Study Desk

"If I am a man of God," Elijah answered, "God will send down fire on you and your fifty soldiers." Fire immediately came down from heaven and burned up the officer and his men.

"If I am a man of God," Elijah answered, "fire will destroy you and your fifty soldiers." And God sent down fire from heaven on the officer and his men.

Ahaziah sent a third army officer and fifty more soldiers. This officer went up to Elijah, then he got down on his knees and begged, "Man of God, please be kind to me and these fifty servants of yours. Let us live!

Ahaziah died, just as the Lord had said. But since Ahaziah had no sons, Joram his brother then became king. This happened in the second year that Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat was king of Judah.

When they got there, Elijah took off his coat, then he rolled it up and struck the water with it. At once a path opened up through the river, and the two of them walked across on dry ground.

Elisha saw this and shouted, "Israel's cavalry and chariots have taken my master away!" After Elijah had gone, Elisha tore his clothes in sorrow.

and disobeyed the Lord by doing wrong. He tore down the stone image his father had made to honor Baal, and so he wasn't as sinful as his parents.

He then grabbed his oldest son who was to be the next king and sacrificed him as an offering on the city wall. The Israelite troops were so horrified that they left the city and went back home.

One day the widow of one of the Lord 's prophets said to Elisha, "You know that before my husband died, he was a follower of yours and a worshiper of the Lord . But he owed a man some money, and now that man is on his way to take my two sons as his slaves."

The next time Elisha was in Shunem, he stopped at their house and went up to his room to rest.

He said to his servant Gehazi, "This woman has been very helpful. Have her come up here to the roof for a moment." She came, and Elisha told Gehazi to say to her, "You've gone to a lot of trouble for us, and we want to help you. Is there something we can request the king or army commander to do?" The woman answered, "With my relatives nearby, I have everything I need."

"Ask her to come here again," Elisha told his servant. He called for her, and she came and stood in the doorway of Elisha's room.

One day while the boy was still young, he was out in the fields with his father, where the workers were harvesting the crops.

Suddenly he shouted, "My head hurts. It hurts a lot!" "Carry him back to his mother," the father said to his servant.

The servant picked up the boy and carried him to his mother. The boy lay on her lap all morning, and by noon he was dead.

Elisha arrived at the woman's house and went straight to his room, where he saw the boy's body on his bed.

Then he got on the bed and stretched out over the dead body, with his mouth on the boy's mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hand on his hands. As he lay there, the boy's body became warm.

Elisha got up and walked back and forth in the room, then he went back and leaned over the boy's body. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Later, Elisha went back to Gilgal, where there was almost nothing to eat, because the crops had failed. One day while the prophets who lived there were meeting with Elisha, he said to his servant, "Fix a big pot of stew for these prophets."

"There's not enough here for a hundred people," his servant said. "Just give it to them," Elisha replied. "The Lord has promised there will be more than enough."