Bible in 90 Days

King Omri of Israel

²¹ The people of Israel were divided: some of them wanted to make Tibni son of Ginath king, and the others were in favor of Omri. ²² In the end, those in favor of Omri won out; Tibni died and Omri became king. ²³ So in the thirty-first year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he ruled for twelve years. The first six years he ruled in Tirzah, ²⁴ and then he bought the hill of Samaria for six thousand pieces of silver from a man named Shemer. Omri fortified the hill, built a town there, and named it Samaria, after Shemer, the former owner of the hill.

²⁵ Omri sinned against the Lord more than any of his predecessors. ²⁶ Like Jeroboam before him, he aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by his sins and by leading the people into sin and idolatry. ²⁷ Everything else that Omri did and all his accomplishments are recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ²⁸ Omri died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Ahab succeeded him as king.

King Ahab of Israel

²⁹ In the thirty-eighth year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for twenty-two years. ³⁰ He sinned against the Lord more than any of his predecessors. ³¹ It was not enough for him to sin like King Jeroboam; he went further and married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon, and worshiped Baal. ³² He built a temple to Baal in Samaria, made an altar for him, and put it in the temple. ³³ He also put up an image of the goddess Asherah. He did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than all the kings of Israel before him. ^34 (A)During his reign Hiel from Bethel rebuilt Jericho. As the Lord had foretold through Joshua son of Nun, Hiel lost his oldest son Abiram when he laid the foundation of Jericho, and his youngest son Segub when he built the gates.

Elijah and the Drought

17 ^(B)A prophet named Elijah, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to King Ahab, “In the name of the Lord, the living God of Israel, whom I serve, I tell you that there will be no dew or rain for the next two or three years until I say so.”

² Then the Lord said to Elijah, ³ “Leave this place and go east and hide yourself near Cherith Brook, east of the Jordan. ⁴ The brook will supply you with water to drink, and I have commanded ravens to bring you food there.”

⁵ Elijah obeyed the Lord's command, and went and stayed by Cherith Brook. ⁶ He drank water from the brook, and ravens brought him bread and meat every morning and every evening. ⁷ After a while the brook dried up because of the lack of rain.

Elijah and the Widow in Zarephath

⁸ Then the Lord said to Elijah, ^9 (C)“Now go to the town of Zarephath, near Sidon, and stay there. I have commanded a widow who lives there to feed you.” ¹⁰ So Elijah went to Zarephath, and as he came to the town gate, he saw a widow gathering firewood. “Please bring me a drink of water,” he said to her. ¹¹ And as she was going to get it, he called out, “And please bring me some bread, too.”

¹² She answered, “By the living Lord your God I swear that I don't have any bread. All I have is a handful of flour in a bowl and a bit of olive oil in a jar. I came here to gather some firewood to take back home and prepare what little I have for my son and me. That will be our last meal, and then we will starve to death.”

¹³ “Don't worry,” Elijah said to her. “Go on and prepare your meal. But first make a small loaf from what you have and bring it to me, and then prepare the rest for you and your son. ¹⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The bowl will not run out of flour or the jar run out of oil before the day that I, the Lord, send rain.’”

¹⁵ The widow went and did as Elijah had told her, and all of them had enough food for many days. ¹⁶ As the Lord had promised through Elijah, the bowl did not run out of flour nor did the jar run out of oil.

¹⁷ Some time later the widow's son got sick; he got worse and worse, and finally he died. ¹⁸ She said to Elijah, “Man of God, why did you do this to me? Did you come here to remind God of my sins and so cause my son's death?”

¹⁹ “Give the boy to me,” Elijah said. He took the boy from her arms, carried him upstairs to the room where he was staying, and laid him on the bed. ²⁰ Then he prayed aloud, “O Lord my God, why have you done such a terrible thing to this widow? She has been kind enough to take care of me, and now you kill her son!” ^21 (D)Then Elijah stretched himself out on the boy three times and prayed, “O Lord my God, restore this child to life!” ²² The Lord answered Elijah's prayer; the child started breathing again and revived.

²³ Elijah took the boy back downstairs to his mother and said to her, “Look, your son is alive!”

²⁴ She answered, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the Lord really speaks through you!”

Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

18 After some time, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to King Ahab, and I will send rain.” ² So Elijah started out.

The famine in Samaria was at its worst, ³ so Ahab called in Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Obadiah was a devout worshiper of the Lord, ⁴ and when Jezebel was killing the Lord's prophets, Obadiah took a hundred of them, hid them in caves in two groups of fifty, and provided them with food and water.) ⁵ Ahab said to Obadiah, “Let us go and look^[a] at every spring and every stream bed in the land to see if we can find enough grass to keep the horses and mules alive. Maybe we won't have to kill any of our animals.” ⁶ They agreed on which part of the land each one would explore, and set off in different directions.

⁷ As Obadiah was on his way, he suddenly met Elijah. He recognized him, bowed low before him, and asked, “Is it really you, sir?”

⁸ “Yes, I'm Elijah,” he answered. “Go and tell your master the king that I am here.”

⁹ Obadiah answered, “What have I done that you want to put me in danger of being killed by King Ahab? ¹⁰ By the living Lord, your God, I swear that the king has made a search for you in every country in the world. Whenever the ruler of a country reported that you were not in his country, Ahab would require that ruler to swear that you could not be found. ¹¹ And now you want me to go and tell him that you are here? ¹² What if the spirit of the Lord carries you off to some unknown place as soon as I leave? Then, when I tell Ahab that you are here and he can't find you, he will put me to death. Remember that I have been a devout worshiper of the Lord ever since I was a boy. ¹³ Haven't you heard that when Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord I hid a hundred of them in caves, in two groups of fifty, and supplied them with food and water? ¹⁴ So how can you order me to go and tell the king that you are here? He will kill me!”

¹⁵ Elijah answered, “By the living Lord Almighty, whom I serve, I promise that I will present myself to the king today.”

¹⁶ So Obadiah went to King Ahab and told him, and Ahab set off to meet Elijah. ¹⁷ When Ahab saw him, he said, “So there you are—the worst troublemaker in Israel!”

¹⁸ “I'm not the troublemaker,” Elijah answered. “You are—you and your father. You are disobeying the Lord's commands and worshiping the idols of Baal. ¹⁹ Now order all the people of Israel to meet me at Mount Carmel. Bring along the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the goddess Asherah who are supported by Queen Jezebel.”

²⁰ So Ahab summoned all the Israelites and the prophets of Baal to meet at Mount Carmel. ²¹ Elijah went up to the people and said, “How much longer will it take you to make up your minds? If the Lord is God, worship him; but if Baal is God, worship him!” But the people didn't say a word. ²² Then Elijah said, “I am the only prophet of the Lord still left, but there are 450 prophets of Baal. ²³ Bring two bulls; let the prophets of Baal take one, kill it, cut it in pieces, and put it on the wood—but don't light the fire. I will do the same with the other bull. ²⁴ Then let the prophets of Baal pray to their god, and I will pray to the Lord, and the one who answers by sending fire—he is God.”

The people shouted their approval.

²⁵ Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Since there are so many of you, you take a bull and prepare it first. Pray to your god, but don't set fire to the wood.”

²⁶ They took the bull that was brought to them, prepared it, and prayed to Baal until noon. They shouted, “Answer us, Baal!” and kept dancing around the altar they had built. But no answer came.

²⁷ At noon Elijah started making fun of them: “Pray louder! He is a god! Maybe he is day-dreaming or relieving himself, or perhaps he's gone off on a trip! Or maybe he's sleeping, and you've got to wake him up!” ²⁸ So the prophets prayed louder and cut themselves with knives and daggers, according to their ritual, until blood flowed. ²⁹ They kept on ranting and raving until the middle of the afternoon; but no answer came, not a sound was heard.

³⁰ Then Elijah said to the people, “Come closer to me,” and they all gathered around him. He set about repairing the altar of the Lord which had been torn down. ^31 (E)He took twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes named for the sons of Jacob, the man to whom the Lord had given the name Israel. ³² With these stones he rebuilt the altar for the worship of the Lord. He dug a trench around it, large enough to hold about four gallons of water. ³³ Then he placed the wood on the altar, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the offering and the wood.” They did so, ³⁴ and he said, “Do it again”—and they did. “Do it once more,” he said—and they did. ³⁵ The water ran down around the altar and filled the trench.

³⁶ At the hour of the afternoon sacrifice the prophet Elijah approached the altar and prayed, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove now that you are the God of Israel and that I am your servant and have done all this at your command. ³⁷ Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people will know that you, the Lord, are God and that you are bringing them back to yourself.”^[b]

³⁸ The Lord sent fire down, and it burned up the sacrifice, the wood, and the stones, scorched the earth and dried up the water in the trench. ³⁹ When the people saw this, they threw themselves on the ground and exclaimed, “The Lord is God; the Lord alone is God!”

⁴⁰ Elijah ordered, “Seize the prophets of Baal; don't let any of them get away!” The people seized them all, and Elijah led them down to Kishon Brook and killed them.

The End of the Drought

⁴¹ Then Elijah said to King Ahab, “Now, go and eat. I hear the roar of rain approaching.” ^42 (F)While Ahab went to eat, Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, where he bowed down to the ground, with his head between his knees. ⁴³ He said to his servant, “Go and look toward the sea.”

The servant went and returned, saying, “I didn't see a thing.” Seven times in all Elijah told him to go and look. ⁴⁴ The seventh time he returned and said, “I saw a little cloud no bigger than a man's hand, coming up from the sea.”

Elijah ordered his servant, “Go to King Ahab and tell him to get in his chariot and go back home before the rain stops him.”

⁴⁵ In a little while the sky was covered with dark clouds, the wind began to blow, and a heavy rain began to fall. Ahab got in his chariot and started back to Jezreel. ⁴⁶ The power of the Lord came on Elijah; he fastened his clothes tight around his waist and ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

Elijah on Mount Sinai

19 King Ahab told his wife Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had put all the prophets of Baal to death. ² She sent a message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me dead if by this time tomorrow I don't do the same thing to you that you did to the prophets.” ³ Elijah was afraid and fled for his life; he took his servant and went to Beersheba in Judah.

Leaving the servant there, ^4 (G)Elijah walked a whole day into the wilderness. He stopped and sat down in the shade of a tree and wished he would die. “It's too much, Lord,” he prayed. “Take away my life; I might as well be dead!”

⁵ He lay down under the tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Wake up and eat.” ⁶ He looked around and saw a loaf of bread and a jar of water near his head. He ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷ The Lord's angel returned and woke him up a second time, saying, “Get up and eat, or the trip will be too much for you.” ⁸ Elijah got up, ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to walk forty days to Sinai, the holy mountain. ⁹ There he went into a cave to spend the night.

Suddenly the Lord spoke to him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”

^10 (H)He answered, “Lord God Almighty, I have always served you—you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left—and they are trying to kill me!”

¹¹ “Go out and stand before me on top of the mountain,” the Lord said to him. Then the Lord passed by and sent a furious wind that split the hills and shattered the rocks—but the Lord was not in the wind. The wind stopped blowing, and then there was an earthquake—but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake there was a fire—but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the soft whisper of a voice.

¹³ When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”

¹⁴ He answered, “Lord God Almighty, I have always served you—you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left—and they are trying to kill me.”

^15 (I)The Lord said, “Return to the wilderness near Damascus, then enter the city and anoint Hazael as king of Syria; ^16 (J)anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. ¹⁷ Anyone who escapes being put to death by Hazael will be killed by Jehu, and anyone who escapes Jehu will be killed by Elisha. ^18 (K)Yet I will leave seven thousand people alive in Israel—all those who are loyal to me and have not bowed to Baal or kissed his idol.”

The Call of Elisha

¹⁹ Elijah left and found Elisha plowing with a team of oxen; there were eleven teams ahead of him, and he was plowing with the last one. Elijah took off his cloak and put it on Elisha. ²⁰ Elisha then left his oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and mother good-bye, and then I will go with you.”

Elijah answered, “All right, go back. I'm not stopping you!”^[c]

²¹ Then Elisha went to his team of oxen, killed them, and cooked the meat, using the yoke as fuel for the fire. He gave the meat to the people, and they ate it. Then he went and followed Elijah as his helper.

War with Syria

20 King Benhadad of Syria gathered all his troops, and supported by thirty-two other rulers with their horses and chariots, he marched up, laid siege to Samaria, and launched attacks against it. ² He sent messengers into the city to King Ahab of Israel to say, “King Benhadad demands that ³ you surrender to him your silver and gold, your women and the strongest of your children.”

⁴ “Tell my lord, King Benhadad, that I agree; he can have me and everything I own,” Ahab answered.

⁵ Later the messengers came back to Ahab with another demand from Benhadad: “I sent you word that you were to hand over to me your silver and gold, your women and your children. ⁶ Now, however, I will send my officers to search your palace and the homes of your officials, and to take everything they^[d] consider valuable. They will be there about this time tomorrow.”

⁷ King Ahab called in all the leaders of the country and said, “You see that this man wants to ruin us. He sent me a message demanding my wives and children, my silver and gold, and I agreed.”

⁸ The leaders and the people answered, “Don't pay any attention to him; don't give in.”

⁹ So Ahab replied to Benhadad's messengers, “Tell my lord the king that I agreed to his first demand, but I cannot agree to the second.”

The messengers left and then returned with another message ¹⁰ from Benhadad: “I will bring enough men to destroy this city of yours and carry off the rubble in their hands. May the gods strike me dead if I don't!”

¹¹ King Ahab answered, “Tell King Benhadad that a real soldier does his bragging after a battle, not before it.”

¹² Benhadad received Ahab's answer as he and his allies, the other rulers, were drinking in their tents. He ordered his men to get ready to attack the city, and so they moved into position.

¹³ Meanwhile, a prophet went to King Ahab and said, “The Lord says, ‘Don't be afraid of that huge army! I will give you victory over it today, and you will know that I am the Lord.’”

¹⁴ “Who will lead the attack?” Ahab asked.

The prophet answered, “The Lord says that the young soldiers under the command of the district governors are to do it.”

“Who will command the main force?” the king asked.

“You,” the prophet answered.

¹⁵ So the king called out the young soldiers who were under the district commanders, 232 in all. Then he called out the Israelite army, a total of seven thousand men.

¹⁶ The attack began at noon, as Benhadad and his thirty-two allies were getting drunk in their tents. ¹⁷ The young soldiers advanced first. Scouts sent out by Benhadad reported to him that a group of soldiers was coming out of Samaria. ¹⁸ He ordered, “Take them alive, no matter whether they are coming to fight or to ask for peace.”

¹⁹ The young soldiers led the attack, followed by the Israelite army, ²⁰ and each one killed the man he fought. The Syrians fled, with the Israelites in hot pursuit, but Benhadad escaped on horseback, accompanied by some of the cavalry. ²¹ King Ahab took to the field, captured^[e] the horses and chariots, and inflicted a severe defeat on the Syrians.

²² Then the prophet went to King Ahab and said, “Go back and build up your forces and make careful plans, because the king of Syria will attack again next spring.”

The Second Syrian Attack

²³ King Benhadad's officials said to him, “The gods of Israel are mountain gods, and that is why the Israelites defeated us. But we will certainly defeat them if we fight them in the plains. ²⁴ Now, remove the thirty-two rulers from their commands and replace them with field commanders. ²⁵ Then call up an army as large as the one that deserted you, with the same number of horses and chariots. We will fight the Israelites in the plains, and this time we will defeat them.”

King Benhadad agreed and followed their advice. ²⁶ The following spring he called up his men and marched with them to the city of Aphek to attack the Israelites. ²⁷ The Israelites were called up and equipped; they marched out and camped in two groups facing the Syrians. The Israelites looked like two small flocks of goats compared to the Syrians, who spread out over the countryside.

²⁸ A prophet went to King Ahab and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Syrians say that I am a god of the hills and not of the plains, I will give you victory over their huge army, and you and your people will know that I am the Lord.’”

²⁹ For seven days the Syrians and the Israelites stayed in their camps, facing each other. On the seventh day they started fighting, and the Israelites killed a hundred thousand Syrians. ³⁰ The survivors fled into the city of Aphek, where the city walls fell on twenty-seven thousand of them.

Benhadad also escaped into the city and took refuge in the back room of a house. ³¹ His officials went to him and said, “We have heard that the Israelite kings are merciful. Give us permission to go to the king of Israel with sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our necks, and maybe he will spare your life.” ³² So they wrapped sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their necks, went to Ahab and said, “Your servant Benhadad pleads with you for his life.”

Ahab answered, “Is he still alive? Good! He's like a brother to me!”

³³ Benhadad's officials were watching for a good sign, and when Ahab said “brother,” they took it up at once, and said, “As you say, Benhadad is your brother!”

“Bring him to me,” Ahab ordered. When Benhadad arrived, Ahab invited him to get in the chariot with him. ³⁴ Benhadad said to him, “I will restore to you the towns my father took from your father, and you may set up a commercial center for yourself in Damascus, just as my father did in Samaria.”

Ahab replied, “On these terms, then, I will set you free.” He made a treaty with him and let him go.

A Prophet Condemns Ahab

³⁵ At the Lord's command a member of a group of prophets ordered a fellow prophet to hit him. But he refused, ^36 (L)so he said to him, “Because you have disobeyed the Lord's command, a lion will kill you as soon as you leave me.” And as soon as he left, a lion came along and killed him.

³⁷ Then this same prophet went to another man and said, “Hit me!” This man did so; he hit him a hard blow and hurt him. ³⁸ The prophet bandaged his face with a cloth, to disguise himself, and went and stood by the road, waiting for the king of Israel to pass. ³⁹ As the king was passing by, the prophet called out to him and said, “Your Majesty, I was fighting in the battle when a soldier brought a captured enemy to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if he escapes, you will pay for it with your life or else pay a fine of three thousand pieces of silver.’ ⁴⁰ But I got busy with other things, and the man escaped.”

The king answered, “You have pronounced your own sentence, and you will have to pay the penalty.”

⁴¹ The prophet tore the cloth from his face, and at once the king recognized him as one of the prophets. ⁴² The prophet then said to the king, “This is the word of the Lord: ‘Because you allowed the man to escape whom I had ordered to be killed, you will pay for it with your life, and your army will be destroyed for letting his army escape.’”

⁴³ The king went back home to Samaria, worried and depressed.

Naboth's Vineyard

21 Near King Ahab's palace in Jezreel there was a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth. ² One day Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard; it is close to my palace, and I want to use the land for a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard for it or, if you prefer, I will pay you a fair price.”

³ “I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors,” Naboth replied. “The Lord forbid that I should let you have it!”

⁴ Ahab went home, depressed and angry over what Naboth had said to him. He lay down on his bed, facing the wall, and would not eat. ⁵ His wife Jezebel went to him and asked, “Why are you so depressed? Why won't you eat?”

⁶ He answered, “Because of what Naboth said to me. I offered to buy his vineyard or, if he preferred, to give him another one for it, but he told me that I couldn't have it!”

⁷ “Well, are you the king or aren't you?” Jezebel replied. “Get out of bed, cheer up, and eat. I will get you Naboth's vineyard!”

⁸ Then she wrote some letters, signed Ahab's name to them, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the officials and leading citizens of Jezreel. ⁹ The letters said: “Proclaim a day of fasting, call the people together, and give Naboth the place of honor. ¹⁰ Get a couple of scoundrels to accuse him to his face of cursing God and the king. Then take him out of the city and stone him to death.”

¹¹ The officials and leading citizens of Jezreel did what Jezebel had commanded. ¹² They proclaimed a day of fasting, called the people together, and gave Naboth the place of honor. ¹³ The two scoundrels publicly accused him of cursing God and the king, and so he was taken outside the city and stoned to death. ¹⁴ The message was sent to Jezebel: “Naboth has been put to death.”

¹⁵ As soon as Jezebel received the message, she said to Ahab, “Naboth is dead. Now go and take possession of the vineyard which he refused to sell to you.” ¹⁶ At once Ahab went to the vineyard to take possession of it.

¹⁷ Then the Lord said to Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe, ¹⁸ “Go to King Ahab of Samaria. You will find him in Naboth's vineyard, about to take possession of it. ¹⁹ Tell him that I, the Lord, say to him, ‘After murdering the man, are you taking over his property as well?’ Tell him that this is what I say: ‘In the very place that the dogs licked up Naboth's blood they will lick up your blood!’”

²⁰ When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, “Have you caught up with me, my enemy?”

“Yes, I have,” Elijah answered. “You have devoted yourself completely to doing what is wrong in the Lord's sight. ²¹ So the Lord says to you, ‘I will bring disaster on you. I will do away with you and get rid of every male in your family, young and old alike. ²² Your family will become like the family of King Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the family of King Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have stirred up my anger by leading Israel into sin.’ ^23 (M)And concerning Jezebel, the Lord says that dogs will eat her body in the city of Jezreel. ²⁴ Any of your relatives who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by vultures.”

(²⁵ There was no one else who had devoted himself so completely to doing wrong in the Lord's sight as Ahab—all at the urging of his wife Jezebel. ²⁶ He committed the most shameful sins by worshiping idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the people of Israel advanced.)

²⁷ When Elijah finished speaking, Ahab tore his clothes, took them off, and put on sackcloth. He refused food, slept in the sackcloth, and went about gloomy and depressed.

²⁸ The Lord said to the prophet Elijah, ²⁹ “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has done this, I will not bring disaster on him during his lifetime; it will be during his son's lifetime that I will bring disaster on Ahab's family.”

The Prophet Micaiah Warns Ahab^(N)

22 There was peace between Israel and Syria for the next two years, ² but in the third year King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to see King Ahab of Israel.

³ Ahab asked his officials, “Why is it that we have not done anything to get back Ramoth in Gilead from the king of Syria? It belongs to us!” ⁴ And Ahab asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to attack Ramoth?”

“I am ready when you are,” Jehoshaphat answered, “and so are my soldiers and my cavalry. ⁵ But first let's consult the Lord.”

⁶ So Ahab called in the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked them, “Should I go and attack Ramoth, or not?”

“Attack it,” they answered. “The Lord will give you victory.”

⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn't there another prophet through whom we can consult the Lord?”

⁸ Ahab answered, “There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me; it's always something bad.”

“You shouldn't say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.

⁹ Then Ahab called in a court official and told him to go and get Micaiah at once.

¹⁰ The two kings, dressed in their royal robes, were sitting on their thrones at the threshing place just outside the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying in front of them. ¹¹ One of them, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, made iron horns and said to Ahab, “This is what the Lord says: ‘With these you will fight the Syrians and totally defeat them.’” ¹² All the other prophets said the same thing. “March against Ramoth and you will win,” they said. “The Lord will give you victory.”

¹³ Meanwhile, the official who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, “All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king, and you had better do the same.”

¹⁴ But Micaiah answered, “By the living Lord I promise that I will say what he tells me to!”

¹⁵ When he appeared before King Ahab, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should King Jehoshaphat and I go and attack Ramoth, or not?”

“Attack!” Micaiah answered. “Of course you'll win. The Lord will give you victory.”

¹⁶ But Ahab replied, “When you speak to me in the name of the Lord, tell the truth! How many times do I have to tell you that?”

^17 (O)Micaiah answered, “I can see the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These men have no leader; let them go home in peace.’”

¹⁸ Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good for me? It's always something bad!”

^19 (P)Micaiah went on: “Now listen to what the Lord says! I saw the Lord sitting on his throne in heaven, with all his angels standing beside him. ²⁰ The Lord asked, ‘Who will deceive Ahab so that he will go and be killed at Ramoth?’ Some of the angels said one thing, and others said something else, ²¹ until a spirit stepped forward, approached the Lord, and said, ‘I will deceive him.’ ²² ‘How?’ the Lord asked. The spirit replied, ‘I will go and make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies.’ The Lord said, ‘Go and deceive him. You will succeed.’”

²³ And Micaiah concluded: “This is what has happened. The Lord has made these prophets of yours lie to you. But he himself has decreed that you will meet with disaster!”

²⁴ Then the prophet Zedekiah went up to Micaiah, slapped his face, and asked, “Since when did the Lord's spirit leave me and speak to you?”

²⁵ “You will find out when you go into some back room to hide,” Micaiah replied.

²⁶ Then King Ahab ordered one of his officers, “Arrest Micaiah and take him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Prince Joash. ²⁷ Tell them to throw him in prison and to put him on bread and water until I return safely.”

²⁸ “If you return safely,” Micaiah exclaimed, “then the Lord has not spoken through me!” And he added, “Listen, everyone, to what I have said!”

The Death of Ahab^(Q)

²⁹ Then King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to attack the city of Ramoth in Gilead. ³⁰ Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “As we go into battle, I will disguise myself, but you wear your royal garments.” So the king of Israel went into battle in disguise.

³¹ The king of Syria had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders to attack no one else except the king of Israel. ³² So when they saw King Jehoshaphat, they all thought that he was the king of Israel, and they turned to attack him. But when he cried out, ³³ they realized that he was not the king of Israel, and they stopped their attack. ³⁴ By chance, however, a Syrian soldier shot an arrow which struck King Ahab between the joints of his armor. “I'm wounded!” he cried out to his chariot driver. “Turn around and pull out of the battle!”

³⁵ While the battle raged on, King Ahab remained propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians. The blood from his wound ran down and covered the bottom of the chariot, and at evening he died. ³⁶ Near sunset the order went out through the Israelite ranks: “Each of you go back to your own country and city!”

³⁷ So died King Ahab. His body was taken to Samaria and buried. ³⁸ His chariot was cleaned up at the pool of Samaria, where dogs licked up his blood and prostitutes washed themselves, as the Lord had said would happen.

³⁹ Everything else that King Ahab did, including an account of his palace decorated with ivory and of all the cities he built, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ⁴⁰ At his death his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.

King Jehoshaphat of Judah^(R)

⁴¹ In the fourth year of the reign of King Ahab of Israel, Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah ⁴² at the age of thirty-five, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. ⁴³ Like his father Asa before him, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord; but the places of worship were not destroyed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. ⁴⁴ Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

⁴⁵ Everything else that Jehoshaphat did, all his bravery and his battles, are recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ⁴⁶ He got rid of all the male and female prostitutes serving at the pagan altars who were still left from the days of his father Asa.

⁴⁷ The land of Edom had no king; it was ruled by a deputy appointed by the king of Judah.

⁴⁸ King Jehoshaphat had ocean-going ships built to sail to the land of Ophir for gold; but they were wrecked at Eziongeber and never sailed. ⁴⁹ Then King Ahaziah of Israel offered to let his men sail with Jehoshaphat's men, but Jehoshaphat refused the offer.

⁵⁰ Jehoshaphat died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Jehoram succeeded him as king.

King Ahaziah of Israel

⁵¹ In the seventeenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for two years. ⁵² He sinned against the Lord, following the wicked example of his father Ahab, his mother Jezebel, and King Jeroboam, who had led Israel into sin. ⁵³ He worshiped and served Baal, and like his father before him, he aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel.

Elijah and King Ahaziah

1 After the death of King Ahab of Israel the country of Moab rebelled against Israel.

² King Ahaziah of Israel fell off the balcony on the roof of his palace in Samaria and was seriously injured. So he sent some messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of the Philistine city of Ekron, in order to find out whether or not he would recover. ³ But an angel of the Lord commanded Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe, to go and meet the messengers of King Ahaziah and ask them, “Why are you going to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? Is it because you think there is no god in Israel? ⁴ Tell the king that the Lord says, ‘You will not recover from your injuries; you will die!’”

Elijah did as the Lord commanded, ⁵ and the messengers returned to the king. “Why have you come back?” he asked.

⁶ They answered, “We were met by a man who told us to come back and tell you that the Lord says to you, ‘Why are you sending messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? Is it because you think there is no god in Israel? You will not recover from your injuries; you will die!’”

⁷ “What did the man look like?” the king asked.

^8 (S)“He was wearing a cloak made of animal skins, tied with^[f] a leather belt,” they answered.

“It's Elijah!” the king exclaimed.

⁹ Then he sent an officer with fifty men to get Elijah. The officer found him sitting on a hill and said to him, “Man of God, the king orders you to come down.”

^10 (T)“If I am a man of God,” Elijah answered, “may fire come down from heaven and kill you and your men!” At once fire came down and killed the officer and his men.

¹¹ The king sent another officer with fifty men, who went up^[g] and said to Elijah, “Man of God, the king orders you to come down at once!”

¹² “If I am a man of God,” Elijah answered, “may fire come down from heaven and kill you and your men!” At once the fire of God came down and killed the officer and his men.

¹³ Once more the king sent an officer with fifty men. He went up the hill, fell on his knees in front of Elijah, and pleaded, “Man of God, be merciful to me and my men. Spare our lives! ¹⁴ The two other officers and their men were killed by fire from heaven; but please be merciful to me!”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him, and don't be afraid.” So Elijah went with the officer to the king ¹⁶ and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you sent messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron—as if there were no god in Israel to consult—you will not get well; you will die!’”

¹⁷ Ahaziah died, as the Lord had said through Elijah. Ahaziah had no sons, so his brother^[h] Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of the reign of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

¹⁸ Everything else that King Ahaziah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.

Elijah Is Taken Up to Heaven

2 The time came for the Lord to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha set out from Gilgal, ² and on the way Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to Bethel.”

But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on to Bethel.

³ A group of prophets who lived there went to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”

“Yes, I know,” Elisha answered. “But let's not talk about it.”

⁴ Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to Jericho.”

But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on to Jericho.

⁵ A group of prophets who lived there went to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”

“Yes, I know,” Elisha answered. “But let's not talk about it.”

⁶ Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to the Jordan River.”

But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on, ⁷ and fifty of the prophets followed them to the Jordan. Elijah and Elisha stopped by the river, and the fifty prophets stood a short distance away. ⁸ Then Elijah took off his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water with it; the water divided, and he and Elisha crossed to the other side on dry ground. ^9 (U)There, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what you want me to do for you before I am taken away.”

“Let me receive the share of your power that will make me your successor,”^[i] Elisha answered.

¹⁰ “That is a difficult request to grant,” Elijah replied. “But you will receive it if you see me as I am being taken away from you; if you don't see me, you won't receive it.”

¹¹ They kept talking as they walked on; then suddenly a chariot of fire pulled by horses of fire came between them, and Elijah was taken up to heaven by a whirlwind. ^12 (V)Elisha saw it and cried out to Elijah, “My father, my father! Mighty defender of Israel! You are gone!” And he never saw Elijah again.

In grief Elisha tore his cloak in two. ¹³ Then he picked up Elijah's cloak that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴ He struck the water with Elijah's cloak and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Then he struck the water again, and it divided, and he walked over to the other side. ¹⁵ The fifty prophets from Jericho saw him and said, “The power of Elijah is on Elisha!” They went to meet him, bowed down before him, ¹⁶ and said, “There are fifty of us here, all strong men. Let us go and look for your master. Maybe the spirit of the Lord has carried him away and left him on some mountain or in some valley.”

“No, you must not go,” Elisha answered.

¹⁷ But they insisted until he gave in and let them go. The fifty of them went and looked high and low for Elijah for three days, but didn't find him. ¹⁸ Then they returned to Elisha, who had waited at Jericho, and he said to them, “Didn't I tell you not to go?”

Miracles of Elisha

¹⁹ Some men from Jericho went to Elisha and said, “As you know, sir, this is a fine city, but the water is bad and causes miscarriages.”

²⁰ “Put some salt in a new bowl and bring it to me,” he ordered. They brought it to him, ²¹ and he went to the spring, threw the salt in the water, and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I make this water pure, and it will not cause any more deaths or miscarriages.’” ²² And that water has been pure ever since, just as Elisha said it would be.

²³ Elisha left Jericho to go to Bethel, and on the way some boys came out of a town and made fun of him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they shouted.

²⁴ Elisha turned around, glared at them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys to pieces.

²⁵ Elisha went on to Mount Carmel and later returned to Samaria.

War between Israel and Moab

3 In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for twelve years. ² He sinned against the Lord, but he was not as bad as his father or his mother Jezebel; he pulled down the image his father had made for the worship of Baal. ³ Yet, like King Jeroboam son of Nebat before him, he led Israel into sin and would not stop.

⁴ King Mesha of Moab raised sheep, and every year he gave as tribute to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool from 100,000 sheep. ⁵ But when King Ahab of Israel died, Mesha rebelled against Israel. ⁶ At once King Joram left Samaria and gathered all his troops. ⁷ He sent word to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you join me in war against him?”

“I will,” King Jehoshaphat replied. “I am at your disposal, and so are my men and my horses. ⁸ What route shall we take for the attack?”

“We will go the long way through the wilderness of Edom,” Joram answered.

⁹ So King Joram and the kings of Judah and Edom set out. After marching seven days, they ran out of water, and there was none left for the men or the pack animals. ¹⁰ “We're done for!” King Joram exclaimed. “The Lord has put the three of us at the mercy of the king of Moab!”

¹¹ King Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there a prophet here through whom we can consult the Lord?”

An officer of King Joram's forces answered, “Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He was Elijah's assistant.”

¹² “He is a true prophet,” King Jehoshaphat said. So the three kings went to Elisha.

¹³ “Why should I help you?” Elisha said to the king of Israel. “Go and consult those prophets that your father and mother consulted.”

“No!” Joram replied. “It is the Lord who has put us three kings at the mercy of the king of Moab.”

¹⁴ Elisha answered, “By the living Lord, whom I serve, I swear that I would have nothing to do with you if I didn't respect your ally, King Jehoshaphat of Judah. ¹⁵ Now get me a musician.”

As the musician played his harp, the power of the Lord came on Elisha, ¹⁶ and he said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Dig ditches all over this dry stream bed. ¹⁷ Even though you will not see any rain or wind, this stream bed will be filled with water, and you, your livestock, and your pack animals will have plenty to drink.’” ¹⁸ And Elisha continued, “But this is an easy thing for the Lord to do; he will also give you victory over the Moabites. ¹⁹ You will conquer all their beautiful fortified cities; you will cut down all their fruit trees, stop all their springs, and ruin all their fertile fields by covering them with stones.”

²⁰ The next morning, at the time of the regular morning sacrifice, water came flowing from the direction of Edom and covered the ground.

²¹ When the Moabites heard that the three kings had come to attack them, all the men who could bear arms, from the oldest to the youngest, were called out and stationed at the border. ²² When they got up the following morning, the sun was shining on the water, making it look as red as blood. ²³ “It's blood!” they exclaimed. “The three enemy armies must have fought and killed each other! Let's go and loot their camp!”

²⁴ But when they reached the camp, the Israelites attacked them and drove them back. The Israelites kept up the pursuit,^[j] slaughtering the Moabites ²⁵ and destroying their cities. As they passed by a fertile field, every Israelite would throw a stone on it until finally all the fields were covered; they also stopped up the springs and cut down the fruit trees. At last only the capital city of Kir Heres^[k] was left, and the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

²⁶ When the king of Moab realized that he was losing the battle, he took seven hundred swordsmen with him and tried to force his way through the enemy lines and escape to the king of Syria,^[l] but he failed. ²⁷ So he took his oldest son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him on the city wall as a sacrifice to the god of Moab. The Israelites were terrified^[m] and so they drew back from the city and returned to their own country.

Elisha Helps a Poor Widow

4 The widow of a member of a group of prophets went to Elisha and said, “Sir, my husband has died! As you know, he was a God-fearing man, but now a man he owed money to has come to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband's debt.”

² “What shall I do for you?” he asked. “Tell me, what do you have at home?”

“Nothing at all, except a small jar of olive oil,” she answered.

³ “Go to your neighbors and borrow as many empty jars as you can,” Elisha told her. ⁴ “Then you and your sons go into the house, close the door, and start pouring oil into the jars. Set each one aside as soon as it is full.”

⁵ So the woman went into her house with her sons, closed the door, took the small jar of olive oil, and poured oil into the jars as her sons brought them to her. ⁶ When they had filled all the jars, she asked if there were any more. “That was the last one,” one of her sons answered. And the olive oil stopped flowing. ⁷ She went back to Elisha, the prophet, who said to her, “Sell the olive oil and pay all your debts, and there will be enough money left over for you and your sons to live on.”

Elisha and the Rich Woman from Shunem

⁸ One day Elisha went to Shunem, where a rich woman lived. She invited him to a meal, and from then on every time he went to Shunem he would have his meals at her house. ⁹ She said to her husband, “I am sure that this man who comes here so often is a holy man. ¹⁰ Let's build a small room on the roof, put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it, and he can stay there whenever he visits us.”

¹¹ One day Elisha returned to Shunem and went up to his room to rest. ¹² He told his servant Gehazi to go and call the woman. When she came, ¹³ he said to Gehazi, “Ask her what I can do for her in return for all the trouble she has had in providing for our needs. Maybe she would like me to go to the king or the army commander and put in a good word for her.”

“I have all I need here among my own people,” she answered.

¹⁴ Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can I do for her then?”

He answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man.”

¹⁵ “Tell her to come here,” Elisha ordered. She came and stood in the doorway, ^16 (W)and Elisha said to her, “By this time next year you will be holding a son in your arms.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Please, sir, don't lie to me. You are a man of God!”

¹⁷ But, as Elisha had said, at about that time the following year she gave birth to a son.

¹⁸ Some years later, at harvest time, the boy went out one morning to join his father, who was in the field with the harvest workers. ¹⁹ Suddenly he cried out to his father, “My head hurts! My head hurts!”

“Carry the boy to his mother,” the father said to a servant. ²⁰ The servant carried the boy back to his mother, who held him in her lap until noon, at which time he died. ²¹ She carried him up to Elisha's room, put him on the bed and left, closing the door behind her. ²² Then she called her husband and said to him, “Send a servant here with a donkey. I need to go to the prophet Elisha. I'll be back as soon as I can.”

²³ “Why do you have to go today?” her husband asked. “It's neither a Sabbath nor a New Moon Festival.”^[n]

“Never mind,” she answered. ²⁴ Then she had the donkey saddled, and ordered the servant, “Make the donkey go as fast as it can, and don't slow down unless I tell you to.” ²⁵ So she set out and went to Mount Carmel, where Elisha was.

Elisha saw her coming while she was still some distance away, and he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there comes the woman from Shunem! ²⁶ Hurry to her and find out if everything is all right with her, her husband, and her son.”

She told Gehazi that everything was all right, ²⁷ but when she came to Elisha, she bowed down before him and took hold of his feet. Gehazi was about to push her away, but Elisha said, “Leave her alone. Can't you see she's deeply distressed? And the Lord has not told me a thing about it.”

²⁸ The woman said to him, “Sir, did I ask you for a son? Didn't I tell you not to get my hopes up?”

²⁹ Elisha turned to Gehazi and said, “Hurry! Take my walking stick and go. Don't stop to greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, don't take time to answer. Go straight to the house and hold my stick over the boy.”

³⁰ The woman said to Elisha, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you!” So the two of them started back together. ³¹ Gehazi went on ahead and held Elisha's stick over the child, but there was no sound or any other sign of life. So he went back to meet Elisha and said, “The boy didn't wake up.”

³² When Elisha arrived, he went alone into the room and saw the boy lying dead on the bed. ³³ He closed the door and prayed to the Lord. ^34 (X)Then he lay down on the boy, placing his mouth, eyes, and hands on the boy's mouth, eyes, and hands. As he lay stretched out over the boy, the boy's body started to get warm. ³⁵ Elisha got up, walked around the room, and then went back and again stretched himself over the boy. The boy sneezed seven times and then opened his eyes. ³⁶ Elisha called Gehazi and told him to call the boy's mother. When she came in, he said to her, “Here's your son.” ³⁷ She fell at Elisha's feet, with her face touching the ground; then she took her son and left.