| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1The company of the prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to meet." And he said, "Go." |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3Then one of them said, "Won't you please come with your servants?" "I will," Elisha replied. |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. "Oh no, my lord!" he cried out. "It was borrowed!" |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7"Lift it out," he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, "I will set up my camp in such and such a place." |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: "Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there." |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, "Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?" |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12"None of us, my lord the king," said one of his officers, "but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom." |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13"Go, find out where he is," the king ordered, "so I can send men and capture him." The report came back: "He is in Dothan." |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?" the servant asked. |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17And Elisha prayed, "Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, "Strike this army with blindness." So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19Elisha told them, "This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for." And he led them to Samaria. |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20After they entered the city, Elisha said, "LORD, open the eyes of these men so they can see." Then the LORD opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, "Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?" |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22"Do not kill them," he answered. "Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master." |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel's territory. |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels. |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, "Help me, my lord the king!" |
| 27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27The king replied, "If the LORD does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?" |
| 28[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 28Then he asked her, "What's the matter?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we'll eat my son.' |
| 29[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 29So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Give up your son so we may eat him,' but she had hidden him." |
| 30[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 30When the king heard the woman's words, he tore his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and they saw that, under his robes, he had sackcloth on his body. |
| 31[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 31He said, "May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!" |
| 32[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 32Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, "Don't you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master's footsteps behind him?" |
| 33[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 33While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him. The king said, "This disaster is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?" |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
|
