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2 Kings 7-8
New English Translation

7 1 Elisha replied, “Listen to the Lord’s message. This is what the Lord has said, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah[a] of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’” 2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man[b] responded to the prophet,[c] “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?”[d] Elisha[e] said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”[f]

3 Now four men with a skin disease[g] were sitting at the entrance of the city gate. They said to one another, “Why are we just sitting here waiting to die?[h] 4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation,[i] and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect[j] to the Syrian camp! If they spare us,[k] we’ll live; if they kill us—well, we were going to die anyway.”[l] 5 So they started toward[m] the Syrian camp at dusk. When they reached the edge of the Syrian camp, there was no one there. 6 The Lord had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army. Then they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!” 7 So they got up and fled at dusk, leaving behind their tents, horses, and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. 8 When the men with a skin disease reached the edge of the camp, they entered a tent and had a meal.[n] They also took some silver, gold, and clothes and went and hid it all.[o] Then they went back and entered another tent. They looted it[p] and went and hid what they had taken. 9 Then they said to one another, “It’s not right what we’re doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven’t told anyone.[q] If we wait until dawn,[r] we’ll be punished.[s] So come on, let’s go and inform the royal palace.” 10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers[t] of the city. They told them, “We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice.[u] But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.”[v] 11 The gatekeepers relayed the news to the royal palace.[w]

12 The king got up in the night and said to his advisers,[x] “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’” 13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people—we’re all going to die!)[y] Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.”[z] 14 So they picked two horsemen and the king sent them out to track the Syrian army.[aa] He ordered them, “Go and find out what’s going on.”[ab] 15 So they tracked them[ac] as far as the Jordan. The road was filled with clothes and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their haste.[ad] The scouts[ae] went back and told the king. 16 Then the people went out and looted the Syrian camp. A seah[af] of finely milled flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, just as in the Lord’s message.

17 Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man[ag] at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate.[ah] This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him.[ai] 18 The prophet had told the king, “Two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of finely milled flour for a shekel; this will happen about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria.” 19 But the officer had replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?”[aj] Elisha[ak] had said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”[al] 20 This is exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him to death in the city gate.

Elisha Again Helps the Shunammite Woman

8 Now Elisha advised the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “You and your family should go and live somewhere else for a while,[am] for the Lord has decreed that a famine will overtake the land for seven years.” 2 So the woman did as the prophet said.[an] She and her family went and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years. 3 After seven years the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went to ask the king to give her back her house and field.[ao] 4 Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the prophet’s[ap] servant, and said, “Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.” 5 While Gehazi[aq] was telling the king how Elisha[ar] had brought the dead back to life, the woman whose son he had brought back to life came to ask the king for her house and field.[as] Gehazi said, “My master, O king, this is the very woman, and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!” 6 The king asked the woman about it, and she gave him the details.[at] The king assigned a eunuch to take care of her request and ordered him,[au] “Give her back everything she owns, as well as the amount of crops her field produced from the day she left the land until now.”

Elisha Meets with Hazael

7 Elisha traveled to Damascus while King Ben Hadad of Syria was sick. The king[av] was told, “The prophet[aw] has come here.” 8 So the king told Hazael, “Take a gift[ax] and go visit the prophet. Request from him an oracle from the Lord. Ask him,[ay] ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” 9 So Hazael went to visit Elisha.[az] He took along a gift,[ba] as well as[bb] forty camel-loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son,[bc] King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question,[bd] ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” 10 Elisha said to him, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover,’[be] but the Lord has revealed to me that he will surely die.” 11 Elisha[bf] just stared at him until Hazael became uncomfortable.[bg] Then the prophet started crying. 12 Hazael asked, “Why are you crying, my master?” He replied, “Because I know the trouble you will cause the Israelites. You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, smash their children to bits, and rip open their pregnant women.” 13 Hazael said, “How could your servant, who is as insignificant as a dog, accomplish this great military victory?”[bh] Elisha answered, “The Lord has revealed to me that you will be the king of Syria.”[bi] 14 He left Elisha and went to his master. Ben Hadad[bj] asked him, “What did Elisha tell you?” Hazael[bk] replied, “He told me you would surely recover.” 15 The next day Hazael[bl] took a piece of cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over Ben Hadad’s[bm] face until he died. Then Hazael replaced him as king.

Jehoram’s Reign over Judah

16 In the fifth year of the reign of Israel’s King Joram, son of Ahab, Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram became king over Judah.[bn] 17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. 18 He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he married Ahab’s daughter.[bo] He did evil in the sight of[bp] the Lord. 19 But the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah. He preserved Judah for the sake of[bq] his servant David to whom he had promised a perpetual dynasty.[br]

20 During his reign Edom freed themselves from Judah’s control and set up their own king.[bs] 21 Jehoram[bt] crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites, who had surrounded him, attacked at night and defeated him and his chariot officers.[bu] The Israelite army retreated to their homeland.[bv] 22 So Edom has remained free from Judah’s control to this very day.[bw] At that same time Libnah also rebelled.

23 The rest of the events of Jehoram’s reign, including a record of his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.[bx] 24 Jehoram passed away[by] and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Ahaziah replaced him as king.

Ahaziah Takes the Throne of Judah

25 In the twelfth year of the reign of Israel’s King Joram, son of Ahab, Jehoram’s son Ahaziah became king over Judah. 26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother was Athaliah, the granddaughter[bz] of King Omri of Israel. 27 He followed in the footsteps of Ahab’s dynasty and did evil in the sight of[ca] the Lord, as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he was related to Ahab’s family.[cb]

28 He joined Ahab’s son Joram in a battle against King Hazael of Syria at Ramoth Gilead in which the Syrians defeated Joram. 29 King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians[cc] in Ramah when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. King Ahaziah son of Jehoram of Judah went down to visit[cd] Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was ill.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 7:1 sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 11 quarts (11 liters).
  2. 2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”
  3. 2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “man of God.”
  4. 2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” Opening holes in the sky would allow the waters stored up there to pour to the earth and assure a good crop. But, the officer argues, even if this were to happen, it would take a long time to grow and harvest the crop.
  5. 2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  6. 2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”
  7. 2 Kings 7:3 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 5:1.
  8. 2 Kings 7:3 tn Heb “until we die.”
  9. 2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”
  10. 2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “fall.”
  11. 2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “keep us alive.”
  12. 2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.
  13. 2 Kings 7:5 tn Heb “they arose to go to.”
  14. 2 Kings 7:8 tn Heb “they ate and drank.”
  15. 2 Kings 7:8 tn Heb “and they hid [it].”
  16. 2 Kings 7:8 tn Heb “and they took from there.”
  17. 2 Kings 7:9 tn Heb “this day is a day of good news and we are keeping silent.”
  18. 2 Kings 7:9 tn Heb “the light of the morning.”
  19. 2 Kings 7:9 tn Heb “punishment will find us.”
  20. 2 Kings 7:10 tn The MT has a singular form (“gatekeeper”), but the context suggests a plural. The pronoun that follows (“them”) is plural and a plural noun appears in v. 11. The Syriac Peshitta and the Targum have the plural here.
  21. 2 Kings 7:10 tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”
  22. 2 Kings 7:10 tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”
  23. 2 Kings 7:11 tn Heb “and the gatekeepers called out and they told [it] within the house of the king.”
  24. 2 Kings 7:12 tn Heb “servants” (also in v. 13).
  25. 2 Kings 7:13 tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”
  26. 2 Kings 7:13 tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”
  27. 2 Kings 7:14 tn Heb “and the king sent [them] after the Syrian camp.”
  28. 2 Kings 7:14 tn Heb “Go and see.”
  29. 2 Kings 7:15 tn Heb “went after.”
  30. 2 Kings 7:15 tn Heb “and look, all the road was full of clothes and equipment that Syria had thrown away in their haste.”
  31. 2 Kings 7:15 tn Or “messengers.”
  32. 2 Kings 7:16 sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 11 quarts (11 liters).
  33. 2 Kings 7:17 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand he leans.”
  34. 2 Kings 7:17 tn Heb “and the people trampled him in the gate and he died.”
  35. 2 Kings 7:17 tn Heb “just as the man of God had spoken, [the word] which he spoke when the king came down to him.”
  36. 2 Kings 7:19 tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” See the note at 7:2.
  37. 2 Kings 7:19 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  38. 2 Kings 7:19 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”tn In the Hebrew text vv. 18-19a are one lengthy sentence, “When the man of God spoke to the king…, the officer replied to the man of God, ‘Look…so soon?’” The translation divides this sentence up for stylistic reasons.
  39. 2 Kings 8:1 tn Heb “Get up and go, you and your house, and live temporarily where you can live temporarily.”
  40. 2 Kings 8:2 tn Heb “and the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God.”
  41. 2 Kings 8:3 tn Heb “and went out to cry out to the king for her house and her field.”
  42. 2 Kings 8:4 tn Heb “man of God’s.”
  43. 2 Kings 8:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  44. 2 Kings 8:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  45. 2 Kings 8:5 tn Heb “and look, the woman whose son he had brought back to life was crying out to the king for her house and her field.”sn The legal background of the situation is uncertain. For a discussion of possibilities, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 87-88.
  46. 2 Kings 8:6 tn Heb “and the king asked the woman and she told him.”
  47. 2 Kings 8:6 tn Heb “and he assigned to her an official, saying.”
  48. 2 Kings 8:7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  49. 2 Kings 8:7 tn Heb “man of God” (also a second time in this verse and in v. 11).
  50. 2 Kings 8:8 tn The Hebrew text also has “in your hand.”
  51. 2 Kings 8:8 tn Heb “Inquire of the Lord through him, saying.”
  52. 2 Kings 8:9 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  53. 2 Kings 8:9 tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”
  54. 2 Kings 8:9 tn Heb “and.” It is possible that the conjunction is here explanatory, equivalent to English “that is.” In this case the forty camel-loads constitute the “gift” and one should translate, “He took along a gift, consisting of forty camel-loads of all the fine things of Damascus.”
  55. 2 Kings 8:9 sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.
  56. 2 Kings 8:9 tn Heb “saying.”
  57. 2 Kings 8:10 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “Go, say, ‘Surely you will not (לֹא, loʾ) live.’” In this case the vav beginning the next clause could be translated “for” or “because.” The reading tradition (Qere) has, “Go, say to him (לוֹ, lo), ‘You will surely recover.’” In this case the vav (ו) beginning the next clause would be translated “although” or “but.” The Qere has the support of some medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, and is consistent with v. 14, where Hazael tells the king, “You will surely recover.” It also fits the immediate context. The sentence “you will live,” to be told to Ben Hadad and meaning to recover from the sickness contrasts telling Hazael that Ben Hadad will die. The missing component is the means of Ban Hadad’s death. So Elisha looks at Hazael until he is embarrassed, because as a prophet he knows that Hazael will kill Ben Hadad (not the sickness). It is possible that a scribe has changed לוֹ, “to him,” to לֹא, “not,” because he felt that Elisha would not lie to the king. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 90. But it is possible that Hazael, once he found out he would become the next king, decided to lie to the king to facilitate his assassination plot by making the king feel secure.
  58. 2 Kings 8:11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  59. 2 Kings 8:11 tn Heb “and he made his face stand [i.e., be motionless] and set [his face?] until embarrassment.”
  60. 2 Kings 8:13 tn Heb “Indeed, what is your servant, a dog, that he could do this great thing?” With his reference to a dog, Hazael is not denying that he is a “dog” and protesting that he would never commit such a dastardly “dog-like” deed. Rather, as Elisha’s response indicates, Hazael is suggesting that he, like a dog, is too insignificant to ever be in a position to lead such conquests.
  61. 2 Kings 8:13 tn Heb “The Lord has shown me you [as] king over Syria.”
  62. 2 Kings 8:14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  63. 2 Kings 8:14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hazael) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  64. 2 Kings 8:15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hazael) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  65. 2 Kings 8:15 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  66. 2 Kings 8:16 tc The Hebrew text reads, “and in the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, and [or, ‘while’?] Jehoshaphat [was?] king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king.” The first reference to “Jehoshaphat king of Judah” is probably due to a scribe accidentally copying the phrase from later in the verse. If the Hebrew text is retained, the verse probably refers to the beginning of a coregency between Jehoshaphat and Jehoram.
  67. 2 Kings 8:18 tn Heb “he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab did, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife.”
  68. 2 Kings 8:18 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  69. 2 Kings 8:19 tn The Hebrew has only one sentence, “and the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah for the sake of.” The translation divides it for the sake of clarity.
  70. 2 Kings 8:19 tn Heb “just as he had said to him, to give to him a lamp for his sons all the days.” The metaphorical “lamp” symbolizes the Davidic dynasty; this is reflected in the translation.
  71. 2 Kings 8:20 tn Heb “in his days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and enthroned a king over them.”
  72. 2 Kings 8:21 tn Heb “Joram,” which is a short form of the name Jehoram (also in vv. 23, 24).
  73. 2 Kings 8:21 tc Heb “and he arose at night and defeated Edom, who had surrounded him, and the chariot officers.” The Hebrew text as it stands gives the impression that Jehoram was surrounded and launched a victorious night counterattack. It would then be quite natural to understand the last statement in the verse to refer to an Edomite retreat. Yet v. 22 goes on to state that the Edomite revolt was successful. Therefore, if the MT is retained, it may be better to understand the final statement in v. 21 as a reference to an Israelite retreat (made in spite of the success described in the preceding sentence). Instead the translation assumes an emendation of the Hebrew text, adding a vav (ו) to the accusative sign before Edom, reading אֹתוֹ (ʾoto, “him,”) instead of just אֶת (ʾet). In this reading, Edom is the subject of the verb rather than the direct object, “Edom struck him.” This is more consistent with the context but there is no manuscript evidence in favor of this.
  74. 2 Kings 8:21 tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”
  75. 2 Kings 8:22 tn Heb “and Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah until this day.”
  76. 2 Kings 8:23 tn Heb “As for the rest of the acts of Joram and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
  77. 2 Kings 8:24 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
  78. 2 Kings 8:26 tn Hebrew בַּת (bat), “daughter,” can refer, as here to a granddaughter. See HALOT 166 s.v. בַּת.
  79. 2 Kings 8:27 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  80. 2 Kings 8:27 tn Heb “and he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord like the house of Ahab, for he was a relative by marriage of the house of Ahab.” For this use of חֲתַן (khatan), normally “son-in-law,” see HALOT 365 s.v. חָתָן. Ahab was Ahaziah’s grandfather on his mother’s side.
  81. 2 Kings 8:29 tn Heb “which the Syrians inflicted [on] him.”
  82. 2 Kings 8:29 tn Heb “to see.”
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2 Kings 7-8
New International Version

7 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah[a] of the finest flour will sell for a shekel[b] and two seahs[c] of barley for a shekel(A) at the gate of Samaria.”

2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning(B) said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates(C) of the heavens, could this happen?”

“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat(D) any of it!”

The Siege Lifted

3 Now there were four men with leprosy[d](E) at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, 6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound(F) of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired(G) the Hittite(H) and Egyptian kings to attack us!” 7 So they got up and fled(I) in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

8 The men who had leprosy(J) reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

9 Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”

10 So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” 11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

12 The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide(K) in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’”

13 One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here—yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”

14 So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” 15 They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight.(L) So the messengers returned and reported to the king. 16 Then the people went out and plundered(M) the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel,(N) as the Lord had said.

17 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died,(O) just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. 18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”

19 The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates(P) of the heavens, could this happen?” The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!” 20 And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.

The Shunammite’s Land Restored

8 Now Elisha had said to the woman(Q) 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(R) in the land that will last seven years.”(S) 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(T) 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.”

Hazael Murders Ben-Hadad

7 Elisha went to Damascus,(U) and Ben-Hadad(V) 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,(W) “Take a gift(X) with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult(Y) 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.’(Z) Nevertheless,[e] 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.(AA) Then the man of God began to weep.(AB)

12 “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael.

“Because I know the harm(AC) you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash(AD) their little children(AE) to the ground, and rip open(AF) their pregnant women.”

13 Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog,(AG) accomplish such a feat?”

“The Lord has shown me that you will become king(AH) 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.(AI) Then Hazael succeeded him as king.

Jehoram King of Judah(AJ)

16 In the fifth year of Joram(AK) son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram(AL) 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(AM) 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(AN) Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp(AO) for David and his descendants forever.

20 In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king.(AP) 21 So Jehoram[f] 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(AQ) against Judah. Libnah(AR) 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.

Ahaziah King of Judah(AS)

25 In the twelfth(AT) 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,(AU) a granddaughter of Omri(AV) king of Israel. 27 He followed the ways of the house of Ahab(AW) and did evil(AX) 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.(AY) The Arameans wounded Joram; 29 so King Joram returned to Jezreel(AZ) to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth[g] in his battle with Hazael(BA) king of Aram.

Then Ahaziah(BB) son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 7:1 That is, probably about 12 pounds or about 5.5 kilograms of flour; also in verses 16 and 18
  2. 2 Kings 7:1 That is, about 2/5 ounce or about 12 grams; also in verses 16 and 18
  3. 2 Kings 7:1 That is, probably about 20 pounds or about 9 kilograms of barley; also in verses 16 and 18
  4. 2 Kings 7:3 The Hebrew for leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin; also in verse 8.
  5. 2 Kings 8:10 The Hebrew may also be read Go and say, ‘You will certainly not recover,’ for.
  6. 2 Kings 8:21 Hebrew Joram, a variant of Jehoram; also in verses 23 and 24
  7. 2 Kings 8:29 Hebrew Ramah, a variant of Ramoth
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