25 In
the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram
king of Judah began to reign. 26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years
old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s
name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. 27 He
followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for
he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.
28 Ahaziah
went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth
Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram; 29 so King Joram returned
to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at
Ramoth[c] in his
battle with Hazael king of Aram.
Then
Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of
Ahab, because he had been wounded.
16 In
the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king
of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. 17 He
was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight
years. 18 He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the
house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the
eyes of the Lord. 19 Nevertheless,
for the sake of his servant David, the Lord
was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David
and his descendants forever.
20 In
the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king. 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. 22 To this day Edom has been in rebellion against
Judah. Libnah revolted at the same time.
23 As
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? 24 Jehoram
rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And
Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.
7 Elisha
went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told,
“The man of God has come all the way up here,” 8 he said to
Hazael, “Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the Lord through him; ask him, ‘Will I
recover from this illness?’”
9 Hazael
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?’”
10 Elisha
answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’ Nevertheless,[a] the Lord has revealed to me that he will in
fact die.” 11 He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael
was embarrassed. Then the man of God began to weep.
12 “Why
is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael.
“Because
I know the harm you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire
to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their
little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women.”
13 Hazael
said, “How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?”
“The
Lord has shown me that you will
become king of Aram,” answered Elisha.
14 Then
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.” 15 But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it
in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael
succeeded him as king.
Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.”2 The
woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went
away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.
3 At
the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the
Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.4 The
king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had
said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.”5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.
Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”6 The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.
Then
he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back
everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land
from the day she left the country until now.”
