Study Desk

An Axhead Floats

The company^(a) of the prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us.

Let 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."

Then one of them said, "Won't you please come with your servants?" "I will," Elisha replied.

And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees.

As 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!"

The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw^(b) it there, and made the iron float.

"Lift it out," he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.

Now 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."

The man of God sent word to the king^(c) of Israel: "Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there."

So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned^(d) the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.

This 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?"

"None of us, my lord the king^(e)," 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."

"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."^(f)

Then he sent^(g) horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.

When 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.

"Don't be afraid,"^(h) the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more⁽ⁱ⁾ than those who are with them."

And 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^(j) of fire all around Elisha.

As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord , "Strike this army with blindness."^(k) So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

Elisha 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.

After 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.

When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, "Shall I kill them, my father?^(l) Shall I kill them?"

"Do not kill them," he answered. "Would you kill those you have captured^(m) 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."

So 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⁽ⁿ⁾ from Aram stopped raiding Israel's territory.

Some time later, Ben-Hadad^(o) king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege^(p) to Samaria.

There was a great famine^(q) in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels^[a] of silver, and a quarter of a cab^[b] of seed pods^[c](r) for five shekels.^[d]

As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, "Help me, my lord the king!"

The king replied, "If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?"

Then 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.'

So we cooked my son and ate^(s) him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,' but she had hidden him."

When the king heard the woman's words, he tore^(t) his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and they saw that, under his robes, he had sackcloth^(u) on his body.

He said, "May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!"

Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders^(v) 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^(w) is sending someone to cut off my head?^(x) 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?"

While 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^(y) for the Lord any longer?"

Elisha replied, "Hear the word of the Lord . This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah^[a] of the finest flour will sell for a shekel^[b] and two seahs^[c] of barley for a shekel^(a) at the gate of Samaria."

The officer on whose arm the king was leaning^(b) said to the man of God, "Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates^(c) of the heavens, could this happen?" "You will see it with your own eyes," answered Elisha, "but you will not eat^(d) any of it!"

Now there were four men with leprosy^[d](e) at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die?

If we say, ‘We'll go into the city'—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die."

At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there,

for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound^(f) of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired^(g) the Hittite^(h) and Egyptian kings to attack us!"

So they got up and fled⁽ⁱ⁾ in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

The men who had leprosy^(j) reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

Then they said to each other, "What we're doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let's go at once and report this to the royal palace."

So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, "We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were."

The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

The king got up in the night and said to his officers, "I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide^(k) in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.'"

One of his officers answered, "Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here—yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened."

So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, "Go and find out what has happened."

They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight.^(l) So the messengers returned and reported to the king.

Then the people went out and plundered^(m) the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel,⁽ⁿ⁾ as the Lord had said.

Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died,^(o) just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.

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

The officer had said to the man of God, "Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates^(p) of the heavens, could this happen?" The man of God had replied, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!"

And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.

The Shunammite's Land Restored

Now Elisha had said to the woman^(a) whose son he had restored to life, "Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine^(b) in the land that will last seven years."^(c)

The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.

The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, "Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done."

Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored^(d) the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, "This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life."

The king asked the woman about it, and she told him. Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, "Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now."

Elisha went to Damascus,^(e) and Ben-Hadad^(f) king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, "The man of God has come all the way up here,"

he said to Hazael,^(g) "Take a gift^(h) with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult⁽ⁱ⁾ the Lord through him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?'"

Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, "Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?'"

Elisha answered, "Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.'^(j) Nevertheless,^[a] the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die."

He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed.^(k) Then the man of God began to weep.^(l)

"Why is my lord weeping?" asked Hazael. "Because I know the harm^(m) you will do to the Israelites," he answered. "You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash⁽ⁿ⁾ their little children^(o) to the ground, and rip open^(p) their pregnant women."

Hazael said, "How could your servant, a mere dog,^(q) accomplish such a feat?" "The Lord has shown me that you will become king^(r) of Aram," answered Elisha.

Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, "What did Elisha say to you?" Hazael replied, "He told me that you would certainly recover."

But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king's face, so that he died.^(s) Then Hazael succeeded him as king.

In the fifth year of Joram^(u) son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram^(v) son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah.

He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.

He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter^(w) of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord .

Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy^(x) Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp^(y) for David and his descendants forever.

In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king.^(z)

So Jehoram^[b] went to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night; his army, however, fled back home.

To this day Edom has been in rebellion^(aa) against Judah. Libnah^(ab) revolted at the same time.

As for the other events of Jehoram's reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

Jehoram rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.

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

Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother's name was Athaliah,^(ae) a granddaughter of Omri^(af) king of Israel.

He followed the ways of the house of Ahab^(ag) and did evil^(ah) in the eyes of the Lord , as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab's family.

Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead.^(ai) The Arameans wounded Joram;

so King Joram returned to Jezreel^(aj) to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth^[c] in his battle with Hazael^(ak) king of Aram. Then Ahaziah^(al) son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.

Jehu Anointed King of Israel

The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company^(a) of the prophets and said to him, "Tuck your cloak into your belt,^(b) take this flask of olive oil^(c) with you and go to Ramoth Gilead.^(d)

When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room.

Then take the flask and pour the oil^(e) on his head and declare, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.' Then open the door and run; don't delay!"

So the young prophet went to Ramoth Gilead.

When he arrived, he found the army officers sitting together. "I have a message for you, commander," he said. "For which of us?" asked Jehu. "For you, commander," he replied.

Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil^(f) on Jehu's head and declared, "This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord 's people Israel.

You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge^(g) the blood of my servants^(h) the prophets and the blood of all the Lord 's servants shed by Jezebel.⁽ⁱ⁾

The whole house^(j) of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male^(k) in Israel—slave or free.^[a]

I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam^(l) son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha^(m) son of Ahijah.

As for Jezebel, dogs⁽ⁿ⁾ will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.'" Then he opened the door and ran.

When Jehu went out to his fellow officers, one of them asked him, "Is everything all right? Why did this maniac^(o) come to you?" "You know the man and the sort of things he says," Jehu replied.

"That's not true!" they said. "Tell us." Jehu said, "Here is what he told me: ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.'"

They quickly took their cloaks and spread^(p) them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet^(q) and shouted, "Jehu is king!"

So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead^(s) against Hazael king of Aram,

but King Joram^[b] had returned to Jezreel to recover^(t) from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.) Jehu said, "If you desire to make me king, don't let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel."

Then he got into his chariot and rode to Jezreel, because Joram was resting there and Ahaziah^(u) king of Judah had gone down to see him.

When the lookout^(v) standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu's troops approaching, he called out, "I see some troops coming." "Get a horseman," Joram ordered. "Send him to meet them and ask, ‘Do you come in peace?^(w)'"

The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, "This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?'" "What do you have to do with peace?" Jehu replied. "Fall in behind me." The lookout reported, "The messenger has reached them, but he isn't coming back."

So the king sent out a second horseman. When he came to them he said, "This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?'" Jehu replied, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me."

The lookout reported, "He has reached them, but he isn't coming back either. The driving is like^(x) that of Jehu son of Nimshi—he drives like a maniac."

"Hitch up my chariot," Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth^(y) the Jezreelite.

When Joram saw Jehu he asked, "Have you come in peace, Jehu?" "How can there be peace," Jehu replied, "as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel^(z) abound?"

Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, "Treachery,^(aa) Ahaziah!"

Then Jehu drew his bow^(ab) and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot.

Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, "Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord spoke this prophecy^(ac) against him:

‘Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth^(ad) and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord , and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord .'^[c] Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord ."^(ae)

When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan.^[d] Jehu chased him, shouting, "Kill him too!" They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam,^(af) but he escaped to Megiddo^(ag) and died there.

His servants took him by chariot^(ah) to Jerusalem and buried him with his ancestors in his tomb in the City of David.

(In the eleventh^(ai) year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king of Judah.)

Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup,^(aj) arranged her hair and looked out of a window.

As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, "Have you come in peace, you Zimri,^(ak) you murderer of your master?"^[e]

He looked up at the window and called out, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked down at him.

"Throw her down!" Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.^(al)

Jehu went in and ate and drank. "Take care of that cursed woman," he said, "and bury her, for she was a king's daughter."^(am)

But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands.

They went back and told Jehu, who said, "This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs^(an) will devour Jezebel's flesh.^[f](ao)

Jezebel's body will be like dung^(ap) on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.'"

Ahab's Family Killed

Now there were in Samaria^(a) seventy sons^(b) of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel,^[a](c) to the elders and to the guardians^(d) of Ahab's children. He said,

"You have your master's sons with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons. Now as soon as this letter reaches you,

choose the best and most worthy of your master's sons and set him on his father's throne. Then fight for your master's house."

But they were terrified and said, "If two kings could not resist him, how can we?"

So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: "We are your servants^(e) and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best."

Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, "If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master's sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow." Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them.

When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy^(f) of them. They put their heads^(g) in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel.

When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, "They have brought the heads of the princes." Then Jehu ordered, "Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning."

The next morning Jehu went out. He stood before all the people and said, "You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these?

Know, then, that not a word the Lord has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The Lord has done what he announced^(h) through his servant Elijah."⁽ⁱ⁾

So Jehu^(j) killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.^(k)

Jehu then set out and went toward Samaria. At Beth Eked of the Shepherds,

he met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, "Who are you?" They said, "We are relatives of Ahaziah,^(l) and we have come down to greet the families of the king and of the queen mother.^(m)"

"Take them alive!" he ordered. So they took them alive and slaughtered them by the well of Beth Eked—forty-two of them. He left no survivor.⁽ⁿ⁾

After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab^(o) son of Rekab,^(p) who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, "Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?" "I am," Jehonadab answered. "If so," said Jehu, "give me your hand."^(q) So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot.

Jehu said, "Come with me and see my zeal^(r) for the Lord ." Then he had him ride along in his chariot.

When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed all who were left there of Ahab's family;^(s) he destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord spoken to Elijah.

Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, "Ahab served^(t) Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much.

Now summon^(u) all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live." But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.

Jehu said, "Call an assembly^(v) in honor of Baal." So they proclaimed it.

Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other.

And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, "Bring robes for all the servants of Baal." So he brought out robes for them.

Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, "Look around and see that no one who serves the Lord is here with you—only servants of Baal."

So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: "If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life."^(w)

As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: "Go in and kill^(x) them; let no one escape."^(y) So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal.

They brought the sacred stone^(z) out of the temple of Baal and burned it.

They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple^(aa) of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.

So Jehu^(ab) destroyed Baal worship in Israel.

However, he did not turn away from the sins^(ac) of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves^(ad) at Bethel^(ae) and Dan.

The Lord said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation."^(af)

Yet Jehu was not careful^(ag) to keep the law of the Lord , the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins^(ah) of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.

In those days the Lord began to reduce^(ai) the size of Israel. Hazael^(aj) overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory

east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer^(ak) by the Arnon^(al) Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.

As for the other events of Jehu's reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals^(am) of the kings of Israel?

Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king.

The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.