2 Kings 7–9

7Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah^a of the finest flour will sell for a shekel^b and two seahs^c of barley for a shekel^k at the gate of Samaria.”

²The officer on whose arm the king was leaning^l said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates^m of the heavens, could this happen?”

“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eatⁿ any of it!”

The Siege Lifted

³Now there were four men with leprosy^do at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? ⁴If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

⁵At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, ⁶for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound^p of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired^q the Hittite^r and Egyptian kings to attack us!” ⁷So they got up and fled^s in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

⁸The men who had leprosy^t reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

⁹Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”

¹⁰So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” ¹¹The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

¹²The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide^u in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’ ”

¹³One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here—yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”

¹⁴So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” ¹⁵They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight.^v So the messengers returned and reported to the king. ¹⁶Then the people went out and plundered^w the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel,^x as the Lord had said.

¹⁷Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died,^y just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. ¹⁸It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”

¹⁹The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates^z of the heavens, could this happen?” The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!” ²⁰And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.

The Shunammite’s Land Restored

8Now Elisha had said to the woman^a whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine^b in the land that will last seven years.”^{c 2}The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

³At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land. ⁴The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” ⁵Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored^d the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.

Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” ⁶The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.

Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

Hazael Murders Ben-Hadad

⁷Elisha went to Damascus,^e and Ben-Hadad^f king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, “The man of God has come all the way up here,” ⁸he said to Hazael,^g “Take a gift^h with you and go to meet the man of God. Consultⁱ the Lord through him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ ”

⁹Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ ”

¹⁰Elisha answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’^j Nevertheless,^a the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die.” ¹¹He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed.^k Then the man of God began to weep.^l

¹²“Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael.

“Because I know the harm^m you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dashⁿ their little children^o to the ground, and rip open^p their pregnant women.”

¹³Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog,^q accomplish such a feat?”

“The Lord has shown me that you will become king^r of Aram,” answered Elisha.

¹⁴Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, “What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael replied, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” ¹⁵But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died.^s Then Hazael succeeded him as king.

Jehoram King of Judah

8:16–24pp—2Ch 21:5–10,20

¹⁶In the fifth year of Joram^t son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram^u son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. ¹⁷He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. ¹⁸He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter^v of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. ¹⁹Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy^w Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp^x for David and his descendants forever.

²⁰In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king.^{y 21}So Jehoram^b went to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night; his army, however, fled back home. ²²To this day Edom has been in rebellion^z against Judah. Libnah^a revolted at the same time.

²³As for the other events of Jehoram’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? ²⁴Jehoram rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.

Ahaziah King of Judah

8:25–29pp—2Ch 22:1–6

²⁵In the twelfth^b year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. ²⁶Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah,^c a granddaughter of Omri^d king of Israel. ²⁷He followed the ways of the house of Ahab^e and did evil^f in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.

²⁸Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead.^g The Arameans wounded Joram; ²⁹so King Joram returned to Jezreel^h to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth^c in his battle with Hazaelⁱ king of Aram.

Then Ahaziah^j son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.

Jehu Anointed King of Israel

9The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company^k of the prophets and said to him, “Tuck your cloak into your belt,^l take this flask of olive oil^m with you and go to Ramoth Gilead.^{n 2}When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. ³Then take the flask and pour the oil^o on his head and declare, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and run; don’t delay!”

⁴So the young prophet went to Ramoth Gilead. ⁵When he arrived, he found the army officers sitting together. “I have a message for you, commander,” he said.

“For which of us?” asked Jehu.

“For you, commander,” he replied.

⁶Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil^p on Jehu’s head and declared, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord’s people Israel. ⁷You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge^q the blood of my servants^r the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel.^{s 8}The whole house^t of Ahab will…