Finding Help in the Desert

¹Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.

²He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, but not like his father and like his mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made.

³Nevertheless he held to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. He didn’t depart from them.

⁴Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he supplied the king of Israel with one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams.

⁵But when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

⁶King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel.

⁷He went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me against Moab to battle?” He said, “I will go up. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

⁸Then he said, “Which way shall we go up?” Jehoram answered, “The way of the wilderness of Edom.”

⁹So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom, and they marched for seven days along a circuitous route. There was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them.

¹⁰The king of Israel said, “Alas! For the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”

¹¹But Jehoshaphat said, “Isn’t there a prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of the LORD by him?” One of the king of Israel’s servants answered, “Elisha the son of Shaphat, who poured water on the hands of Elijah, is here.”

¹²Jehoshaphat said, “The LORD’s word is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

¹³Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father, and to the prophets of your mother.” The king of Israel said to him, “No, for the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”

¹⁴Elisha said, “As the LORD of Armies lives, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I respect the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward you, nor see you.

¹⁵But now bring me a musician.” When the musician played, the LORD’s hand came on him.

¹⁶He said, “The LORD says, ‘Make this valley full of trenches.’

¹⁷For the LORD says, ‘You will not see wind, neither will you see rain, yet that valley will be filled with water, and you will drink, both you and your livestock and your other animals.

¹⁸This is an easy thing in the LORD’s sight. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand.

¹⁹You shall strike every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.’”

²⁰In the morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.

²¹Now when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, they gathered themselves together, all who were able to put on armor, young and old, and stood on the border.

²²They rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood.

²³They said, “This is blood. The kings are surely destroyed, and they have struck each other. Now therefore, Moab, to the plunder!”

²⁴When they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land attacking the Moabites.

²⁵They beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land each man cast his stone, and filled it. They also stopped all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees, until in Kir Hareseth all they left was its stones; however the men armed with slings went around it and attacked it.

²⁶When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too severe for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew a sword, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not.

²⁷Then he took his oldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. There was great wrath against Israel; and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.

¹Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”

²Elisha said to her, “What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.”

³Then he said, “Go, borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers.

⁴Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full.”

⁵So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured oil.

⁶When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” He said to her, “There isn’t another container.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷Then she came and told the man of God. He said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”

⁸One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.

⁹She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually.

¹⁰Please, let’s make a little room on the roof. Let’s set a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand for him there. When he comes to us, he can stay there.”

¹¹One day he came there, and he went to the room and lay there.

¹²He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him.

¹³He said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”

¹⁴He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the door.

¹⁶He said, “At this season next year, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.”

¹⁷The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her.

¹⁸When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers.

¹⁹He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

²⁰When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died.

²¹She went up and laid him on the man of God’s bed, and shut the door on him, and went out.

²²She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come again.”

²³He said, “Why would you want to go to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath.” She said, “It’s all right.”

²⁴Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward! Don’t slow down for me, unless I ask you to.”

²⁵So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, there is the Shunammite.

²⁶Please run now to meet her, and ask her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child?’” She answered, “It is well.”

²⁷When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is troubled within her; and the LORD has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”

²⁸Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”

²⁹Then he said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don’t greet him; and if anyone greets you, don’t answer him again. Then lay my staff on the child’s face.”

³⁰The child’s mother said, “As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose, and followed her.

³¹Gehazi went ahead of them, and laid the staff on the child’s face; but there was no voice and no hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, “The child has not awakened.”

³²When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lying on his bed.

³³He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to the LORD.

³⁴He went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the child’s flesh grew warm.

³⁵Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth, then went up and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.

³⁶He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.”

³⁷Then she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; then she picked up her son, and went out.

³⁸Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Get the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”

³⁹One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds from it, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew; for they didn’t recognize them.

⁴⁰So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.

⁴¹But he said, “Then bring meal.” He threw it into the pot; and he said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

⁴²A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.”

⁴³His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for the LORD says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”

⁴⁴So he set it before them and they ate and had some left over, according to the LORD’s word.