2 Kings 6

1The company of prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we live with you is too small for us.

2Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a log, and let us build a place there for us to live.” He said, “Go.”

3Then one of them said, “Please come with your servants.” He answered, “I will come.”

4So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they began cutting down trees.

5As one of them was cutting down a log, the iron ax head fell into the water. He cried out, “Oh no, my master! It was borrowed!”

6The man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut off a stick and threw it there, and the iron floated.

7He said, “Pick it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it.

8Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After consulting with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”

9But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Be careful not to pass that place, because the Arameans are going down there.”

10So the king of Israel sent word to the place the man of God had told him about. The man of God warned him, and he was on his guard there, not just once or twice.

11The king of Aram was enraged over this. He called his officers and said to them, “Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”

12One of his officers said, “No one, my lord the king. It is Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, who tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”

13The king said, “Go and find out where he is, so that I can send men and seize him.” He was told, “He is in Dothan.”

14So he sent horses and chariots and a large force there. They came by night and surrounded the city.

15When the servant of the man of God got up early and went out, there was an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. His servant said to him, “Oh no, my master! What are we going to do?”

16He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

17Then Elisha prayed, “Yahweh, please open his eyes so that he may see.” So Yahweh 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 Yahweh, “Please strike these people with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

19Then Elisha said to them, “This is not the road, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man you are looking for.” So he led them to Samaria.

20As soon as they had entered Samaria, Elisha said, “Yahweh, open the eyes of these men so that they may see.” So Yahweh opened their eyes, and they saw that they were inside Samaria.

21When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, should I strike them down? Should I strike them down?”

22He answered, “Do not strike them down. Would you strike down those you have taken captive with your own sword and bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.”

23So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went back to their master. The Aramean raiders did not come into the land of Israel again.

24Some time later Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria.

25There was a great famine in Samaria. The siege went on until a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.

26As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help, my lord the king!”

27He said, “If Yahweh does not help you, where could I get help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?”

28Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so 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 we can eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.”

30When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his clothes. As he was passing by on the wall, the people looked, and there was sackcloth underneath, against his body.

31He said, “May God do so to me, and more, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on his shoulders today!”

32Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to cut 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?”

33While he was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. He said, “This disaster is from Yahweh! Why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?”