2 Kings 8

1Elisha had spoken to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise, and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can stay, for Yahweh has called for a famine, and it has also come upon the land for seven years.”

2So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. She went, she and her household, and lived as a foreign resident in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

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

4The king was speaking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Please tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.”

5And as he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life was crying out to the king about her house and about her field. And 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, and she told him. Then the king appointed an official for her, saying, “Restore everything that belongs to her, along with all the yield of the field from the day she left the land until now.”

7Then Elisha came to Damascus. Now Ben-hadad king of Aram was sick, and it was told him, saying, “The man of God has come here.”

8And the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift in your hand, and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of Yahweh through him, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

9So Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand, even every good thing of Damascus, a load for forty camels. He came and stood before him and said, “Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

10And Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You will certainly recover’; but Yahweh has shown me that he will certainly die.”

11And he fixed his gaze and stared until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept.

12Hazael said, “Why is my lord weeping?” And he said, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: you will set their fortresses on fire, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women.”

13Hazael said, “But what is your servant, this dog, that he should do this great thing?” And Elisha said, “Yahweh has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”

14So he went away from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he said, “He told me, ‘You will surely recover.’”

15And it happened on the next day that he took the covering cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over his face, and he died. Then Hazael reigned in his place.

16And in the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign.

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

18He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife, and he did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.

19Yet Yahweh was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, just as he had said to him that he would give him a lamp for his sons all the days.

20In his days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and made a king over themselves.

21So Joram crossed over to Zair, with all the chariots with him. Then he arose by night and struck Edom, which had surrounded him, and the commanders of the chariots; but the people fled to their tents.

22So Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then Libnah also rebelled at that time.

23The rest of the acts of Yoram, and all that he did—are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

24And Yoram lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.

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

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

27He walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, like the house of Ahab, for he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab.

28He went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans wounded Joram.

29Then King Yoram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. And Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Yoram son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.