2 Kings

¹Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, 'Take your family and go live somewhere else for a while. The LORD has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.'

²The woman acted on the word of the man of God. She and her household left and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

³At the end of the seven years, she returned from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.

⁴Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, 'Tell me all the great things Elisha has done.'

⁵Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, 'My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.'

⁶The king asked the woman about it, and she told him. He appointed an official to handle her case and said, 'Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.'

⁷Elisha traveled to Damascus. Ben-hadad king of Aram was ill, and he was told that the man of God had come there.

⁸The king said to Hazael, 'Take a gift and go meet the man of God. Consult the LORD through him and ask whether I will recover from this illness.'

⁹Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him forty camel-loads of the finest goods of Damascus as a gift. He came and stood before him and said, 'Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask: Will I recover from this illness?'

¹⁰Elisha answered, 'Go and say to him: You will certainly recover. But the LORD has shown me that he will in fact die.'

¹¹He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed. Then the man of God wept.

¹²'Why is my lord weeping?' asked Hazael. Elisha replied, 'Because I know the harm you will cause to the Israelites. You will set their fortresses on fire, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women.'

¹³Hazael said, 'How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a thing?' Elisha answered, 'The LORD has shown me that you will be king of Aram.'

¹⁴Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-hadad asked, 'What did Elisha tell you?' Hazael replied, 'He told me that you would certainly recover.'

¹⁵The next day Hazael took a thick cloth, soaked it in water, and spread it over the king's face until he died. Then Hazael became king in his place.

¹⁶In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah.

¹⁷He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eight years.

¹⁸He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he had married a daughter of Ahab. He did what was evil in the LORD's sight.

¹⁹Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to give David and his descendants a lasting light.

²⁰During Jehoram's reign, Edom rebelled against Judah's control and set up its own king.

²¹So Jehoram went to Zair with all his chariots. He and his chariot commanders rose up at night and broke through the Edomites who had surrounded them, but his army fled back home.

²²Edom has been in rebellion against Judah ever since. Libnah also rebelled at that time.

²³The rest of the events of Jehoram's reign and everything he did are recorded in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah.

²⁴Jehoram died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Ahaziah became king after him.

²⁵In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.

²⁶Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.

²⁷He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the LORD's sight, just as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related to the house of Ahab by marriage.

²⁸Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to fight against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram.

²⁹King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab while he was recovering.