2 Rois 6

The floating ax head

¹The company of prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we live under your leadership is too small for us. ²Please let us go down to the Jordan. Each of us can take a log from there, and we can build ourselves a place to live there.” He said, “Go.” ³Then one of them said, “Please be willing to come with your servants.” “I will come,” he answered. ⁴So he went along with them. Once they reached the Jordan, they began cutting down trees. ⁵As one of them was felling a log, the axe head fell into the water. He cried out, “Oh no, my master! It was borrowed!” ⁶The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When the man showed him the place, Elisha cut off a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float. ⁷“Pick it up,” he said. So the man reached out his hand and took it.

Elisha and the Aramean raiders

⁸Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After consulting with his officials, he said, “I will set up my camp at such and such a place.”^{a 9}But the man of God sent this message to the king of Israel: “Take care not to pass by this place, because the Arameans are going down there.”^{b 10}So the king of Israel sent word to the place that the man of God had named to him. Time and again Elisha warned him, and the king was on his guard there, not once or twice only. ¹¹This deeply troubled the king of Aram. He called his officials and said to them, “Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” ¹²One of his officials answered, “None of us, my lord the king. It is Elisha, the prophet in Israel. Even the words you speak in your bedroom, he reports to the king of Israel.” ¹³The king said, “Go and find out where he is, so that I can send men to seize him.” Word came back to him: “He is in Dothan.” ¹⁴So he sent horses and chariots there, a large force. They came by night and surrounded the city. ¹⁵When the servant of the man of God got up early in the morning and went out, there was an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. His servant said to Elisha, “Oh no, my master! What shall we do?” ¹⁶“Do not be afraid,” Elisha answered. “There are more with us than there are with them.” ¹⁷Then Elisha prayed, “LORD, please open his eyes so that he can see.” The LORD opened the young man’s eyes, and he saw that the hill was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. ¹⁸As the Arameans came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, “Please strike these people with a blinding light.” So he struck them with a blinding light, as Elisha had asked.^{c 19}Elisha said to them, “This is not the right road, and this is not the town. Come after me, and I will lead you to the man you are seeking.” So he brought them to Samaria. ²⁰As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, “LORD, open the eyes of these men so that they can see.” The LORD opened their eyes, and they looked and found that they were in the middle of Samaria. ²¹When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?” ²²“Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill men you had captured with your own sword and bow? Set food and water before them, so that they can eat and drink and then go back to their master.” ²³So the king prepared a great feast for them. When they had finished eating and drinking, he let them go, and they returned to their master. And the Aramean raiding bands did not come into the land of Israel again.

Famine in besieged Samaria

²⁴Some time after this, Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered his whole army, marched up, and laid siege to Samaria. ²⁵There was a great famine in Samaria. The siege went on so long that a donkey’s head sold for about 2 pounds of silver, and about a cup of dove’s dung for about 2 ounces of silver.^{d 26}The king of Israel was passing by on the city wall when a woman called out to him, “Help, my lord the king!” ²⁷He said, “If the LORD does not help you, where could I get help for you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?”^{e 28}Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, so that we can eat him today, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’ ²⁹So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, so that we can eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.” ³⁰When the king heard what the woman said, he tore his clothes. As he passed by on the wall, the people saw that he was wearing sackcloth underneath, against his skin. ³¹He said, “May God deal with me ever so severely if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on his shoulders today!” ³²Now Elisha was at home, with the elders sitting beside him. The king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger arrived, Elisha told the elders, “Do you see? This son of a murderer has sent someone to take off my head. Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps right behind him?” ³³Elisha was still talking with them when the messenger came down to him. And he said, “This disaster comes from the LORD. Why should I go on waiting for the LORD?”^f