He took the cloak that had fallen off Elijah, ¹  hit the water with it, and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” When he hit the water, it divided and Elisha crossed over.

Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we might seek the Lord’s direction?” ¹  One of the servants of the king of Israel answered, “Elisha son of Shapat is here; he used to be Elijah’s servant.” ² 

Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord who rules over all ¹  lives (whom I serve), ²  if I did not respect King Jehoshaphat of Judah, ³  I would not pay attention to you or acknowledge you. ⁴ 

So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him up as a burnt sacrifice on the wall. There was an outburst of divine anger against Israel, ¹  so they broke off the attack ²  and returned to their homeland.

Gehazi, the prophet Elisha’s servant, thought, ¹  “Look, my master did not accept what this Syrian Naaman offered him. ²  As certainly as the Lord lives, I will run after him and accept something from him.”

Then Elisha said to them, “This is not the right road or city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you’re looking for.” He led them to Samaria. ¹ 

An officer who was the king’s right-hand man ¹  responded to the prophet, ²  “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ³  Elisha ⁴  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ⁵ 

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, ¹  for the Lord has decreed that a famine will overtake the land for seven years.”

The king asked the woman about it, and she gave him the details. ¹  The king assigned a eunuch to take care of her request and ordered him, ²  “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.”

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.”

But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians ¹  when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. ²  Jehu told his supporters, ³  “If you really want me to be king, ⁴  then don’t let anyone escape from the city to go and warn Jezreel.”

When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what happened, he took off ¹  up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him and ordered, “Shoot him too.” They shot him while he was driving his chariot up the ascent of Gur near Ibleam. ²  He fled to Megiddo ³  and died there.

When they went back and told him, he said, “The Lord’s word through his servant, Elijah the Tishbite, has come to pass. He warned, ¹  ‘In the plot of land at Jezreel, dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh.

Jehu sent invitations throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one was absent. They arrived at the temple of Baal and filled it up from end to end. ¹ 

But Jehu did not carefully and wholeheartedly obey the law of the Lord God of Israel. ¹  He did not repudiate the sins which Jeroboam had encouraged Israel to commit. ² 

The officers of the units of hundreds did just as ¹  Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each of them took his men, those who were on duty during the Sabbath as well as those who were off duty on the Sabbath, and reported ²  to Jehoiada the priest.

as well as masons and stonecutters. They bought wood and chiseled stone to repair the damage to the Lord’s temple and also paid for all the other expenses. ¹ 

Now Elisha had a terminal illness. ¹  King Joash of Israel went down to visit him. ²  He wept before him and said, “My father, my father! The chariot ³  and horsemen of Israel!” ⁴ 

Jehoahaz’s son Jehoash took back from ¹  Ben Hadad son of Hazael the cities that he had taken from his father Jehoahaz in war. Joash defeated him three times and recovered the Israelite cities.

But he did not execute the sons of the assassins. He obeyed the Lord’s commandment as recorded in the law scroll of Moses, ¹  “Fathers must not be put to death for what their sons do, ²  and sons must not be put to death for what their fathers do. ³  A man must be put to death only for his own sin.” ⁴