The king ¹  heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was marching out to fight him. ²  He again sent messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them:

The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again, for the king of Babylon conquered all the territory that the king of Egypt had formerly controlled between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River.

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

Naaman said, “If not, then please give your servant a load of dirt, enough for a pair of mules to carry, ¹  for your servant will never again offer a burnt offering or sacrifice to a god other than the Lord. ² 

So he threw a big banquet ¹  for them and they ate and drank. Then he sent them back ²  to their master. After that no Syrian raiding parties again invaded the land of Israel.

I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors, ¹  provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law my servant Moses ordered them to obey.”

Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit. ¹ 

The king ¹  sent another captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. He went up and told him, ²  “Prophet, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’” ³ 

She called to her husband, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can go see the prophet quickly and then return.”

The watchman reported, “He reached them, but hasn’t started back. The one who drives the lead chariot drives like Jehu son of Nimshi; ¹  he drives recklessly.”

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.

The king ¹  sent a third captain and his fifty soldiers. This third captain went up and fell ²  on his knees before Elijah. He begged for mercy, “Prophet, please have respect for my life and for the lives of these fifty servants of yours.

He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky ¹  and worshiped ²  them.

The water has been pure to this very day, just as Elisha prophesied. ¹ 

Elisha ¹  said to him, “Go in peace.” When he had gone a short distance, ² 

Elisha sent out a messenger who told him, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan; your skin will be restored ¹  and you will be healed.”

But his attendant said, “How can I feed a hundred men with this?” ¹  He replied, “Set it before the people so they may eat, for this is what the Lord says, ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” ² 

So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times, as the prophet had instructed. ¹  His skin became as smooth as a young child’s ²  and he was healed.

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.

The Lord was furious with ¹  Israel and handed them over to ²  King Hazael of Syria and to Hazael’s son Ben Hadad for many years. ³