2 Kings 8

Revised Geneva Translation

8 Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Up and go, you and your House, and sojourn where you can sojourn. For the LORD has called for a famine. And it shall come upon the land for seven years.”

² And the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God and went, both she and her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

³ And at the end of seven years, the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines and went out to call upon the king for her House and for her land.

⁴ And the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Please tell me all the great acts that Elisha has done.”

⁵ And as he told the king how he had restored one dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had raised to life called upon the king for her House and for her land. Then Gehazi said, “My lord, O king! This is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.”

⁶ And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed a eunuch for her, saying, “Restore all that are hers, and all the fruits of her land, since the day she left the land until this time.”

⁷ Then, Elisha came to Damascus. And Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, was sick. And someone told him, saying, “The man of God has come here.”

⁸ And the king said to Hazael, “Take a present in your hand, and go meet the man of God, so that you may inquire of the LORD by him, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this disease?’”

⁹ So Hazael went to meet him, and took the present in his hand, and of every good thing of Damascus, the burden of forty camels, and came and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this disease?’”

¹⁰ And Elisha said to him, “Go. Say to him, ‘You shall recover.’ However, the LORD has shown me that he shall surely die.”

¹¹ And he looked upon him steadfastly, until Hazael was ashamed. And the man of God wept.

¹² And Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” And he answered, “Because I know the evil that you shall do to the children of Israel. You shall set their strong cities on fire, and shall kill their young men with the sword, and shall dash their infants against the stones, and tear their women with child in pieces.”

¹³ Then Hazael said, “What? Your servant is a dog. But I do this great thing?” And Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you shall be king of Aram.”

¹⁴ So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me that you should recover.”

¹⁵ And the next day, he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water and spread it on his face and he died. And Hazael reigned in his place.

¹⁶ Now, in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, and of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign.

¹⁷ He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem.

¹⁸ And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as did the House of Ahab. For the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁹ Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David His servant’s sake, as He had promised him, to give him a light to his children forever.

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

²¹ Therefore, Joram went to Zair, and all his chariots with him. And he arose by night and struck the Edomites who were around him with the captains of the chariots. And the people fled into their tents.

²² So, Edom has rebelled from under the hand of Judah to this day. And Libnah rebelled at that same time.

²³ Concerning 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?

²⁴ And Joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. And Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his place.

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

²⁶ Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri, king of Israel.

²⁷ And he walked in the way of the House of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the LORD, like the House of Ahab. For he was the son-in-law of the House of Ahab.

²⁸ And he went to war against Hazael, king of Aram, with Joram, the son of Ahab, in Ramoth Gilead. And the Aramites struck Joram.

²⁹ And King Joram returned to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds which the Aramites had given him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael, king of Aram. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram, the son of Ahab, in Jezreel, because he was sick.