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Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise from here and go with your family and settle wherever you can; for the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come on the land for seven years.” 2 So the woman had done what the man of God told her. She and her family went to the land of the Philistines and stayed there seven years.
3 At the end of the seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, and she went to the king to appeal for her house and land. 4 At that very time the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and he said, “Tell me all the great things Elisha has done.” 5 While he was telling the king how Elisha had restored a dead person to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and land.
So Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha has restored to life.” 6 When the king asked the woman about it, she told him of the event.
So the king appointed an official for her case and said to him, “Restore everything that was hers, along with all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”
7 Elisha came to Damascus at a time when Ben-hadad king of Aram was ill. The king was told, “The man of God has come here.” 8 So the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift in your hand and go to meet the man of God. Inquire of the Lord through him: ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ ”
9 Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ ”
10 Elisha said to him, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover’. But the Lord has shown me that he will certainly die.” 11 Then Elisha fixed his gaze and stared at Hazael until he was ashamed. Then the man of god wept.
12 “Why is my lord weeping?” Hazael asked.
He answered, “Because I know the evil you will do to the people of Israel. You will set fire to their fortresses. You will kill their young men with the sword. You will dash their little ones in pieces. You will rip open their pregnant women.”
13 Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog, do this terrible thing?”
Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you will become king over Aram.”
14 Then Hazael left Elisha and went back to his master, who asked him, “What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael answered, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” 15 But the next day he took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael succeeded him as king.
16 In the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah. 17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. 18 He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was married to one of Ahab’s daughters. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 19 Yet for the sake of His servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, since He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
20 During the reign of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own. 21 So Jehoram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. Then he set out by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the chariot commanders, but his troops fled back home. 22 So Edom has been in revolt against the rule of Judah to this day. Libnah also rebelled against Judah at that time.
23 As for the other events of the reign of Jehoram, and all that he did, are they not written about in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 24 Jehoram rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David; and his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.
25 In the twelfth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah. 26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. 27 He walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was a son-in-law to Ahab’s family.
28 Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans wounded Joram. 29 So King Joram 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.
Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.