April 28

2 Kings 6:1 — 8:15

6 And the sons of the prophets began to say to Elisha: “Look, now! The place where we are dwelling before you is too cramped for us. 2 Let us go, please, as far as the Jordan and take from there each one a beam and make for ourselves there a place in which to dwell.” So he said: “Go.” 3 And a certain one went on to say: “Come on, please, and go with your servants.” At that he said: “I myself shall go.” 4 Accordingly he went with them, and they finally came to the Jordan and began to cut down the trees. 5 And it came about that a certain one was felling his beam, and the axhead itself fell into the water. And he began to cry out and say: “Alas, my master, for it was borrowed!” 6 Then the man of the [true] God said: “Where did it fall?” So he showed him the place. Immediately he cut off a piece of wood and threw it there and made the axhead float. 7 He now said: “Lift it up for yourself.” At once he thrust his hand out and took it.

8 And the king of Syria, for his part, became involved in war against Israel. Accordingly he took counsel with his servants, saying: “At such and such a place YOU will encamp with me.” 9 Then the man of the [true] God sent to the king of Israel, saying: “Guard yourself against passing by this place, because there is where the Syrians are coming down.” 10 So the king of Israel sent to the place that the man of the [true] God had said to him. And he warned him, and he kept away from there, not once or twice.

11 Consequently the heart of the king of Syria became enraged over this matter, so that he called his servants and said to them: “Will YOU not tell me who from those who belong to us is for the king of Israel?” 12 Then one of his servants said: “None, my lord the king, but it is Elisha the prophet who is in Israel that tells the king of Israel the things that you speak in your inner bedroom.” 13 So he said: “YOU men go and see where he is, that I may send and take him.” Later the report was made to him, saying: “There he is in Dothan.” 14 Immediately he sent horses and war chariots and a heavy military force there; and they proceeded to come by night and close in upon the city.

15 When the minister of the man of the [true] God rose early to get up, and went out, why, there a military force was surrounding the city with horses and war chariots. At once his attendant said to him: “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 But he said: “Do not be afraid, for there are more who are with us than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha began to pray and say: “O Jehovah, open his eyes, please, that he may see.” Immediately Jehovah opened the attendant’s eyes, so that he saw; and, look! the mountainous region was full of horses and war chariots of fire all around Elisha.

18 When they began to come down to him, Elisha went on to pray to Jehovah and say: “Please, strike this nation with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. 19 Elisha now said to them: “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and let me conduct YOU to the man YOU look for.” However, he conducted them to Samaria.

20 And it came about that as soon as they arrived at Samaria, Elisha then said: “O Jehovah, open the eyes of these that they may see.” Immediately Jehovah opened their eyes, and they got to see; and here they were in the middle of Samaria. 21 The king of Israel now said to Elisha as soon as he saw them: “Shall I strike [them] down, shall I strike [them] down, my father?” 22 But he said: “You must not strike [them] down. Are those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow the ones that you are striking down? Set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their lord.” 23 Accordingly he spread a great feast for them; and they began to eat and drink, after which he sent them away and they went to their lord. And not once did the marauding bands of the Syrians come again into the land of Israel.

24 And it came about afterward that Ben-hadad the king of Syria proceeded to collect all his camp together and to go up and besiege Samaria. 25 In time a great famine arose in Samaria, and, look! they were besieging it until an ass’s head got to be worth eighty silver pieces, and the fourth of a cab measure of dove’s dung was worth five silver pieces. 26 And it came about as the king of Israel was passing along upon the wall that a certain woman cried out to him, saying: “Do save, O my lord the king!” 27 To this he said: “If Jehovah does not save you, from what [source] shall I save you? either from the threshing floor or from the wine or oil press?” 28 And the king went on to say to her: “What is the matter with you?” So she said: “This very woman said to me, ‘Give your son that we may eat him today, and my own son we shall eat tomorrow.’ 29 Accordingly we boiled my son and ate him. Then I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son that we may eat him.’ But she hid her son.”

30 And it came about that as soon as the king heard the woman’s words, he immediately ripped his garments apart; and as he was passing along upon the wall, the people got to see, and, look! sackcloth was underneath upon his flesh. 31 And he went on to say: “So may God do to me, and so may he add to it, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat continues standing upon him today!”

32 And Elisha was sitting in his own house, and the older men were sitting with him, when he sent a man from before him. Before the messenger could come in to him, he himself said to the older men: “Have YOU seen how this son of a murderer has sent to take off my head? See to it: as soon as the messenger comes, close the door, and YOU must press him back with the door. Is there not the sound of the feet of his lord behind him?” 33 While he was yet speaking with them, here was the messenger coming down to him, and [the king] proceeded to say: “Here this is the calamity from Jehovah. Why should I wait any longer for Jehovah?”


7 Elisha now said: “Listen, YOU men, to the word of Jehovah. This is what Jehovah has said, ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah measure of fine flour will be worth a shekel, and two seah measures of barley worth a shekel in the gateway of Samaria.’” 2 At that the adjutant upon whose hand the king was supporting himself answered the man of the [true] God and said: “If Jehovah were making floodgates in the heavens, could this thing take place?” To this he said: “Here you are seeing it with your own eyes, but from it you will not eat.”

3 And there were four men, lepers, that happened to be at the entrance of the gate; and they began to say the one to the other: “Why are we sitting here until we have died? 4 If we had said, ‘Let us enter the city,’ when the famine is in the city, we would also have to die there. And if we do sit here, we shall also have to die. So now come and let us invade the camp of the Syrians. If they preserve us alive, we shall live; but if they put us to death, then we shall have to die.” 5 Accordingly they rose up in the evening darkness to enter the camp of the Syrians; and they got to come as far as the outskirts of the camp of the Syrians, and, look! nobody was there.

6 And Jehovah himself had caused the camp of the Syrians to hear the sound of war chariots, the sound of horses, the sound of a great military force, so that they said to one another: “Look! The king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us!” 7 Immediately they got up and went fleeing in the evening darkness and leaving their tents and their horses and their asses—the camp just as it was—and they kept fleeing for their soul.

8 When these lepers came as far as the outskirts of the camp, they then entered into one tent and began to eat and drink and carry from there silver and gold and garments and go off and stick them away. After that they returned and entered into another tent and carried things from there and went off and stuck them away.

9 Finally they began to say the one to the other: “It is not right what we are doing. This day is a day of good news! If we are hesitating, and we actually wait until the morning light, guilt must also catch up with us. So now come and let us enter and make report at the king’s house.” 10 So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city and reported to them, saying: “We came into the camp of the Syrians, and, look! there was nobody there nor sound of a man, but only the horses tied and the asses tied and the tents just as they were.” 11 At once the gatekeepers called out and they reported to the king’s house inside.

12 Immediately the king rose up by night and said to his servants: “Let me tell YOU, please, what the Syrians have done to us. They well know that we are hungry; and so they went out from the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, ‘They will come out from the city, and we shall catch them alive, and into the city we shall enter.’” 13 Then one of his servants answered and said: “Let them take, please, five of the remaining horses that have remained in the city. Look! They are the same as all the crowd of Israel that have remained in it. Look! They are the same as all the crowd of Israel that have perished. And let us send out and see.” 14 Accordingly they took two chariots with horses and the king sent them out after the camp of the Syrians, saying: “Go and see.” 15 At that they went following them as far as the Jordan; and, look! all the way was full of garments and utensils that the Syrians had thrown away as they were hurrying away. Then the messengers returned and reported to the king.

16 And the people proceeded to go out and plunder the camp of the Syrians; and so a seah measure of fine flour came to be worth a shekel, and two seah measures of barley worth a shekel, according to the word of Jehovah. 17 And the king himself had appointed the adjutant upon whose hand he was supporting himself to have charge of the gateway; and the people kept trampling him in the gateway, so that he died, just as the man of the [true] God had spoken, when he spoke at the time that the king came down to him. 18 Thus it came about just as the man of the [true] God had spoken to the king, saying: “Two seah measures of barley worth a shekel and a seah measure of fine flour worth a shekel it will come to be tomorrow at this time in the gateway of Samaria.” 19 But the adjutant answered the man of the [true] God and said: “Even if Jehovah were making floodgates in the heavens, could it take place according to this word?” To this he said: “Here you are seeing it with your own eyes, but from it you will not eat.” 20 Thus it happened to him like that, when the people kept trampling him in the gateway, so that he died.

8 And Elisha himself had spoken to the woman whose son he had revived, saying: “Rise up and go, you with your household, and reside as an alien wherever you can reside as an alien; for Jehovah has called for a famine, and, besides, it must come upon the land for seven years.” 2 So the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of the [true] God and went, she with her household, and took up residence as an alien in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

3 And it came about at the end of seven years that the woman proceeded to return from the land of the Philistines and go forth to cry out to the king for her house and for her field. 4 Now the king was speaking to Gehazi the attendant of the man of the [true] God, saying: “Do relate to me, please, all the great things that Elisha has done.” 5 And it came about that as he was relating to the king how he had revived the dead one, why, here the woman whose son he had revived was crying out to the king for her house and for her field. At once Gehazi said: “My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha revived.” 6 At that the king asked the woman, and she went on to relate to him the story. Then the king gave her a court official, saying: “Return all that belongs to her and all the products of the field from the day of her leaving the land until now.”

7 And Elisha proceeded to come to Damascus; and Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick. Accordingly the report was made to him, saying: “The man of the [true] God has come as far as here.” 8 At that the king said to Hazael: “Take a gift in your hand and go and meet the man of the [true] God, and you must inquire of Jehovah through him, saying, ‘Shall I revive from this sickness?’” 9 So Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand, even every sort of good thing of Damascus, the load of forty camels, and came and stood before him and said: “Your son, Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I revive from this sickness?’” 10 Then Elisha said to him: “Go, say to him, ‘You will positively revive,’ and Jehovah has shown me that he will positively die.” 11 And he kept a fixed look and kept it set to the point of embarrassment. Then the man of the [true] God gave way to weeping. 12 At this Hazael said: “Why is my lord weeping?” To this he said: “Because I well know what injury you will do to the sons of Israel. Their fortified places you will consign to the fire, and their choice men you will kill with the sword, and their children you will dash to pieces, and their pregnant women you will rip up.” 13 Upon that Hazael said: “What is your servant, [who is a mere] dog, that he could do this great thing?” But Elisha said: “Jehovah has shown me you as king over Syria.”

14 After that he went from Elisha and came to his own lord, who then said to him: “What did Elisha say to you?” To this he said: “He said to me, ‘You will positively revive.’” 15 And it came about on the next day that he proceeded to take a coverlet and dip it in water and spread it out over his face, so that he died. And Hazael began to reign in place of him.