4Then Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Jericho.” “As the LORD lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went on to Jericho. 5The disciples of the prophets who were at Jericho came over to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master a-away from you-a today?” He replied, “I know it, too; be silent.”
6Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.” “As the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you,” he said, and the two of them went on. 7Fifty men of the disciples of the prophets followed and stood by at a distance from them as the two of them stopped at the Jordan. 8Thereupon Elijah took his mantle and, rolling it up, he struck the water; it divided to the right and left, so that the two of them crossed over on dry land. 9As they were crossing, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” Elisha answered, “Let a b-double portion-b of your spirit pass on to me.” 10“You have asked a difficult thing,” he said. “If you see me as I am being taken from you, this will be granted to you; if not, it will not.” 11As they kept on walking and talking, a fiery chariot with fiery horses suddenly appeared and separated one from the other; and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “Oh, father, father! Israel’s chariots and horsemen!” When he could no longer see him, he grasped his garments and rent them in two.
13He picked up Elijah’s mantle, which had dropped from him; and he went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14Taking the mantle which had dropped from Elijah, he struck the water and said, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” As he too struck the water, it parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over. 15When the disciples of the prophets at Jericho saw him from a distance, they exclaimed, “The spirit of Elijah has settled on Elisha!” And they went to meet him and bowed low before him to the ground.
16They said to him, “Your servants have fifty able men with them. Let them go and look for your master; perhaps the spirit of the LORD has carried him off and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” “Do not send them,” he replied. 17But they kept pressing him for a long time, until he said, “Send them.” So they sent out fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him. 18They came back to him while he was still in Jericho; and he said to them, “I told you not to go.”
19The men of the town said to Elisha, “Look, the town is a pleasant place to live in, as my lord can see; but the water is bad and the land causes bereavement.” 20He responded, “Bring me a new dish and put salt in it.” They brought it to him; 21he went to the spring and threw salt into it. And he said, “Thus said the LORD: I heal this water; no longer shall death and bereavement come from it!” 22The water has remained wholesome to this day, in accordance with the word spoken by Elisha.
23From there he went up to Bethel. As he was going up the road, some little boys came out of the town and jeered at him, saying, “Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!” 24He turned around and looked at them and cursed them in the name of the LORD. Thereupon, two she-bears came out of the woods and mangled forty-two of the children. 25He went on from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
3 Jehoram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eight-eenth year of King Jehoshaphat of Judah; and he reigned twelve years. 2He did what was displeasing to the LORD, yet not like his father and mother, for he removed the pillars of Baal that his father had made. 3However, he clung to the sins which Jeroboam son of Nebat caused Israel to commit; he did not depart from them.
4Now King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he used to pay as tribute to the king of Israel a-a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams.-a 5But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. 6So King Jehoram promptly set out from Samaria and mustered all Israel. 7At the same time, he sent this message to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you come with me to make war on Moab?” He replied, “I will go. I will do what you do: my troops shall be your troops, my horses shall be your horses.” 8And he asked, “Which route shall we take?” [Jehoram] replied, “The road through the wilderness of Edom.”
9So the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom set out, and they marched for seven days until they rounded [the tip of the Dead Sea]; and there was no water left for the army or for the animals that were with them. 10“Alas!” cried the king of Israel. “The LORD has brought these three kings together only to deliver them into the hands of Moab.” 11But Jehoshaphat said, “Isn’t there a prophet of the LORD here, through whom we may inquire of the LORD?” One of the courtiers of the king of Israel spoke up and said, “Elisha son of Shaphat, who b-poured water on the hands of-b Elijah, is here.” 12“The word of the LORD is with him,” said Jehoshaphat. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. 13Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have you to do with me? Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets.” But the king of Israel said, “Don’t [say that], for the LORD has brought these three kings together only to deliver them into the hands of Moab.” 14“As the LORD of Hosts lives, whom I serve,” Elisha answered, “were it not that I respect King Jehoshaphat of Judah, I wouldn’t look at you or notice you. 15Now then, get me a musician.”
As the musician played, the hand of the LORD came upon him, 16and he said, “Thus said the LORD: This wadi shall be full of pools. 17For thus said the LORD: You shall see no wind, you shall see no rain, and yet the wadi shall be filled with water; and you and your cattle and your pack animals shall drink. 18And this is but a slight thing in the sight of the LORD, for He will also deliver Moab into your hands. 19You shall conquer every fortified town and every splendid city; you shall fell every good tree and stop up all wells of water; and every fertile field you shall ruin with stones.” 20And in the morning, when it was time to present the meal offering, water suddenly came from the direction of Edom and the land was covered by the water.
21Meanwhile, all the Moabites had heard that the kings were advancing to make war on them; c-every man old enough to bear arms-c rallied, and they stationed themselves at the border. 22Next morning, when they rose, the sun was shining over the water, and from the distance the water appeared to the Moabites as red as blood. 23“That’s blood!” they said. “The kings must have fought among themselves and killed each other. Now to the spoil, Moab!”
24They entered the Israelite camp, and the Israelites arose and attacked the Moabites, who fled before them. d-They advanced, constantly attack-ing-d the Moabites, 25and they destroyed the towns. Every man threw a stone into each fertile field, so that it was covered over; and they stopped up every spring and felled every fruit tree. e-Only the walls of-e Kir-hareseth were left, and then the slingers surrounded it and attacked it. 26Seeing that the battle was going against him, the king of Moab led an attempt of seven hundred swordsmen to break a way through to the king of Edom;f but they failed. 27So he took his first-born son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him up on the wall as a burnt offering. A great wrath came upon Israel, so they withdrew from him and went back to [their own] land.
4 A certain woman, the wife of one of the disciples of the prophets, cried out to Elisha: “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know how your servant revered the LORD. And now a creditor is coming to seize my two children as slaves.” 2Elisha said to her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what have you in the house?” She replied, “Your maid-servant has nothing at all in the house, except a jug of oil.” 3“Go,” he said, “and borrow vessels
