2 Kings 5-8

GOD’S WORD Translation

Elisha Heals Naaman

5 Naaman, the commander of the Aramean king’s army, was respected and highly honored by his master. The Lord had given Aram a victory through Naaman. This man was a good soldier, but he had a skin disease.

² Once, when the Arameans went on raids, they had brought back a little girl from Israel. She became the servant of Naaman’s wife. ³ The girl told her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet in Samaria. Then the prophet could cure him of his skin disease.”

⁴ Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.

⁵ The king of Aram said, “You may go. I will also send a letter to the king of Israel.” When Naaman left, he took 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and 10 sets of clothing with him. ⁶ He brought the letter to the king of Israel. It read, “I’m sending my officer Naaman with this letter. Cure him of his skin disease.”

⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes ⌞in distress⌟. He asked, “Am I God? Can I kill someone and then bring him back to life? This man sends someone to me so that I can cure his skin disease! All of you should realize and understand that he’s trying to pick a fight with me.”

⁸ But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a messenger to the king. He asked, “Why did you tear your clothes? Please let Naaman come to me and find out that there is a prophet in Israel.”

⁹ Naaman came with his horses and chariot and stopped at the entrance to Elisha’s home. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to him. He said, “Wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River, and your skin will be healthy and clean.” ^[a]

¹¹ But Naaman became angry and left. He said, “I thought he would at least come out ⌞of his house⌟, stand somewhere, call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the ⌞infected⌟ place, and heal the skin disease. ¹² The Abana and Pharpar Rivers in Damascus have better water than any of the rivers in Israel. Couldn’t I wash in them and be clean?” So he turned around and left in anger.

¹³ But Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “Master, if the prophet had asked you to do some extraordinary act, wouldn’t you have done it? Why shouldn’t you do as he said: ‘Wash and be clean’?”

¹⁴ So he went to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. His skin became healthy again like a little child’s skin. ¹⁵ Then he and all his men returned to the man of God. Naaman stood in front of Elisha and said, “Now I know that there’s no god in the whole world, except the God of Israel. So please accept a present from me.”

¹⁶ Elisha said, “I solemnly swear, as the Lord whom I serve lives, I will not accept it.” Naaman urged him to take it, but he refused.

¹⁷ So Naaman said, “If you won’t take it, please have someone give me as much dirt as a pair of mules can carry. From now on I will sacrifice to the Lord alone. I will not offer any burnt offering or sacrifice to any other gods. ¹⁸ May the Lord forgive me when my master goes to the temple of Rimmon to worship, leans on my arm, and I have to bow down in the temple of Rimmon. When I do this, may the Lord forgive me for this one thing.”

¹⁹ Elisha told Naaman, “Go in peace.”

After Elisha had left him and gone some distance, ²⁰ Gehazi, the servant of Elisha (the man of God), thought, “My master let this Aramean Naaman go without accepting what he had brought. As sure as the Lord lives, I’ll run after Naaman and get something from him.” ²¹ So Gehazi went after Naaman. When Naaman saw Gehazi running after him, he got down from his chariot to speak to him. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

²² Gehazi answered, “No. My master has sent me. He says, ‘Just now two young men from the disciples of the prophets in the hills of Ephraim have arrived. Please give them 75 pounds of silver and two sets of clothing.’ ”

²³ Naaman replied, “Please let me give you 150 pounds of silver.” Naaman urged him ⌞to take the silver⌟. Naaman tied up 150 pounds of silver in two bags with two sets of clothing. He gave them to a couple of his own servants to carry in front of Gehazi.

²⁴ When Gehazi came to the Ophel in Samaria, he took these things and put them away in the house. Then he dismissed the men, and they left. ²⁵ He went and stood in front of his master.

Elisha asked him, “Where were you, Gehazi?”

“I didn’t go anywhere,” he answered.

²⁶ Then Elisha said to him, “I went with you in spirit when the man turned around in his chariot to speak to you. How could you accept silver, clothes, olive orchards, vineyards, sheep, cattle, or slaves? ²⁷ Naaman’s skin disease will cling to you and your descendants permanently!”

When he left Elisha, Gehazi had a disease that made his skin as flaky as snow.

Elisha and the Floating Ax Head

6 The disciples of the prophets said to Elisha, “The place where we’re staying is too small for us. ² Let’s go to the Jordan River. Each of us can get some logs and make a place for us to live there.”

Elisha said, “Go ahead.”

³ Then one of the disciples asked, “Won’t you please come with us?”

Elisha answered, “I’ll go.”

⁴ So he went with them. They came to the Jordan River and began to cut down trees. ⁵ As one of them was cutting down a tree, the ax head fell into the water. He cried out, “Oh no, master! It was borrowed!”

⁶ The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed Elisha the place, Elisha cut off a piece of wood. He threw it into the water at that place and made the ax head float. ⁷ Elisha said, “Pick it up.” The disciple reached for it and picked it up.

The Aramean Army Is Struck with Blindness

⁸ Whenever the king of Aram was fighting against Israel, he asked for advice from his officers about where they were to camp.

⁹ So the man of God would send a message to the king of Israel, “Be careful not to go by that place. The Arameans are hiding there.” ¹⁰ Then the king of Israel would send someone to the place that the man of God told him about. Elisha warned them so that they would be on their guard. He did this repeatedly.

¹¹ The king of Aram was very angry about this. He called his officers and asked them, “Won’t you tell me who among us is ⌞a spy⌟ for the king of Israel?”

¹² One of his officers answered, “No one, Your Majesty. Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel everything you say—even what you say in your bedroom.”

¹³ The king said, “Find out where he is. Then I will send men to capture him.”

The king was told, “He is in Dothan.” ¹⁴ So the king sent horses and chariots and a large fighting unit there. They came at night and surrounded the city.

¹⁵ When the servant of the man of God got up in the morning and went outside, he saw troops, horses, and chariots surrounding the city. Elisha’s servant asked, “Master, what should we do?”

¹⁶ Elisha answered, “Don’t be afraid. We have more forces on our side than they have on theirs.” ¹⁷ Then Elisha prayed, “Lord, please open his eyes so that he may see.” The Lord opened the servant’s eyes and let him see. The mountain around Elisha was full of fiery horses and chariots.

¹⁸ As the Arameans came down to get him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Please strike these people with blindness.” The Lord struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. ¹⁹ Elisha told them, “This isn’t the way! This isn’t the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you’re looking for.” So he led them into Samaria. ²⁰ When they came into Samaria, Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men, and let them see.” The Lord opened their eyes and let them see that they were in the middle of Samaria.

²¹ When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Master, should I kill them? Should I kill them?”

²² Elisha answered, “Don’t kill them. Do you kill everyone you take captive in combat? Give them food and water. Let them eat and drink. Then let them go back to their master.”

²³ So the king prepared a great feast for them. They ate and drank, and then he sent them back to their master. After this, Aramean troops didn’t raid Israel’s territory anymore.

The Aramean Army Blockades Samaria

²⁴ Later King Benhadad of Aram assembled his whole army. They went to Samaria and blockaded it. ²⁵ The shortages caused by the blockade of Samaria became so severe that a donkey’s head sold for two pounds of silver and a half-pint of dove ^[b] manure for two ounces of silver.

²⁶ As the king of Israel was walking on the city wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, Your Majesty!”

²⁷ He answered, “If the Lord doesn’t help you, how can I help you? I can’t give you something from the threshing floor ^[c] or the winepress.” ²⁸ Then the king asked her, “What’s the matter?”

She answered, “This woman told me, ‘Give up your son. Let’s eat him today. We’ll eat my son tomorrow.’ ²⁹ So we boiled my son and ate him. The next day I told her, ‘Give up your son. We’ll eat him,’ but she hid her son.”

³⁰ When the king heard the woman say this, he tore his clothes ⌞in distress⌟. As he was walking on the city wall, the people saw that he was wearing sackcloth under his clothes. ³¹ He said, “May God strike me dead if the head of Elisha, son of Shaphat, stays on his ⌞body⌟ today.”

³² Elisha was sitting in his home with the ⌞city’s⌟ leaders. The king had sent one of his men ahead of him ⌞to Elisha’s house⌟. But before the messenger arrived, Elisha asked the leaders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to tear off my head? When the messenger comes, close the door. Hold it shut because the king will be following him.”

³³ While he was still talking to them, the messenger arrived. He said to Elisha, “This severe famine is from the Lord. Why should I wait any longer for the Lord ⌞to help us⌟?”

7 Elisha answered, “Listen to the Lord’s word! This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow 24 cups of the best flour will sell for half an ounce of silver in the gateway to Samaria. And 48 cups of barley will sell for half an ounce of silver.”

² The servant on whose arm the king was leaning answered the man of God, “Could this happen even if the Lord poured rain through windows in the sky?”

Elisha replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it.”

The Aramean Army Flees

³ Four men with skin diseases were at the entrance of the city gate. One of them asked, “Why are we sitting here waiting to die? ⁴ If we go into the city, the famine is also there, and we’ll still die. But if we stay here, we’ll die. So let’s go to the Aramean camp. If they give us something to keep us alive, we’ll live. But if they kill us, we’ll die anyway.” ⁵ So they started out at dusk to go into the Aramean camp. When they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there.

⁶ (The Lord had made the Aramean army hear what sounded like chariots, horses, and a large army. The Aramean soldiers said to one another, “The king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” ⁷ So at dusk they fled. They abandoned the camp as it was with its tents, horses, and donkeys and ran for their lives.)

⁸ When the men with skin diseases came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent, ate and drank, and carried off the silver, gold, and clothes they found in that tent. They went away and hid them. Then they came back, went into another tent, carried off its contents, went away, and hid them.

⁹ Then they said to one another, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news, and we’re not telling anyone about it. If we wait until morning when it’s light out, we’ll be punished. Let’s bring the news to the royal palace.” ¹⁰ So they called the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp, and we didn’t see or hear anyone. The horses and donkeys were still tied up. Even the tents were left exactly as they were.”

¹¹ The gatekeepers announced the news to the royal palace. ¹² So the king got up at night and told his officers what the Arameans had planned for them. He said, “They know we’re starving, so they’ve left the camp to hide in the countryside. They’re thinking, ‘When they’ve left the city, we’ll capture them alive and get into the city.’ ”

¹³ One of his officers replied, “Please let some men take five of the horses that are left here. Those men will be no worse off than the rest of the Israelites who are dying. Let’s send them to take a look.” ¹⁴ So they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them to follow the Aramean army and told them to find out what happened. ¹⁵ They followed them as far as the Jordan River and saw how the whole road was littered with clothes and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their hurry. The messengers returned and told the king about it.

¹⁶ So the people went out and looted the Aramean camp. Then 24 cups of the best flour sold for half an ounce of silver, and 48 cups of barley sold for half an ounce of silver, as the Lord had predicted.

¹⁷ The king appointed the servant on whose arm he used to lean to be in charge of the gate. But the people trampled him to death in the gateway, as the man of God had predicted when the king came to him. ¹⁸ (It happened exactly as the man of God told the king, “48 cups of barley will sell for half an ounce of silver. And 24 cups of the best flour will sell for half an ounce of silver. This will happen about this time tomorrow in the gateway to Samaria.” ¹⁹ Then the servant answered the man of God, “Could this happen even if the Lord poured rain through windows in the sky?” Elisha answered, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it.”) ²⁰ So this is what happened to the king’s servant: The people trampled him to death in the gateway.

Elisha Helps a Shunem Woman Get Her Land Back

8 Elisha had told the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “Go away with your family. Stay wherever you can. The Lord has decided to send a famine on this country, and it will last seven years.”

² The woman did what the man of God told her. She and her family went to live in Philistine territory for seven years. ³ At the end of seven years, the woman came home from Philistine territory but left again to make an appeal to the king about her house and land.

⁴ The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. He said, “Please tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” ⁵ While Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha brought a dead child back to life, the mother ⌞came to⌟ make an appeal to the king about her house and land.

Gehazi said, “Your Majesty, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life.”

⁶ When the king asked the woman ⌞about this⌟, she told him the story. So the king assigned to her an attendant to whom he said, “Restore all that is hers, including whatever her property produced from the day she left the country until now.”

Elisha Prophesies to Hazael

⁷ Elisha went to Damascus. King Benhadad of Aram, who was sick, was told, “The man of God has come here.”

⁸ The king told Hazael, “Take a present, and meet the man of God. Ask the Lord through him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ ”

⁹ Hazael went to meet Elisha. He took with him a present and all kinds of goods from Damascus. He had loaded the goods on 40 camels. He stood in front of Elisha and said, “Your humble servant King Benhadad of Aram has sent me to you. He asks whether he will recover from this illness.”

¹⁰ Elisha replied, “Tell him that he will get better, although the Lord has shown me that he is actually going to die.” ¹¹ He stared at him until he became embarrassed. Then the man of God began to cry.

¹² “Sir, why are you crying?” Hazael asked.

Elisha answered, “I know the evil you will do to the Israelites: You will set their fortresses on fire, kill their best young men, smash their little children, and rip open their pregnant women.”

¹³ But Hazael asked, “How can a dog like me do such a significant thing?”

Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you will become king of Aram.” ¹⁴ Hazael left Elisha and went to his master Benhadad, who asked him what Elisha had said.

Hazael answered, “He told me that you will get better.”

¹⁵ But the next day Hazael took a blanket, soaked it in water, and smothered the king with it. Hazael ruled as king in his place.

King Jehoram of Judah^(A)

¹⁶ Joram (Ahab’s son) was in his fifth year as king of Israel when Jehoram,^[d] son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, began to rule. Jehoram ruled while Jehoshaphat was still king of Judah. ¹⁷ He was 32 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 8 years in Jerusalem. ¹⁸ He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as Ahab’s family had done, because his wife was Ahab’s daughter. So he did what the Lord considered evil. ¹⁹ But for David’s sake the Lord didn’t want to destroy Judah. The Lord had told David that he would always give him and his descendants a ⌞shining⌟ lamp.

²⁰ During Jehoram’s time Edom rebelled against Judah and chose its own king. ²¹ Jehoram took all his chariots to attack Zair. The Edomites and their chariot commanders surrounded him, but he got up at night, broke through their lines, and his troops fled home. ²² So Edom rebelled against Judah’s rule and is still independent today. At that time Libnah also rebelled. ²³ Isn’t everything else about Jehoram—everything he did—written in the official records of the kings of Judah? ²⁴ Jehoram lay down in death with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. His son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.

King Ahaziah of Judah^(B)

²⁵ Joram (Ahab’s son) was in his twelfth year as king of Israel when Jehoram’s son Ahaziah became king of Judah. ²⁶ Ahaziah was 22 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for one year in Jerusalem. His mother was Athaliah, the granddaughter of King Omri of Israel. ²⁷ Ahaziah followed the ways of Ahab’s family. He did what the Lord considered evil, as Ahab’s family had done, because he was related to Ahab’s family by marriage.

²⁸ Ahaziah went with Ahab’s son Joram to fight against King Hazael of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. There the Arameans wounded Joram. ²⁹ King Joram returned to Jezreel to let his wounds heal. (He had been wounded by the Arameans at Ramah when he fought against King Hazael of Aram.) Then Jehoram’s son Ahaziah went to Jezreel to see Ahab’s son Joram, who was sick.