2 Kings

The Return of the Shunammite Woman

Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had brought back to life: “Arise, and go with your family to live in another place, wherever it seems best for you because the Lord has called for a famine and it will come upon the land for seven years.”

The woman did what the man of God told her to do—she went with her family to the land of the Philistines and stayed there for seven years.

At the end of the seven years, the woman returned to her land and asked the king for her house and field.

The king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying: “Tell me all the marvelous things Elisha has done.”

As Gehazi was narrating how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman showed up, whose very son Elisha had raised from the dead. She was claiming back from the king her house and field. Gehazi said: “This, my lord, is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha raised from the dead.”

The king asked her what had happened, and she recounted it to him. Then, the king immediately sent a palace official with her and said to him: “See to it that all her properties are returned to her with all the produce of her field from the day she left her land until now.”

Elisha and Hazael in Damascus

Elisha went to Damascus. Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, was sick. When he was told that the man of God had come,

he said to Hazael: “Go to the man of God and consult the Lord through him, that I may know if I shall recover from this sickness. But take with you a good gift.”

So Hazael went to see Elisha, taking with him all the best he could find in Damascus, forty camel loads of gifts. When he came before Elisha, he said to him: “Your son, Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, has sent me to ask you: ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’”

Elisha answered: “Go and tell him that he shall recover. But the Lord has shown me that he shall certainly die.”

Then the face of the man of God became rigid, his gaze fixed, and he began to weep.

Hazael asked him: “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered: “Because I have just seen the evil you will do to the children of Israel: you shall set on fire their fortresses, kill their young men by the sword, crush their children, and rip open the womb of pregnant women.”

Hazael told him: “Who am I, your servant, that I should carry out such exploits?” Elisha answered: “I have just had a vision: the Lord has made you the king of Aram.”

Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master, who asked him: “What has Elisha said to you?” He answered: “He has told me that you shall surely live.”

But the following day, Hazael took a mantle, dipped it in water, and pressed it down on the king’s face until he died. And so, Hazael succeeded him as king of Aram.

Joram of Judah (848-841)

In the fifth year of the reign of Joram, son of Ahab and king of Israel, Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign.

He was thirty-two years old when he began his reign and reigned for eight years in Jerusalem.

He followed the footsteps of the kings of Israel and acted in everything like the family of Ahab. Because he had married the daughter of Ahab, he acted very severely toward the Lord.

However, the Lord would not destroy Judah for the sake of his servant David, according to the promise he had made to keep his lamp burning forever, which referred to David’s descendants.

In his days, the Edomites rebelled against the rule of Judah and proclaimed a king of their own.

Then, Joram attacked the city of Zair with all his war chariots. Rising by night, he managed to escape from the Edomites, who had surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but the troops had fled.

Thus, Edom rebelled against Judah to this day. At that time, the city of Libnah also rebelled.

The rest of the deeds of Joram and his bravery are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

When Joram died, they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him.

Ahaziah of Judah (841)

In the twelfth year of the reign of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign.

Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began his reign and reigned for a year in Jerusalem. His mother was Athaliah, daughter of Omri, king of Israel.

He followed in the footsteps of Ahab and misbehaved towards the Lord like those in the family of Ahab had done since he was related to Ahab’s family.

He went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to make war against Hazael, the king of Aram, at Ramoth of Gilead.

But the Arameans wounded Joram, who returned from Ramoth to Jezreel to recover from his wounds. After a while, Ahaziah, the king of Judah, visited Jezreel as he was recuperating.