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sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “As you can see, the place where we live under your direction is too small for us. 2 Please, let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get some timber, and build a place there for us to live.”
“Go,” he replied.
3 Then one of them said, “Will you please come along with your servants.”
“I will come,” Elisha answered.
4 So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they began cutting down trees. 5 But as one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head came off and fell into the water; and he cried out, “Alas, master, it was borrowed!”
6 The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?”
When he showed him the place, Elisha cut off a stick and threw it there, and made the iron axe head float. 7 Then he said, “Lift it out.” So he reached out his hand and retrieved it.
8 Now the king of Aram was waging war against Israel. After he had consulted with his officers, he said, “My camp will be in such and such a place.”
9 But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware that you do not pass that place, for the Arameans are going down there.” 10 So the king of Israel sent word to the place of which the man of God had told him. More than once or twice Elisha warned the king, so the king would be on his guard.
11 The king of Aram was enraged because of this matter, so he summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me, which one of us sides with the king of Israel?”
12 One of his officers said, “No one my lord, the king. It is Elisha, the prophet in Israel, who tells the king of Israel even the very words you speak in your bedroom.”
13 So the king commanded, “Go and find out where he is, so I can send men to capture him.” It was reported him: “Elisha is in Dothan.” 14 So he sent horses and chariots and a large army there, and they went by night and surrounded the city.
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next day, he found that an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. So he asked Elisha, “Alas, my master, what shall we do?”
16 “Do not be afraid,” Elisha said, “for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17 Then Elisha prayed,
“O Lord, open his eyes, I pray, so that he may see.”
So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he looked and saw that the mountain was filled with chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18 When the Arameans came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord,
“Strike these people, I pray, with blindness.”
So God struck them with blindness, as Elisha had prayed.
19 Then Elisha said to them, “This is not the road, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to Samaria.
20 After they had entered the city of Samaria, Elisha said,
“O Lord, open the eyes of these men so they may see.”
Then the Lord opened their eyes, and they looked; and there they were, inside Samaria.
21 When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?”
22 “No, do not kill them,” Elisha answered. “Do you kill men you have captured with your sword and with your bow? Set food and water before them, so they can eat and drink and then go back to their master.” 23 So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master.
24 Some time after this, Ben-hadad king of Aram mustered all his army together, and they marched up and laid siege to Samaria. 25 So there was a severe famine in Samaria because of the siege. Eventually a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver and a quarter of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.
26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “My lord the king, help me!”
27 He answered, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?” 28 Then the king said to her, “What is your complaint?”
She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him today; then tomorrow we will eat my son’. 29 So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we can eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”
30 When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Then, as he was passing along the wall, people saw that the king was wearing sackcloth on his body, underneath his clothing. 31 He said, “May God punish me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders this day.”
32 Now Elisha 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 take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it closed against him. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?” 33 While Elisha was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, “This evil is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”