2 Kings 2–4

Elijah Taken Away from Elisha

2When Yahweh was about to take Elijah up in the storm to heaven, Elijah and Elisha went from Gilgal. ²Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for Yahweh has sent me up to Bethel.” Elisha said, “As Yahweh lives^a and as your soul lives,^b I will certainly not leave you!” So they went down to Bethel. ³Then 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^c today?” He said, “I also know; be quiet!”

⁴Elijah said to him, “Elisha, please stay here because Yahweh has sent me to Jericho.” And he said, “As Yahweh lives^d and as your soul lives,^e I will certainly not leave you!” So they came to Jericho. ⁵Then 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^f today?” He said, “I also know; be quiet!”

⁶Then Elijah said to him, “Please stay here, because Yahweh has sent me to the Jordan.” He said, “As Yahweh lives^g and as your soul lives,^h I will certainly not leave you!” So the two of them went on. ⁷Then fifty men from the sons of the prophets went and stood opposite them at a distance while the two of them stood by the Jordan. ⁸Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water. It divided in two,ⁱ and the two of them crossed over on dry land.

⁹After they crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I may do for you before I am taken away from you.” Then Elisha said, “Please let there come to me a double portion of your spirit.” ¹⁰He said, “What you ask is difficult. If you see me being taken from you, it will be so for you, but if not, it will not happen.” ¹¹Then they were walking, talking as they went. Suddenly a fiery chariot with horses of fire appeared and separated between the two of them. Elijah went up in the storm to the heavens ¹²while 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.

¹³Then he picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen off of him, and he returned and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴He 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,^j and Elisha crossed over.

Elisha Begins His Ministry

¹⁵When 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. ¹⁶Then 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.” ¹⁷But 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. ¹⁸Then they returned to him while he was staying in Jericho. He said to them, “Did I not tell you not to go?”

¹⁹The men of the city said to Elisha, “Please now, the location of the city is good, as my master can see, but the water is bad and the land unproductive.” ²⁰So he said, “Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. ²¹Then he went out to the spring of waters and threw the salt into it there and said, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘I hereby purify these waters; let there be no longer any death or unproductiveness from it.’ ” ²²Then the waters were purified until this very day according to the word of Elisha that he spoke.

²³Then 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!” ²⁴When he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of Yahweh. Then two bears came out of the forest and mauled forty-two boys among them. ²⁵Then he went from there to Mount Carmel and from there he returned to Samaria.

Joram Meets Moab in Battle

3Now Joram the son of Ahab had become king over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. He reigned twelve years ²and did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, yet not as his father or his mother, as he removed the stone pillars of Baal that his father had made. ³But he did cling to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who caused Israel to sin, and he did not depart from it.

⁴Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he used to deliver to the king of Israel a hundred thousand male lambs and a hundred thousand wool rams. ⁵It happened that when Ahab died, Mesha king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. ⁶So King Joram went out on that day from Samaria, and he mustered all of Israel. ⁷He went and sent a message to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, saying, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me against Moab for the battle?” And he said, “I will go up. I am like you;^a my people are like your people;^b my horses are like your horses.”^{c 8}Then he said, “Which way shall we go up?” And he answered, “By way of the wilderness of Edom.”

⁹So the king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom went around, a way of seven days, but there was no water for the army or for the animals that were with them.^{d 10}Then the king of Israel said, “Aha, Yahweh has called for these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” ¹¹Then Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no prophet of Yahweh here that we might inquire of Yahweh from him?” One of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.”^{e 12}Jehoshaphat said, “The word of Yahweh is with him.” So the king of Israel, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom went down to him.

¹³Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What do we have in common?^f 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.” ¹⁴Then Elisha said, “As Yahweh of hosts lives,^g before whom I stand, surely if I was not regarding the face^h of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would have not looked at you nor even glanced at you. ¹⁵But now, bring me a musician.” It happened that at the moment the musician played, the hand of Yahweh came upon him. ¹⁶He said, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Make this wadi full of cisterns,’^{i 17}for thus says Yahweh, ‘You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this wadi will be full of water; and you and all of your livestock and your animals shall drink.’ ¹⁸And since this is too trivial in the eyes of Yahweh, he will also give Moab into your hand, ¹⁹and you shall defeat every fortified city, every choice city, and you shall fell every good tree. All of the springs of water you shall stop up, and every tract of good land you shall ruin with the stones.” ²⁰It happened in the morning about the time of the morning offering, that water was suddenly coming from the direction of Edom and the land was filled with water.

²¹Now all of Moab had heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, and all who were fighting age and up^j were called up, and they stood at the border. ²²When they arose early in the morning, the sun shone on the waters, and Moab saw the waters from the opposite side as red as blood. ²³Then they said, “This is blood! Certainly the kings have fought one another, and each has killed his neighbor. Now, to the war booty, O Moab!” ²⁴But when they came to the camp of Israel, Israel stood up and killed Moab, so that they fled from before them. They came at her and defeated Moab. ²⁵The cities they tore down, on every good tract of land they threw stones until it was filled up, every spring of water they stopped up, and every good tree they felled. They let the stone walls at Kir Hareseth remain, but the slingers surrounded and attacked it. ²⁶When 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. ²⁷He 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.

Elisha Answers a Widow’s Request

4A certain woman from the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. Now you know that your servant was a fearer of Yahweh, but the creditor came to take two of my children for himself as slaves. ²Elisha asked her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” Then she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of olive oil.” ³Then he said to her, “Go, ask for yourself some containers from the streets, from all your neighbors. You must collect as many empty containers as you can!^{a 4}You must also go and shut the door behind you and your children, and you must pour out oil into all of these containers and set the filled ones aside.” ⁵So she went from him, and she shut the door behind her and her children. They were bringing containers to her, and she kept pouring. ⁶It happened that when the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring near me another container,” but he said to her, “There is not another container.” Then the olive oil stopped flowing. ⁷So she came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the olive oil and repay your debt. You and your sons can live on what is left over.”

Elisha at Shunem

⁸It 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. ⁹She said to her husband, “Please now, I know that he is a holy man of…