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The Second Book of Kings, starting at chapter 4
{4:1} Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of
the prophets to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead. You
know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the creditor has come to
take for himself my two children to be slaves."
{4:2} Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do
you have in the house?"
She said, "Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of
oil."
{4:3} Then he said, "Go, borrow containers from of all your
neighbors, even empty containers. Don't borrow just a few. {4:4} You
shall go in, and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour out
into all those containers; and you shall set aside that which is full."
{4:5} So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her
sons; they brought the containers to her, and she poured out. {4:6} It
happened, when the containers were full, that she said to her son,
"Bring me another container."
He said to her, "There isn't another container." The oil stopped
flowing.
{4:7} Then she came and told the man of God. He said, "Go, sell the
oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest."
{4:8} It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there
was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was,
that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. {4:9}
She said to her husband, "See now, I perceive that this is a holy man
of God, that passes by us continually. {4:10} Please let us make a
little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a
chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he
shall turn in there."
{4:11} One day he came there, and he turned into the room and lay
there. {4:12} He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite."
When he had called her, she stood before him. {4:13} He said to him,
"Say now to her, 'Behold, you have cared for us with all this care.
What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the
king, or to the captain of the army?'"
She answered, "I dwell among my own people."
{4:14} He said, "What then is to be done for her?"
Gehazi answered, "Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is
old."
{4:15} He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the
door. {4:16} He said, "At this season, when the time comes around, you
will embrace a son."
She said, "No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid."
{4:17} The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the
time came around, as Elisha had said to her. {4:18} When the child was
grown, it happened one day that he went out to his father to the
reapers. {4:19} He said to his father, "My head! My head!"
He said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."
{4:20} When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat
on her knees until noon, and then died. {4:21} She went up and laid
him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went
out. {4:22} She called to her husband, and said, "Please send me one
of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of
God, and come again."
{4:23} He said, "Why would you want go to him today? It is neither
new moon nor Sabbath."
She said, "It's alright."
{4:24} Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, "Drive,
and go forward! Don't slow down for me, unless I ask you to."
{4:25} So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. It
happened, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi
his servant, "Behold, there is the Shunammite. {4:26} Please run now
to meet her, and ask her, 'Is it well with you? Is it well with your
husband? Is it well with the child?'"
She answered, "It is well."
{4:27} When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold
of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God
said, "Leave her alone; for her soul is troubled within her; and the
LORD has hidden it from me, and has not told me."
{4:28} Then she said, "Did I desire a son of my lord? Didn't I say,
Do not deceive me?"
{4:29} Then he said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take
my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don't
greet him; and if anyone greets you, don't answer him again. Then lay
my staff on the face of the child."
{4:30} The mother of the child said, "As the LORD lives, and as your
soul lives, I will not leave you."
He arose, and followed her.
{4:31} Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face
of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he
returned to meet him, and told him, saying, "The child has not
awakened."
{4:32} When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was
dead, and laid on his bed. {4:33} He went in therefore, and shut the
door on them both, and prayed to the LORD. {4:34} He went up, and lay
on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his
eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the
flesh of the child grew warm. {4:35} Then he returned, and walked in
the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself on
him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his
eyes. {4:36} He called Gehazi, and said, "Call this Shunammite!" So he
called her.
When she had come in to him, he said, "Take up your son."
{4:37} Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to
the ground; and she took up her son, and went out.
{4:38} Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land;
and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to
his servant, "Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the sons of the
prophets."
{4:39} One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild
vine, and gathered of it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred
them into the pot of stew; for they didn't recognize them. {4:40} So
they poured out for the men to eat. It happened, as they were eating
of the stew, that they cried out, and said, "Man of God, there is
death in the pot!" They could not eat of it.
{4:41} But he said, "Then bring meal." He cast it into the pot; and
he said, "Pour out for the people, that they may eat." There was no
harm in the pot.
{4:42} A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God
bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of
grain in his sack. He said, "Give to the people, that they may eat."
{4:43} His servant said, "What, should I set this before a hundred
men?"
But he said, "Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says the
LORD, 'They will eat, and will have some left over.'"
{4:44} So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it,
according to the word of the LORD.
{5:1} Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a
great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the LORD had
given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was
a leper. {5:2} The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away
captive out of Eretz-Israel a little maiden; and she waited on
Naaman's wife. {5:3} She said to her mistress, "I wish that my lord
were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his
leprosy."
{5:4} Someone went in, and told his lord, saying, "The maiden who is
from Eretz-Israel said this."
{5:5} The king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to
the king of Israel."
He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six
thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing. {5:6} He brought
the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "Now when this letter has
come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you
may heal him of his leprosy."
{5:7} It happened, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that
he tore his clothes, and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive,
that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please
consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me."
{5:8} It was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of
Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, "Why
have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know
that there is a prophet in Israel."
{5:9} So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and
stood at the door of the house of Elisha. {5:10} Elisha sent a
messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and
your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean."
{5:11} But Naaman was angry, and went away, and said, "Behold, I
thought, 'He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the
name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal
the leper.' {5:12} Aren't Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus,
better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them, and be
clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.
{5:13} His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, "My
father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn't you
have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be
clean?'"
{5:14} Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the
Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was
restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. {5:15} He
returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and
stood before him; and he said, "See now, I know that there is no God
in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift
from your servant."
{5:16} But he said, "As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will
receive none."
He urged him to take it; but he refused. {5:17} Naaman said, "If
not, then, please let two mules' burden of earth be given to your
servant; for your servant will from now on offer neither burnt
offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD. {5:18} In this
thing may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the
house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow
myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow myself in the house of
Rimmon, may the LORD pardon your servant in this thing."
{5:19} He said to him, "Go in peace."
So he departed from him a little way. {5:20} But Gehazi the servant
of Elisha the man of God, said, "Behold, my master has spared this
Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he
brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him, and take something
from him."
{5:21} So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running
after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him, and said, "Is
all well?"
{5:22} He said, "All is well. My master has sent me, saying,
'Behold, even now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come
to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of
silver and two changes of clothing.'"
{5:23} Naaman said, "Be pleased to take two talents." He urged him,
and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of
clothing, and laid them on two of his servants; and they carried them
before him. {5:24} When he came to the hill, he took them from their
hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they
departed. {5:25} But he went in, and stood before his master. Elisha
said to him, "Where did you come from, Gehazi?"
He said, "Your servant went nowhere."
{5:26} He said to him, "Didn't my heart go with you, when the man
turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money,
and to receive garments, and olive groves and vineyards, and sheep and
cattle, and male servants and female servants? {5:27} Therefore the
leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your seed forever."
He went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow.
{6:1} The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "See now, the place
where we dwell before you is too small for us. {6:2} Please let us go
to the Jordan, and every man take a beam from there, and let us make
us a place there, where we may dwell."
He answered, "Go!"
{6:3} One said, "Please be pleased to go with your servants."
He answered, "I will go." {6:4} So he went with them. When they came
to the Jordan, they cut down wood. {6:5} But as one was felling a
beam, the axe head fell into the water. Then he cried, and said,
"Alas, my master! For it was borrowed."
{6:6} The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" He showed him the
place. He cut down a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron
float. {6:7} He said, "Take it." So he put out his hand and took it.
{6:8} Now the king of Syria was warring against Israel; and he took
counsel with his servants, saying, "My camp will be in such and such a
place."
{6:9} The man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, "Beware
that you not pass such a place; for the Syrians are coming down
there." {6:10} The king of Israel sent to the place which the man of
God told him and warned him of; and he saved himself there, not once
nor twice. {6:11} The heart of the king of Syria was very troubled
about this. He called his servants, and said to them, "Won't you show
me which of us is for the king of Israel?"
{6:12} One of his servants said, "No, my lord, O king; but Elisha,
the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that
you speak in your bedroom."
{6:13} He said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and get
him."
It was told him, saying, "Behold, he is in Dothan."
{6:14} Therefore he sent horses, chariots, and a great army there.
They came by night, and surrounded the city. {6:15} When the servant
of the man of God had risen early, and gone out, behold, an army with
horses and chariots was around the city. His servant said to him,
"Alas, my master! What shall we do?"
{6:16} He answered, "Don't be afraid; for those who are with us are
more than those who are with them." {6:17} Elisha prayed, and said,
"LORD, please open his eyes, that he may see." the LORD opened the
eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full
of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. {6:18} When they came
down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, "Please strike this
people with blindness."
He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
{6:19} Elisha said to them, "This is not the way, neither is this the
city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek." He
led them to Samaria. {6:20} It happened, when they had come into
Samaria, that Elisha said, "LORD, open the eyes of these men, that
they may see."
The LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and behold, they were in
the midst of Samaria. {6:21} The king of Israel said to Elisha, when
he saw them, "My father, shall I strike them? Shall I strike them?"
{6:22} He answered, "You shall not strike them. Would you strike
those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow?
Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go
to their master."
{6:23} He prepared great feast for them. When they had eaten and
drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. The bands of
Syria stopped raiding Eretz-Israel.
{6:24} It happened after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered
all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. {6:25} There was a
great famine in Samaria. Behold, they besieged it, until a donkey's
head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a
kab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. {6:26} As the king of
Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, saying,
"Help, my lord, O king!"
{6:27} He said, "If the LORD doesn't help you, from where could I
help you? From of the threshing floor, or from the winepress?" {6:28}
The king said to her, "What ails you?"
She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may
eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' {6:29} So we boiled
my son, and ate him: and I said to her on the next day, 'Give your
son, that we may eat him;' and she has hidden her son."
{6:30} It happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that
he tore his clothes (now he was passing by on the wall); and the
people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth underneath on his flesh.
{6:31} Then he said, "God do so to me, and more also, if the head of
Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stay on him this day."
{6:32} But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were
sitting with him. Then the king sent a man from before him; but before
the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, "Do you see how this
son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Behold, when the
messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door shut against him.
Isn't the sound of his master's feet behind him?"
{6:33} While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger
came down to him. Then he said, "Behold, this evil is from the LORD.
Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?"
________________________________________________________________________
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