They said to him, &#8220;Look, there are fifty capable men with your servants. Let them go and look for your master, for the wind sent from the <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.&#8221; But Elisha<n id="2" /> replied, &#8220;Don&#8217;t send them out.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Elisha said to the king of Israel, &#8220;Why are you here?<n id="1" /> Go to your father&#8217;s prophets or your mother&#8217;s prophets!&#8221; The king of Israel replied to him, &#8220;No, for the <sc>Lordsc> is the one who summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to Moab.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">So she went to visit<n id="1" /> the prophet at Mount Carmel. When he<n id="2" /> saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, &#8220;Look, it&#8217;s the Shunammite woman.

Elisha<n id="1" /> told Gehazi, &#8220;Tuck your robes into your belt, take my staff,<n id="2" /> and go! Don&#8217;t stop to exchange greetings with anyone!<n id="3" /> Place my staff on the child&#8217;s face.&#8221;

Elisha<n id="1" /> went back and walked around in the house.<n id="2" /> Then he got up on the bed again<n id="3" /> and bent down over him. The child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Naaman went away angry. He said, &#8220;Look, I thought for sure he would come out, stand there, invoke the name of the <sc>Lordsc> his God, wave his hand over the area, and cure the skin disease.

Elisha<n id="1" /> replied, &#8220;I was there in spirit when a man turned and got down from his chariot to meet you.<n id="2" /> This is not the proper time to accept silver or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and male and female servants.<n id="3" />

If we go into the city, we&#8217;ll die of starvation,<n id="1" /> and if we stay here we&#8217;ll die! So come on, let&#8217;s defect<n id="2" /> to the Syrian camp! If they spare us,<n id="3" /> we&#8217;ll live; if they kill us &#8211; well, we were going to die anyway.&#8221;<n id="4" />

Then they said to one another, &#8220;It&#8217;s not right what we&#8217;re doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven&#8217;t told anyone.<n id="1" /> If we wait until dawn,<n id="2" /> we&#8217;ll be punished.<n id="3" /> So come on, let&#8217;s go and inform the royal palace.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now Elisha advised the woman whose son he had brought back to life, &#8220;You and your family should go and live somewhere else for a while,<n id="1" /> for the <sc>Lordsc> has decreed that a famine will overtake the land for seven years.&#8221;

So the king told Hazael, &#8220;Take a gift<n id="1" /> and go visit the prophet. Request from him an oracle from the <sc>Lordsc>. Ask him,<n id="2" /> &#8216;Will I recover from this sickness?&#8217;&#8221;

So Hazael went to visit Elisha.<n id="1" /> He took along a gift,<n id="2" /> as well as<n id="3" /> forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, &#8220;Your son,<n id="4" /> King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question,<n id="5" /> &#8216;Will I recover from this sickness?&#8217;&#8221;

But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians<n id="1" /> when he fought against King Hazael of Syria.<n id="2" /> Jehu told his supporters,<n id="3" /> &#8220;If you really want me to be king,<n id="4" /> then don&#8217;t let anyone escape from the city to go and warn Jezreel.&#8221;

So the horseman<n id="1" /> went to meet him and said, &#8220;This is what the king says, &#8216;Is everything all right?&#8217;&#8221;<n id="2" /> Jehu replied, &#8220;None of your business!<n id="3" /> Follow me.&#8221; The watchman reported, &#8220;The messenger reached them, but hasn&#8217;t started back.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard<n id="1" /> and officers, &#8220;Come in and strike them down! Don&#8217;t let any escape!&#8221; So the royal guard and officers struck them down with the sword and left their bodies lying there.<n id="2" /> Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal.<n id="3" />

But Jehu did not carefully and wholeheartedly obey the law of the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel.<n id="1" /> He did not repudiate the sins which Jeroboam had encouraged Israel to commit.<n id="2" />p>

One day some men<n id="1" /> were burying a man when they spotted<n id="2" /> a raiding party. So they threw the dead man<n id="3" /> into Elisha&#8217;s tomb. When the body<n id="4" /> touched Elisha&#8217;s bones, the dead man<n id="5" /> came to life and stood on his feet.p>

<p class="bodytext">When King Ahaz went to meet with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria in Damascus, he saw the altar there.<n id="1" /> King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a drawing of the altar and a blueprint for its design.<n id="2" />

They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey.<n id="1" /> They paid allegiance to<n id="2" /> worthless idols, and so became worthless to the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="3" /> They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s command.<n id="4" />

Isaiah replied, &#8220;This is your sign from the <sc>Lordsc> confirming that the <sc>Lordsc> will do what he has said. Do you want the shadow to move ahead ten steps or to go back ten steps?&#8221;<n id="1" />