2 Kings 5-8

Easy-to-Read Version

Naaman’s Problem

5 Naaman was the captain of the army of the king of Aram. He was very important to his king^[a] because the Lord used him to lead Aram to victory. Naaman was a great and powerful man, but he was also sick with leprosy.

² The Aramean army sent many groups of soldiers to fight in Israel. One time they took a little girl from the land of Israel. This girl became a servant of Naaman’s wife. ³ She said to his wife, “I wish that my master would meet the prophet who lives in Samaria. He could heal Naaman of his leprosy.”

⁴ Naaman went to the king and told him what the Israelite girl said.

⁵ Then the king of Aram said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”

So Naaman went to Israel. He took 750 pounds^[b] of silver, 6000 pieces of gold and ten changes of clothes as gifts. ⁶ Naaman took the letter from the king of Aram to the king of Israel. The letter said: “Now this letter is to show that I am sending my servant Naaman to you. Cure his leprosy.”

⁷ When the king of Israel had read the letter, he tore his clothes to show he was sad and upset. He said, “Am I God? I don’t have the power over life and death. So why did the king of Aram send a man sick with leprosy for me to heal? Think about it, and you will see that it is a trick. The king of Aram is trying to start a fight.”

⁸ Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes. So Elisha sent this message to the king: “Why did you tear your clothes? Let Naaman come to me. Then he will know there is a prophet in Israel.”

⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and chariots to Elisha’s house and stood outside the door. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to Naaman who said, “Go and wash in the Jordan River seven times. Then your skin will be healed, and you will be pure and clean.”

¹¹ Naaman became angry and left. He said, “I thought Elisha would at least come out and stand in front of me and call on the name of the Lord his God. I thought he would wave his hand over my body and heal the leprosy. ¹² Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, are better than all the water in Israel. Why can’t I wash in those rivers in Damascus and become clean?” He was very angry and turned to leave.

¹³ But Naaman’s servants went to him and talked to him. They said, “Father,^[c] if the prophet told you to do some great thing, you would do it, isn’t that right? But he said, ‘Wash, and you will be pure and clean.’”

¹⁴ So Naaman did what the man of God said. He went down and dipped himself in the Jordan River seven times, and he became pure and clean. His skin became soft like the skin of a baby.

¹⁵ Naaman and his whole group came back to the man of God. He stood before Elisha and said, “Look, I now know there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now please accept a gift from me.”

¹⁶ But Elisha said, “The Lord is the one I serve, and as surely as he lives, I will not accept any gift.”

Naaman tried hard to make Elisha take the gift, but he refused. ¹⁷ Then Naaman said, “If you will not accept this gift, at least do this for me. Let me have enough dirt from Israel to fill the baskets on two of my mules.^[d] I ask this because I will never again offer any burnt offering or sacrifice to any other gods. I will offer sacrifices only to the Lord! ¹⁸ And I pray that the Lord will forgive me for this: When my master goes to the temple of Rimmon to worship that false god, he will want to lean on me for support. So I must bow down in the temple of Rimmon. I ask the Lord now to forgive me when that happens.”

¹⁹ Then Elisha said to Naaman, “Go in peace.”

So Naaman left Elisha and went a short way. ²⁰ But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has let Naaman the Aramean go without accepting the gift that he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after Naaman and get something from him.” ²¹ So Gehazi ran to Naaman.

Naaman saw someone running after him. He stepped down from the chariot to meet Gehazi. Naaman said, “Is everything all right?”

²² Gehazi said, “Yes, everything is all right. My master has sent me. He said, ‘Look, two young men came to me from the group of prophets^[e] in the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them 75 pounds^[f] of silver and two changes of clothes.’”

²³ Naaman said, “Please, take 150 pounds.^[g]” He persuaded Gehazi to take the silver. Naaman put 150 pounds of silver in two bags and took two changes of clothes. Then he gave these things to two of his servants. The servants carried these things for Gehazi. ²⁴ When Gehazi came to the hill, he took these things from the servants. He sent the servants away, and they left. Then he hid those things in the house.

²⁵ Gehazi came in and stood before his master. Elisha said to Gehazi, “Where have you been Gehazi?”

Gehazi answered, “I didn’t go anywhere.”

²⁶ Elisha said to him, “That is not true! My heart was with you when the man turned from his chariot to meet you. This is not the time to take money, clothes, olives, grapes, sheep, cattle, or men and women servants. ²⁷ Now you and your children will catch Naaman’s disease. You will have leprosy forever!”

When Gehazi left Elisha, his skin was as white as snow! He was sick with leprosy.

Elisha and the Ax Head

6 The group of prophets said to Elisha, “We are staying in that place over there, but it is too small for us. ² Let’s go to the Jordan River and cut some wood. Each of us will get a log and we will build us a place to live there.”

Elisha answered, “Go and do it.”

³ One of them said, “Please go with us.”

Elisha said, “Yes, I will go with you.”

⁴ So Elisha went with the group of prophets. When they arrived at the Jordan River, they began to cut down some trees. ⁵ But when one man was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head slipped from the handle and fell into the water. He shouted, “Oh, master! I borrowed that ax!”

⁶ The man of God said, “Where did it fall?”

The man showed Elisha the place where the ax head fell. Then Elisha cut a stick and threw the stick into the water. The stick made the iron ax head float. ⁷ Elisha said, “So pick up the ax head.” Then the man reached out and took the ax head.

Aram Tries to Trap Israel

⁸ The king of Aram was making war against Israel. He had a council meeting with his army officers. He said, “Go to such and such a place and prepare to attack the Israelites when they come by.”

⁹ But the man of God sent a message to the king of Israel. Elisha said, “Be careful! Don’t go by that place, because the Aramean soldiers are hiding there!”

¹⁰ The king of Israel sent a message to his men at the place that the man of God warned him about. And the king of Israel saved quite a few men.^[h]

¹¹ The king of Aram was very upset about this. He called his army officers and said to them, “Tell me who is spying for the king of Israel.”

¹² One of the officers of the king of Aram said, “My lord and king, not one of us is a spy. Elisha, the prophet from Israel, can tell the king of Israel many secret things—even the words that you speak in your bedroom!”

¹³ The king of Aram said, “Find Elisha, and I will send men to catch him.”

The servants told the king of Aram, “Elisha is in Dothan.”

¹⁴ Then the king of Aram sent horses, chariots, and a large army to Dothan. They arrived at night and surrounded the city. ¹⁵ Elisha’s servant got up early that morning. When he went outside, he saw an army with horses and chariots all around the city.

The servant said to Elisha, “Oh, my master, what can we do?”

¹⁶ Elisha said, “Don’t be afraid. The army that fights for us is larger than the army that fights for Aram.”

¹⁷ Then Elisha prayed and said, “Lord, I ask you, open my servant’s eyes so that he can see.”

The Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and the servant saw the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire. They were all around Elisha.

¹⁸ These horses and chariots of fire came down to Elisha. He prayed to the Lord and said, “I pray that you will cause these people to become blind.”

So God did what Elisha asked. He caused the Aramean army to become blind. ¹⁹ Elisha said to the Aramean army, “This is not the right way. This is not the right city. Follow me. I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” Then Elisha led them to Samaria.^[i]

²⁰ When they arrived at Samaria, Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men so that they can see.”

Then the Lord opened their eyes, and the Aramean army saw they were in the city of Samaria! ²¹ The king of Israel saw the Aramean army and said to Elisha, “My father, should I kill them? Should I kill them?”

²² Elisha answered, “No, don’t kill them. They are not soldiers you captured in battle. Give them some bread and water. Let them eat and drink. Then let them go home to their leader.”

²³ So the king prepared a big meal for the Aramean army. After they ate and drank, he sent them back home to their leader. The Arameans did not send any more soldiers into the land of Israel to make raids.

A Time of Terrible Hunger Hits Samaria

²⁴ After this happened, King Ben-Hadad of Aram gathered all his army and went to surround and attack the city of Samaria. ²⁵ The soldiers would not let people bring food into the city, so there was a time of terrible hunger in Samaria. It was so bad in Samaria that a donkey’s head was sold for 80 pieces of silver and one pint^[j] of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver.

²⁶ The king of Israel was walking on the wall around the city. A woman shouted out to him. She said, “My lord and king, please help me!”

²⁷ The king of Israel said, “If the Lord does not help you, how can I help you? I cannot give you grain from the threshing floor or wine from the winepress.” ²⁸ Then he said to her, “What is your trouble?”

She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give me your son so that we can eat him today. Then we will eat my son tomorrow.’ ²⁹ So we boiled my son and ate him. Then the next day, I said to this woman, ‘Give me your son so that we can eat him.’ But she has hidden her son!”

³⁰ When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his clothes to show he was upset. As he passed by on the wall, the people saw the king was wearing the rough cloth under his clothes to show he was sad and upset.

³¹ The king said, “May God punish me if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat is still on his body at the end of this day!”

³² The king sent a messenger to Elisha. Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Look, that son of a murderer is sending men to cut off my head. When the messenger arrives, shut the door. Hold the door and don’t let him in. I hear the sound of his master’s feet coming behind him.”

³³ While Elisha was still talking with the elders, the messenger^[k] came to him. This was the message: “This trouble has come from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”

7 Elisha said, “Listen to the message from the Lord! The Lord says, ‘About this time tomorrow, there will be plenty of food, and it will be cheap again. A person will be able to buy a basket^[l] of fine flour or two baskets of barley for only one shekel^[m] in the marketplace by the city gates of Samaria.’”

² Then the officer who was close to the king^[n] answered the man of God. The officer said, “Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, this could not happen.”

Elisha said, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of that food.”

Lepers Find the Aramean Camp Empty

³ There were four men sick with leprosy near the city gate. They said to each other, “Why are we sitting here waiting to die? ⁴ There is no food in Samaria. If we go into the city, we will die there. If we stay here, we will also die. So let’s go to the Aramean camp. If they let us live, we will live. If they kill us, we will just die.”

⁵ So that evening the four lepers went to the Aramean camp. When they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there! ⁶ The Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a large army. So the soldiers said to each other, “The king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to come against us.”

⁷ The Arameans ran away early that evening. They left everything behind. They left their tents, horses, and donkeys and ran for their lives.

The Lepers in the Enemy Camp

⁸ When these lepers came to where the camp began, they went into one tent. They ate and drank. Then they carried silver, gold, and clothes out of the camp and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent. They carried things out from this tent and went out and hid them. ⁹ Then they said to each other, “We are doing wrong! Today we have good news, but we are silent. If we wait until the sun comes up, we will be punished. Now let’s go and tell the people who live in the king’s palace.”

The Lepers Tell the Good News

¹⁰ So the lepers came and called to the gatekeepers of the city. They told the gatekeepers, “We went to the Aramean camp, but we did not hear anyone. No one was there, but the horses and donkeys were still tied up, and the tents were still standing.”

¹¹ Then the gatekeepers of the city shouted out and told the people in the king’s palace. ¹² It was night, but the king got up from bed and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Aramean soldiers are doing to us. They know we are hungry. They left the camp to hide in the field. They are thinking, ‘When the Israelites come out of the city, we will capture them alive. And then we will enter the city.’”

¹³ One of the king’s officers said, “Let some men take five of the horses that are still left in the city. The horses will soon die anyway, just as all the Israelites who are still left in the city.^[o] Let’s send these men to see what happened.”

¹⁴ So the men took two chariots with horses. The king sent these men after the Aramean army. He told them, “Go and see what happened.”

¹⁵ The men went after the Aramean army as far as the Jordan River. All along the road there were clothes and weapons. The Arameans had thrown these things down when they hurried away. The messengers went back to Samaria and told the king.

¹⁶ Then the people ran out to the Aramean camp and took valuable things from there. So it happened just as the Lord had said. A person could buy a basket of fine flour or two baskets of barley for only one shekel.

¹⁷ There was one officer who always stayed close by the king to help him. The king sent this officer to guard the gate, but the people knocked him down and trampled him, and he died. So everything happened just as the man of God had said when the king came to Elisha’s house. ¹⁸ Elisha had said, “A person will be able to buy a basket of fine flour or two baskets of barley for only one shekel in the marketplace by the city gates of Samaria.” ¹⁹ But that officer had answered the man of God, “Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, this could not happen!” And Elisha had told the officer, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of that food.” ²⁰ It happened to the officer just that way. The people knocked him down at the gate and trampled him, and he died.

The King and the Shunammite Woman

8 Elisha talked to the woman whose son he had brought back to life. He said, “You and your family should move to another country, because the Lord has decided that there will be a famine here. It will last for seven years.”

² So the woman did what the man of God said. She went with her family to stay in the land of the Philistines for seven years. ³ After seven years she returned from the land of the Philistines.

She went to speak with the king to ask him to help her get back her house and land.

⁴ The king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. The king said to Gehazi, “Please tell me all the great things Elisha has done.”

⁵ Gehazi was telling the king about Elisha bringing a dead person back to life. At that same time the woman whose son Elisha brought back to life went to the king. She wanted to ask him to help her get back her house and land. Gehazi said, “My lord and king, this is the woman, and this is the son who Elisha brought back to life.”

⁶ The king asked the woman what she wanted, and she told him.

Then the king chose an officer to help her. The king said, “Give to the woman all that belongs to her. And give her all the harvest of her land from the day she left the country until now.”

Ben-Hadad Sends Hazael to Elisha

⁷ Elisha went to Damascus. King Ben-Hadad of Aram was sick. Someone told Ben-Hadad, “The man of God has come here.”

⁸ Then the King Ben-Hadad said to Hazael, “Take a gift and go meet the man of God. Ask him to ask the Lord if I will get well from my sickness.”

⁹ So Hazael went to meet Elisha. Hazael brought a gift with him. He brought all kinds of good things from Damascus. It took 40 camels to carry everything. Hazael came to Elisha and said, “Your follower,^[p] King Ben-Hadad of Aram, sent me to you. He asks if he will get well from his sickness.”

¹⁰ Then Elisha said to Hazael, “Go and tell Ben-Hadad, ‘You will live.’ But really the Lord told me, ‘He will die.’”

Elisha Makes a Prophecy About Hazael

¹¹ Elisha began to stare. He stared for an embarrassingly long time. Then the man of God began to cry. ¹² Hazael said, “Sir, why are you crying?”

Elisha answered, “I am crying because I know the bad things you will do to the Israelites. You will burn their strong cities and kill their young men with swords. You will kill their babies and split open their pregnant women.”

¹³ Hazael said, “I am not a powerful man!^[q] How can I do these great things?”

Elisha answered, “The Lord showed me that you will be king over Aram.”

¹⁴ Then Hazael left Elisha and went to his king.^[r] Ben-Hadad said to Hazael, “What did Elisha say to you?”

He answered, “Elisha told me that you will live.”

Hazael Murders Ben-Hadad

¹⁵ But the next day Hazael took a thick cloth and dipped it in water. Then he held it on Ben-Hadad’s face until he died. Then Hazael became the new king.

Jehoram Begins His Rule

¹⁶ Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah. He began to rule in the fifth year that Joram son of Ahab was king of Israel.^{[s] 17} Jehoram was 32 years old when he began to rule. He ruled eight years in Jerusalem. ¹⁸ But Jehoram lived as the kings of Israel and did what the Lord saw as evil. He lived as the people from Ahab’s family, because his wife was Ahab’s daughter. ¹⁹ But the Lord would not destroy Judah because of the promise to his servant David. He had promised David that someone from his family would always be king.

²⁰ In Jehoram’s time Edom broke away from Judah’s rule. The people of Edom chose a king for themselves.

²¹ Then Jehoram and all his chariots went to Zair. The Edomite army surrounded them, but Jehoram and his officers attacked them and escaped. Jehoram’s soldiers all ran away and went home. ²² So the Edomites broke away from the rule of Judah. And they have been free from the rule of Judah until today.

At the same time Libnah also broke away from Judah’s rule.

²³ All the things Jehoram did are written in the book, The History of the Kings of Judah.

²⁴ Jehoram died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. Jehoram’s son Ahaziah became the new king.

Ahaziah Begins His Rule

²⁵ Ahaziah son of Jehoram became the king of Judah in the 12th year that Joram son of Ahab was king of Israel. ²⁶ Ahaziah was 22 years old when he began to rule. He ruled one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah. She was the daughter of King Omri of Israel. ²⁷ Ahaziah did what the Lord said was wrong. He did many bad things, just as the people from Ahab’s family had done. He lived like this because his wife was from Ahab’s family.

Joram Is Hurt in the War Against Hazael

²⁸ Joram was from Ahab’s family. Ahaziah went with Joram to fight against King Hazael of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram. ²⁹ King Joram went back to Israel so that he could get well from those wounds. He went to the area of Jezreel. Ahaziah son of Jehoram was the king of Judah. Ahaziah went to Jezreel to see Joram.