2 Kings 6–7

6TH CHAPTER

Elisha and the Floating Ax Head

¹The disciples of the prophets said to Elisha, “The place where we’re staying is too small for us. ²Let’s go to the Jordan River. Each of us can get some logs and make a place for us to live there.” 

Elisha said, “Go ahead.” 

³Then one of the disciples asked, “Won’t you please come with us?” 

Elisha answered, “I’ll go.” 

⁴So he went with them. They came to the Jordan River and began to cut down trees. ⁵As one of them was cutting down a tree, the ax head fell into the water. He cried out, “Oh no, master! It was borrowed!” 

⁶The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed Elisha the place, Elisha cut off a piece of wood. He threw it into the water at that place and made the ax head float. ⁷Elisha said, “Pick it up.” The disciple reached for it and picked it up. 

The Aramean Army Is Struck with Blindness

⁸Whenever the king of Aram was fighting against Israel, he asked for advice from his officers about where they were to camp. 

⁹So the man of God would send a message to the king of Israel, “Be careful not to go by that place. The Arameans are hiding there.” ¹⁰Then the king of Israel would send someone to the place that the man of God told him about. Elisha warned them so that they would be on their guard. He did this repeatedly. 

¹¹The king of Aram was very angry about this. He called his officers and asked them, “Won’t you tell me who among us is ⸤a spy⸥ for the king of Israel?” 

¹²One of his officers answered, “No one, Your Majesty. Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel everything you say—even what you say in your bedroom.” 

¹³The king said, “Find out where he is. Then I will send men to capture him.” 

The king was told, “He is in Dothan.” ¹⁴So the king sent horses and chariots and a large fighting unit there. They came at night and surrounded the city. 

¹⁵When the servant of the man of God got up in the morning and went outside, he saw troops, horses, and chariots surrounding the city. Elisha’s servant asked, “Master, what should we do?” 

¹⁶Elisha answered, “Don’t be afraid. We have more forces on our side than they have on theirs.” ¹⁷Then Elisha prayed, “Lord, please open his eyes so that he may see.” The Lord opened the servant’s eyes and let him see. The mountain around Elisha was full of fiery horses and chariots. 

¹⁸As the Arameans came down to get him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Please strike these people with blindness.” The Lord struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. ¹⁹Elisha told them, “This isn’t the way! This isn’t the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you’re looking for.” So he led them into Samaria. ²⁰When they came into Samaria, Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men, and let them see.” The Lord opened their eyes and let them see that they were in the middle of Samaria. 

²¹When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Master, should I kill them? Should I kill them?” 

²²Elisha answered, “Don’t kill them. Do you kill everyone you take captive in combat? Give them food and water. Let them eat and drink. Then let them go back to their master.” 

²³So the king prepared a great feast for them. They ate and drank, and then he sent them back to their master. After this, Aramean troops didn’t raid Israel’s territory anymore. 

The Aramean Army Blockades Samaria

²⁴Later King Benhadad of Aram assembled his whole army. They went to Samaria and blockaded it. ²⁵The shortages caused by the blockade of Samaria became so severe that a donkey’s head sold for two pounds of silver and a half-pint of dove^amanure for two ounces of silver. 

²⁶As the king of Israel was walking on the city wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, Your Majesty!” 

²⁷He answered, “If the Lord doesn’t help you, how can I help you? I can’t give you something from the threshing floor^bor the winepress.” ²⁸Then the king asked her, “What’s the matter?” 

She answered, “This woman told me, ‘Give up your son. Let’s eat him today. We’ll eat my son tomorrow.’ ²⁹So we boiled my son and ate him. The next day I told her, ‘Give up your son. We’ll eat him,’ but she hid her son.” 

³⁰When the king heard the woman say this, he tore his clothes ⸤in distress⸥. As he was walking on the city wall, the people saw that he was wearing sackcloth under his clothes. ³¹He said, “May God strike me dead if the head of Elisha, son of Shaphat, stays on his ⸤body⸥ today.” 

³²Elisha was sitting in his home with the ⸤city’s⸥ leaders. The king had sent one of his men ahead of him ⸤to Elisha’s house⸥. But before the messenger arrived, Elisha asked the leaders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to tear off my head? When the messenger comes, close the door. Hold it shut because the king will be following him.” 

³³While he was still talking to them, the messenger arrived. He said to Elisha, “This severe famine is from the Lord. Why should I wait any longer for the Lord ⸤to help us⸥?” 

7TH CHAPTER

¹Elisha answered, “Listen to the Lord’s word! This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow 24 cups of the best flour will sell for half an ounce of silver in the gateway to Samaria. And 48 cups of barley will sell for half an ounce of silver.” 

²The servant on whose arm the king was leaning answered the man of God, “Could this happen even if the Lord poured rain through windows in the sky?” 

Elisha replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it.” 

The Aramean Army Flees

³Four men with skin diseases were at the entrance of the city gate. One of them asked, “Why are we sitting here waiting to die? ⁴If we go into the city, the famine is also there, and we’ll still die. But if we stay here, we’ll die. So let’s go to the Aramean camp. If they give us something to keep us alive, we’ll live. But if they kill us, we’ll die anyway.” ⁵So they started out at dusk to go into the Aramean camp. When they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there. 

⁶(The Lord had made the Aramean army hear what sounded like chariots, horses, and a large army. The Aramean soldiers said to one another, “The king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” ⁷So at dusk they fled. They abandoned the camp as it was with its tents, horses, and donkeys and ran for their lives.) 

⁸When the men with skin diseases came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent, ate and drank, and carried off the silver, gold, and clothes they found in that tent. They went away and hid them. Then they came back, went into another tent, carried off its contents, went away, and hid them. 

⁹Then they said to one another, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news, and we’re not telling anyone about it. If we wait until morning when it’s light out, we’ll be punished. Let’s bring the news to the royal palace.” ¹⁰So they called the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp, and we didn’t see or hear anyone. The horses and donkeys were still tied up. Even the tents were left exactly as they were.” 

¹¹The gatekeepers announced the news to the royal palace. ¹²So the king got up at night and told his officers what the Arameans had planned for them. He said, “They know we’re starving, so they’ve left the camp to hide in the countryside. They’re thinking, ‘When they’ve left the city, we’ll capture them alive and get into the city.’ ” 

¹³One of his officers replied, “Please let some men take five of the horses that are left here. Those men will be no worse off than the rest of the Israelites who are dying. Let’s send them to take a look.” ¹⁴So they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them to follow the Aramean army and told them to find out what happened. ¹⁵They followed them as far as the Jordan River and saw how the whole road was littered with clothes and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their hurry. The messengers returned and told the king about it. 

¹⁶So the people went out and looted the Aramean camp. Then 24 cups of the best flour sold for half an ounce of silver, and 48 cups of barley sold for half an ounce of silver, as the Lord had predicted. 

¹⁷The king appointed the servant on whose arm he used to lean to be in charge of the gate. But the people trampled him to death in the gateway, as the man of God had predicted when the king came to him. ¹⁸(It happened exactly as the man of God told the king, “48 cups of barley will sell for half an ounce of silver. And 24 cups of the best flour will sell for half an ounce of silver. This will happen about this time tomorrow in the gateway to Samaria.” ¹⁹Then the servant answered the man of God, “Could this happen even if the Lord poured rain through windows in the sky?” Elisha answered, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it.”) ²⁰So this is what happened to the king’s servant: The people trampled him to death in the gateway.