2 Kings 8:9–29

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.