2 Kings 8

¹Now Eliʹsha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, and depart with your household, and sojourn wherever you can; for the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years.” ²So the woman arose, and did according to the word of the man of God; she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. ³And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went forth to appeal to the king for her house and her land. ⁴Now the king was talking with Gehaʹzi the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me all the great things that Eliʹsha has done.” ⁵And while he was telling the king how Eliʹsha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Gehaʹzi said, “My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Eliʹsha restored to life.” ⁶And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.”

⁷Now Eliʹsha came to Damascus. Ben-haʹdad the king of Syria was sick; and when it was told him, “The man of God has come here,” ⁸the king said to Hazʹael, “Take a present with you and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord through him, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’ ” ⁹So Hazʹael went to meet him, and took a present with him, all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camel loads. When he came and stood before him, he said, “Your son Ben-haʹdad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’ ” ¹⁰And Eliʹsha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover’; but the Lord has shown me that he shall certainly die.” ¹¹And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was ashamed. And the man of God wept. ¹²And Hazʹael said, “Why does my lord weep?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel; you will set on fire their fortresses, and you will slay their young men with the sword, and dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child.” ¹³And Hazʹael said, “What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Eliʹsha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you are to be king over Syria.” ¹⁴Then he departed from Eliʹsha, and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Eliʹsha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” ¹⁵But on the morrow he took the coverlet and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, till he died. And Hazʹael became king in his stead.

¹⁶In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoʹram the son of Jehoshʹaphat, king of Judah, began to reign. ¹⁷He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. ¹⁸And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹⁹Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons for ever.

²⁰In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah, and set up a king of their own. ²¹Then Joram passed over to Zaʹir with all his chariots, and rose by night, and he and his chariot commanders smote the Eʹdomites who had surrounded him; but his army fled home. ²²So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time. ²³Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁴So Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Ahaziʹah his son reigned in his stead.

²⁵In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziʹah the son of Jehoʹram, king of Judah, began to reign. ²⁶Ahaziʹah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliʹah; she was a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. ²⁷He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was son-in-law to the house of Ahab.

²⁸He went with Joram the son of Ahab to make war against Hazʹael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead, where the Syrians wounded Joram. ²⁹And King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazʹael king of Syria. And Ahaziʹah the son of Jehoʹram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.