by horses of fire came between them, and Elijah was taken up to heaven by a whirlwind. ^12*Elisha saw it and cried out to Elijah, “My father, my father! Mighty defender of Israel! You are gone!” And he never saw Elijah again.

In grief, Elisha tore his cloak in two. ¹³Then he picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴He struck the water with Elijah’s cloak, and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Then he struck the water again, and it divided, and he walked over to the other side. ¹⁵The 50 prophets from Jericho saw him and said, “The power of Elijah is on Elisha!” They went to meet him, bowed down before him, ¹⁶and said, “There are fifty of us here, all strong men. Let us go and look for your master. Maybe the spirit of the Lord has carried him away and left him on some mountain or in some valley.”

“No, you must not go,” Elisha answered.

¹⁷But they insisted until he gave in and let them go. The 50 of them went and looked high and low for Elijah for three days, but didn’t find him. ¹⁸Then they returned to Elisha, who had waited at Jericho, and he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”

Miracles of Elisha

¹⁹Some men from Jericho went to Elisha and said, “As you know, sir, this is a fine city, but the water is bad and causes miscarriages.”

²⁰“Put some salt in a new bowl, and bring it to me,” he ordered. They brought it to him, ²¹and he went to the spring, threw the salt in the water, and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I make this water pure, and it will not cause any more deaths or miscarriages.’ ” ²²And that water has been pure ever since, just as Elisha said it would be.

²³Elisha left Jericho to go to Bethel, and on the way some boys came out of a town and made fun of him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they shouted.

²⁴Elisha turned round, glared at them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore 42 of the boys to pieces.

²⁵Elisha went on to Mount Carmel, and later returned to Samaria.

War between Israel and Moab

3In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for twelve years. ²He sinned against the Lord, but he was not as bad as his father or his mother Jezebel; he pulled down the image his father had made for the worship of Baal. ³Yet, like King Jeroboam son of Nebat before him, he led Israel into sin, and would not stop.

⁴King Mesha of Moab bred sheep, and every year he gave as tribute to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs, and the wool from 100,000 sheep. ⁵But when King Ahab of Israel died, Mesha rebelled against Israel. ⁶At once King Joram left Samaria and gathered all his troops. ⁷He sent word to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you join me in war against him?”

“I will,” King Jehoshaphat replied. “I am at your disposal, and so are my men and my horses. ⁸What route shall we take for the attack?”

“We will go the long way, through the wilderness of Edom,” Joram answered.

⁹So King Joram and the kings of Judah and Edom set out. After marching for seven days, they ran out of water, and there was none left for the men or the pack animals. ¹⁰“We’re done for!” King Joram exclaimed. “The Lord has put the three of us at the mercy of the king of Moab!”

¹¹King Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there a prophet here through whom we can consult the Lord?”

An officer of King Joram’s forces answered, “Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He was Elijah’s assistant.”

¹²“He is a true prophet,” King Jehoshaphat said. So the three kings went to Elisha.

¹³“Why should I help you?” Elisha said to the king of Israel. “Go and consult those prophets that your father and mother consulted.”

“No!” Joram replied. “It is the Lord who has put us three kings at the mercy of the king of Moab.”

¹⁴Elisha answered, “By the living Lord, whom I serve, I swear that I would have nothing to do with you if I didn’t respect your ally King Jehoshaphat of Judah. ¹⁵Now get me a musician.”

As the musician played his harp, the power of the Lord came on Elisha, ¹⁶and he said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Dig ditches all over this dry stream bed. ¹⁷Even though you will not see any rain or wind, this stream bed will be filled with water, and you, your livestock, and your pack animals will have plenty to drink.’ ” ¹⁸And Elisha continued, “But this is an easy thing for the Lord to do; he will also give you victory over the Moabites. ¹⁹You will conquer all their beautiful fortified cities; you will cut down all their fruit trees, stop all their springs, and ruin all their fertile fields by covering them with stones.”

²⁰The next morning, at the time of the regular morning sacrifice, water came flowing from the direction of Edom, and covered the ground.

²¹When the Moabites heard that the three kings had come to attack them, all the men who could bear arms, from the oldest to the youngest, were called out and stationed at the border. ²²When they got up the following morning, the sun was shining on the water, making it look as red as blood. ²³“It’s blood!” they exclaimed. “The three enemy armies must have fought and killed each other! Let’s go and loot their camp!”

²⁴But when they reached the camp, the Israelites attacked them and drove them back. The Israelites kept up the pursuit,^e slaughtering the Moabites ²⁵and destroying their cities. As they passed a fertile field, every Israelite would throw a stone on it until finally all the fields were covered; they also stopped up the springs and cut down the fruit trees. At last only the capital city of Kir Heres^f was left, and the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

²⁶When the king of Moab realized that he was losing the battle, he took 700 swordsmen with him and tried to force his way through the enemy lines and escape to the king of Syria,^g but he failed. ²⁷So he took his eldest son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him on the city wall as a sacrifice to the god of Moab. The Israelites were terrified^h and so they drew back from the city and returned to their own country.

Elisha Helps a Poor Widow

4The widow of a member of a group of prophets went to Elisha and said, “Sir, my husband has died! As you know, he was a God-fearing man, but now a man he owed money to has come to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband’s debt.”

²“What shall I do for you?” he asked. “Tell me, what have you got at home?”

“Nothing at all, except a small jar of olive oil,” she answered.

³“Go to your neighbours and borrow as many empty jars as you can,” Elisha told her. ⁴“Then you and your sons go into the house, close the door, and start pouring oil into the jars. Set each one aside as soon as it is full.”

⁵So the woman went into her house with her sons, closed the door, took the small jar of olive oil, and poured oil into the jars as her sons brought them to her. ⁶When they had filled all the jars, she asked if there were any more. “That was the last one,” one of her sons answered. And the olive oil stopped flowing. ⁷She went back to Elisha, the prophet, who said to her, “Sell the olive oil and pay all your debts, and there will be enough money left over for you and your sons to live on.”

Elisha and the Rich Woman from Shunem

⁸One day Elisha went to Shunem, where a rich woman lived. She invited him to a meal, and from then on every time he went to Shunem he would have his meals at her house. ⁹She said to her husband, “I am sure that this man who comes here so often is a holy man. ¹⁰Let’s build a small room on the roof, put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it, and he can stay there whenever he visits us.”

¹¹One day Elisha returned to Shunem and went up to his room to rest. ¹²He told his servant Gehazi to go and call the woman. When she came, ¹³he said to Gehazi, “Ask her what I can do for her in return for all the trouble she has had in providing for our needs. Maybe she would like me to go to the king or the army commander and put in…