2 Kings 8:7-15

Living Bible

⁷ Afterwards Elisha went to Damascus (the capital of Syria), where King Ben-hadad lay sick. Someone told the king that the prophet had come.

^8-9 When the king heard the news, he said to Hazael, “Take a present to the man of God and tell him to ask the Lord whether I will get well again.”

So Hazael took forty camel-loads of the best produce of the land as presents for Elisha and said to him, “Your son Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, has sent me to ask you whether he will recover.”

¹⁰ And Elisha replied, “Tell him, ‘Yes.’ But the Lord has shown me that he will surely die!”

¹¹ Elisha stared at Hazael until he became embarrassed, and then Elisha started crying.

¹² “What’s the matter, sir?” Hazael asked him.

Elisha replied, “I know the terrible things you will do to the people of Israel: you will burn their forts, kill the young men, dash their babies against the rocks, and rip open the bellies of the pregnant women!”

¹³ “Am I a dog?” Hazael asked him. “I would never do that sort of thing.”

But Elisha replied, “The Lord has shown me that you are going to be the king of Syria.”

¹⁴ When Hazael went back, the king asked him, “What did he tell you?”

And Hazael replied, “He told me that you would recover.”

¹⁵ But the next day Hazael took a blanket and dipped it in water and held it over the king’s face until he smothered to death. And Hazael became king instead.