When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.

“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”

As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.

Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two.

Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the class="small-caps" >Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.

The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

“Look,” they said, “we your servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the class="small-caps" >Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.” “No,” Elisha replied, “do not send them.”

But they persisted until he was too embarrassed to refuse. So he said, “Send them.” And they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him.

When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”

Healing of the Water

The people of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.”

“Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.

Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the class="small-caps" >Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’”

And the water has remained pure to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.

Elisha Is Jeered

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!”

He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the class="small-caps" >Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.

And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

Moab Revolts

Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years.

He did evil in the eyes of the class="small-caps" >Lord, but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made.

Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.

But after Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

“By what route shall we attack?” he asked. “Through the Desert of Edom,” he answered.

So the king of Israel set out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. After a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them.

“What!” exclaimed the king of Israel. “Has the class="small-caps" >Lord called us three kings together only to deliver us into the hands of Moab?”

But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no prophet of the class="small-caps" >Lord here, through whom we may inquire of the class="small-caps" >Lord?” An officer of the king of Israel answered, “Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.”