2 Kings 3

1 Joram, son of Ahab, became king of Israel in Samaria (in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and he reigned for twelve years).
2 He did evil in the LORD'S sight, though not as much as his father and mother. He did away with the pillar of Baal, which his father had made,
3 but he still clung to the sin to which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had lured Israel; this he did not give up.
4 Now Mesha, king of Moab, who raised sheep, used to pay the king of Israel as tribute a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams.
5 But when Ahab died, the king of Moab had rebelled against the king of Israel.
6 Joram as king mustered all Israel, and when he set out on a campaign from Samaria,
7 he sent the king of Judah the message: The king of Moab is in rebellion against me. Will you join me in battle against Moab? I will, he replied. You and I shall be as one, your people and mine, and your horses and mine as well.
8 They discussed the route for their attack, and settled upon the route through the desert of Edom.
9 So the king of Israel set out, accompanied by the king of Judah and the king of Edom. After their roundabout journey of seven days the water gave out for the army and for the animals with them.
10 Alas! exclaimed the king of Israel. The LORD has called together these three kings to put them in the grasp of Moab.
11 But the king of Judah asked, Is there no prophet of the LORD here through whom we may inquire of the LORD? One of the officers of the king of Israel replied, Elisha, son of Shaphat, who poured water on the hands of Elijah, is here.
12 He has the word of the LORD, the king of Judah agreed. So the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom went down to Elisha.
13 What do you want with me? Elisha asked the king of Israel. Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother. No, the king of Israel replied. The LORD has called these three kings together to put them in the grasp of Moab.
14 Then Elisha said, As the LORD of hosts lives, whom I serve, were it not that I respect the king of Judah, I should neither look at you nor notice you at all.
15 Now get me a minstrel. When the minstrel played, the power of the LORD came upon Elisha
16 and he announced: Thus says the LORD, 'Provide many catch basins in this wadi.'
17 For the LORD says, 'Though you will see neither wind nor rain, yet this wadi will be filled with water for you, your livestock, and your pack animals to drink.'
18 And since the LORD does not consider this enough, he will also deliver Moab into your grasp.
19 You shall destroy every fortified city, fell every fruit tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every fertile field with stones.
20 In the morning, at the time of the sacrifice, water came from the direction of Edom and filled the land.
21 Meanwhile, all Moab heard that the kings had come to give them battle; every man capable of bearing arms was called up and stationed at the border.
22 Early that morning, when the sun shone on the water, the Moabites saw the water at a distance as red as blood.
23 This is blood! they exclaimed. The kings have fought among themselves and killed one another. Quick! To the spoils, Moabites!
24 But when they reached the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and attacked the Moabites, who fled from them. They ranged through the countryside striking down the Moabites, and
25 destroying the cities; each of them cast stones onto every fertile field till they had loaded it down; all the springs they stopped up and every useful tree they felled. Finally only Kir-hareseth was left behind its stone walls, and the slingers had surrounded it and were attacking it.
26 When he saw that he was losing the battle, the king of Moab took seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Aram, but he failed.
27 So he took his first-born, his heir apparent, and offered him as a holocaust upon the wall. The wrath against Israel was so great that they gave up the siege and returned to their own land.

2 Kings 4

1 A certain woman, the widow of one of the guild prophets, complained to Elisha: My husband, your servant, is dead. You know that he was a God-fearing man, yet now his creditor has come to take my two children as his slaves.
2 How can I help you? Elisha answered her. Tell me what you have in the house. This servant of yours has nothing in the house but a jug of oil, she replied.
3 Go out, he said, borrow vessels from all your neighbors--as many empty vessels as you can.
4 Then come back and close the door on yourself and your children; pour the oil into all the vessels, and as each is filled, set it aside.
5 She went and did so, closing the door on herself and her children. As they handed her the vessels, she would pour in oil.
6 When all the vessels were filled, she said to her son, Bring me another vessel. There is none left, he answered her. And then the oil stopped.
7 She went and told the man of God, who said, Go and sell the oil to pay off your creditor; with what remains, you and your children can live.
8 One day Elisha came to Shunem, where there was a woman of influence, who urged him to dine with her. Afterward, whenever he passed by, he used to stop there to dine.
9 So she said to her husband, I know that he is a holy man of God. Since he visits us often,
10 let us arrange a little room on the roof and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp, so that when he comes to us he can stay there.
11 Sometime later Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight.
12 Then he said to his servant Gehazi, Call this Shunammite woman. He did so, and when she stood before Elisha,
13 he told Gehazi, Say to her, 'You have lavished all this care on us; what can we do for you? Can we say a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?' She replied, I am living among my own people.
14 Later Elisha asked, Can something be done for her? Yes! Gehazi answered. She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years.
15 Call her, said Elisha. When she had been called, and stood at the door,
16 Elisha promised, This time next year you will be fondling a baby son. Please, my lord, she protested, you are a man of God; do not deceive your servant.
17 Yet the woman conceived, and by the same time the following year she had given birth to a son, as Elisha had promised.
18 The day came when the child was old enough to go out to his father among the reapers.
19 My head hurts! he complained to his father. Carry him to his mother, the father said to a servant.
20 The servant picked him up and carried him to his mother; he stayed with her until noon, when he died in her lap.
21 The mother took him upstairs and laid him on the bed of the man of God. Closing the door on him, she went out
22 and called to her husband, Let me have a servant and a donkey. I must go quickly to the man of God, and I will be back.
23 Why are you going to him today? he asked. It is neither the new moon nor the sabbath. But she bade him good-bye,
24 and when the donkey was saddled, said to her servant: Lead on! Do not stop my donkey unless I tell you to.
25 She kept going till she reached the man of God on Mount Carmel. When he spied her at a distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi: There is the Shunammite!
26 Hurry to meet her, and ask if all is well with her, with her husband, and with the boy. Greetings, she replied.
27 But when she reached the man of God on the mountain, she clasped his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said: Let her alone, she is in bitter anguish; the LORD hid it from me and did not let me know.
28 Did I ask my lord for a son? she cried out. Did I not beg you not to deceive me?
29 Gird your loins, Elisha said to Gehazi, take my staff with you and be off; if you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff upon the boy.
30 But the boy's mother cried out: As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not release you. So he started to go back with her.
31 Meanwhile, Gehazi had gone on ahead and had laid the staff upon the boy, but there was no sound or sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and informed him that the boy had not awakened.
32 When Elisha reached the house, he found the boy lying dead.
33 He went in, closed the door on them both, and prayed to the LORD.
34 Then he lay upon the child on the bed, placing his mouth upon the child's mouth, his eyes upon the eyes, and his hands upon the hands. As Elisha stretched himself over the child, the body became warm.
35 He arose, paced up and down the room, and then once more lay down upon the boy, who now sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, Call the Shunammite. She came at his call, and Elisha said to her, Take your son.
37 She came in and fell at his feet in gratitude; then she took her son and left the room.
38 When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. Once, when the guild prophets were seated before him, he said to his servant, Put the large pot on, and make some vegetable stew for the guild prophets.
39 Someone went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine, from which he picked a clothful of wild gourds. On his return he cut them up into the pot of vegetable stew without anybody's knowing it.
40 The stew was poured out for the men to eat, but when they began to eat it, they exclaimed, Man of God, there is poison in the pot! And they could not eat it.
41 Bring some meal, Elisha said. He threw it into the pot and said, Serve it to the people to eat. And there was no longer anything harmful in the pot.
42 A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing the man of God twenty barely loaves made from the first fruits, and fresh grain in the ear. Give it to the people to eat, Elisha said.
43 But his servant objected, How can I set this before a hundred men? Give it to the people to eat, Elisha insisted. For thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'
44 And when they had eaten, there was some left over, as the LORD had said.