2 Kings 2:3–15

³The company^b of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?”

“Yes, I know,” Elisha replied, “so be quiet.”

⁴Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, Elisha; the Lord has sent me to Jericho.^c”

And he replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho.

⁵The company^d of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?”

“Yes, I know,” he replied, “so be quiet.”

⁶Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here;^e the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.”^f

And he replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.”^g So the two of them walked on.

⁷Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. ⁸Elijah took his cloak,^h rolled it up and struckⁱ the water with it. The water divided^j to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry^k ground.

⁹When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”

“Let me inherit a double^l portion of your spirit,”^m Elisha replied.

¹⁰“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”

¹¹As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fireⁿ and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven^o in a whirlwind.^{p 12}Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots^q and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore^r it in two.

¹³Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴He took the cloak^s that had fallen from Elijah and struck^t the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.

¹⁵The company^u of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit^v of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.