Dual Panel1Elisha said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away at once with your household and find lodging where you can, for the LORD has decreed a seven years” famine and it has already come on the land.'
2The woman acted at once on the word of the man of God and went away with her household to Philistine territory, where she stayed for seven years.
3On her return at the end of that time she sought an audience of the king to beg for her house and land.
4The king was questioning Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, about all the great things Elisha had done;
5and, as he was describing to the king how he had brought the dead to life, the selfsame woman began her appeal to the king for her house and land. “My lord king,” said Gehazi, “this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”
6The king questioned the woman, and she told him about it. Then he entrusted her case to an official, ordering him to restore all her property to her, together with all the revenues from her land from the time she left till that day.
7Elisha came to Damascus, at a time when King Ben-hadad of Aram was ill; and when the king was told that the man of God had arrived,
8he ordered Hazael to take a gift with him and go to the man of God and through him enquire of the LORD whether he would recover from his illness.
9Hazael went, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all kinds of Damascus wares. When he came into the prophet's presence, he said, “Your son King Ben-hadad of Aram has sent me to you to ask whether he will recover from his illness.”
10“Go and tell him that he will recover,” he answered; “but the LORD has revealed to me that in fact he will die.”
11The man of God stood staring with set face until Hazael became disconcerted; then the man of God wept.
12“Why do you weep, sir?” said Hazael. He answered, “Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites: you will set their fortresses on fire and put their young men to the sword; you will dash their children to the ground and rip open their pregnant women.”
13Hazael said, “But I am a dog, a mere nobody; how can I do this great thing?” Elisha answered, “The LORD has revealed to me that you will become king of Aram.”
14Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master, who asked what Elisha had said. “He told me that you would recover,” he replied.
15But the next day he took a blanket and, after dipping it in water, laid it over the king's face, so that he died; and Hazael succeeded him.
16In the fifth year of Jehoram son of King Ahab of Israel, Joram son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah became king.
17He was thirty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eight years.
18He followed the practices of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done, for he had married Ahab's daughter; he did what was wrong in the eyes of the LORD.
19Yet for his servant David's sake the LORD was unwilling to destroy Judah, as he had promised to give him and his descendants a lamp for all time.
20During Joram's reign Edom revolted against Judah and set up its own king.
21Joram with all his chariots pushed on to Zair. When the Edomites encircled him and his chariot-commanders he made a sortie by night, and broke out; his main force, however, fled to their homes.
22To this day Edom has remained independent of Judah. Libnah also revolted at the same time.
23The other acts and events of Joram's reign are recorded in the annals of the kings of Judah.
24Joram rested with his forefathers and was buried with them in the city of David. His son Ahaziah succeeded him.
25In the twelfth year of Jehoram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of King Joram of Judah became king.
26Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for one year; his mother was Athaliah granddaughter of King Omri of Israel.
27He followed the practices of the house of Ahab and did what was wrong in the eyes of the LORD like the house of Ahab, for he was connected with that house by marriage.
28He allied himself with Jehoram son of Ahab to fight against King Hazael of Aram at Ramoth-gilead. But King Jehoram was wounded by the Aramaeans,
29and retired to Jezreel to recover from the wounds inflicted on him at Ramoth in battle with King Hazael. Because of Jehoram's injury Ahaziah son of Joram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to visit him.