Dual Panel1Elisha had told the woman whose son he had brought back to life, "Take your family and move to some other place, for the LORD has called for a famine on Israel that will last for seven years."
2So the woman did as the man of God instructed. She took her family and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
3After the famine ended she returned to the land of Israel, and she went to see the king about getting back her house and land.
4As she came in, the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. The king had just said, "Tell me some stories about the great things Elisha has done."
5And Gehazi was telling the king about the time Elisha had brought a boy back to life. At that very moment, the mother of the boy walked in to make her appeal to the king. "Look, my lord!" Gehazi exclaimed. "Here is the woman now, and this is her son––the very one Elisha brought back to life!"
6"Is this true?" the king asked her. And she told him that it was. So he directed one of his officials to see to it that everything she had lost was restored to her, including the value of any crops that had been harvested during her absence.
7Now Elisha went to Damascus, the capital of Aram, where King Ben–hadad lay sick. Someone told the king that the man of God had come.
8When the king heard the news, he said to Hazael, "Take a gift to the man of God. Then tell him to ask the LORD if I will get well again."
9So Hazael loaded down forty camels with the finest products of Damascus as a gift for Elisha. He went in to him and said, "Your servant Ben–hadad, the king of Aram, has sent me to ask you if he will recover."
10And Elisha replied, "Go and tell him, ‘You will recover.’ But the LORD has shown me that he will actually die!"
11Elisha stared at Hazael with a fixed gaze until Hazael became uneasy. Then the man of God started weeping.
12"What’s the matter, my lord?" Hazael asked him. Elisha replied, "I know the terrible things you will do to the people of Israel. You will burn their fortified cities, kill their young men, dash their children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women!"
13Then Hazael replied, "How could a nobody like me ever accomplish such a great feat?" But Elisha answered, "The LORD has shown me that you are going to be the king of Aram."
14When Hazael went back, the king asked him, "What did Elisha tell you?" And Hazael replied, "He told me that you will surely recover."
15But the next day Hazael took a blanket, soaked it in water, and held it over the king’s face until he died. Then Hazael became the next king of Aram.
16Jehoram son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah began to rule over Judah in the fifth year of King Joram’s reign in Israel. Joram was the son of Ahab.
17Jehoram was thirty–two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.
18But Jehoram followed the example of the kings of Israel and was as wicked as King Ahab, for he had married one of Ahab’s daughters. So Jehoram did what was evil in the LORD’s sight.
19But the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah, for he had made a covenant with David and promised that his descendants would continue to rule forever.
20During Jehoram’s reign, the Edomites revolted against Judah and crowned their own king.
21So Jehoram went with all his chariots to attack the town of Zair. The Edomites surrounded him and his charioteers, but he escaped at night under cover of darkness. Jehoram’s army, however, deserted him and fled.
22Edom has been independent from Judah to this day. The town of Libnah revolted about that same time.
23The rest of the events in Jehoram’s reign and all his deeds are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah.
24When Jehoram died, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. Then his son Ahaziah became the next king.
25Ahaziah son of Jehoram began to rule over Judah in the twelfth year of King Joram’s reign in Israel. King Joram was the son of Ahab.
26Ahaziah was twenty–two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother was Athaliah, a granddaughter of King Omri of Israel.
27Ahaziah followed the evil example of King Ahab’s family, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight, because he was related by marriage to the family of Ahab.
28Ahaziah joined King Joram of Israel in his war against King Hazael of Aram at Ramoth–gilead. When King Joram was wounded in the battle,
29he returned to Jezreel to recover from his wounds. While Joram was there, King Ahaziah of Judah went to visit him.