Study Desk

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early in the morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. So he asked Elisha, "Oh, my master, what are we to do?"

He announced, "May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!"

But the officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?" "You will see it with your own eyes," replied Elisha, "but you will not eat any of it."

Now the king had appointed the officer on whose arm he leaned to be in charge of the gate, but the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king had come to him.

It happened just as the man of God had told the king: "About this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria, two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel."

And the officer had answered the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?" So Elisha had replied, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it."

So the woman got ready and did as the man of God had instructed. She and her household lived as foreigners for seven years in the land of the Philistines.

Now the king had been speaking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, "Please relate to me all the great things Elisha has done."

Then Elisha came to Damascus while Ben-hadad king of Aram was sick, and the king was told, "The man of God has come here."

So the king said to Hazael, "Take a gift in your hand, go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD through him, 'Will I recover from this illness?'"

Elisha fixed his gaze steadily on him until Hazael became uncomfortable. Then the man of God began to weep.

So Jehu got up and went into the house, where the young prophet poured the oil on his head and declared, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anoint you king over the LORD's people Israel.

Yet Jehu was not careful to follow the instruction of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit.

But the man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times. Then you would have struck down Aram until you had put an end to it. But now you will strike down Aram only three times."

This Jeroboam restored the boundary of Israel from Lebo-hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word that the LORD, the God of Israel, had spoken through His servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher.

Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. And unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God.

All this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods

The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city, they built high places in all their cities.

But they would not listen, and they stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not believe the LORD their God.

They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal.