2 Kings 6

1The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "See, please, the place where we dwell before you is too narrow for us."

2Please let us go to the Jordan, each take one beam from there, and make a place for ourselves there to dwell. He said, “Go!”

3One said, "Please be willing to go with your servants." He answered, "I will go."

4He went with them, they came to the Jordan, and they cut down trees.

5One was felling a beam when the iron head fell into the water; he cried out, "Alas, my master! It was borrowed!"

6The man of God said, “Where did it fall?” He showed him the place, cut down a stick, threw it there, and the iron floated.

7He said, "Lift it up." So he stretched out his hand and took it.

8The king of Aram was at war against Israel, and he consulted his servants, saying, "Such and such a place will be my camp."

9The man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, "Beware of passing this place, for the Syrians are coming down there."

10Israel's king sent to the place the man of God told him about and warned him of, and he took heed there, not once nor twice.

11The heart of Syria's king was greatly troubled over this matter. He called his servants and said to them, "Won't you tell me who among us sides with Israel's king?"

12One of his servants said, "No, my lord the king, for Elisha the prophet in Israel declares to Israel's king the words that you speak in your bedchamber."

13He said, “Go and see where he is, so I can send and seize him.” It was reported to him, saying, “Look, he is in Dothan.”

14He sent horses, chariots, and a great army there; they came by night and surrounded the city.

15When the servant of the man of God rose early and went out, an army with horses and chariots surrounded the city. His attendant said to him, "Ah, my master! How shall we do?"

16He answered, "Do not fear, for the ones with us are more than the ones with them."

17Elisha prayed and said, "Yahweh, please open his eyes so he sees." Yahweh opened the young man's eyes, and he saw—and behold—the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

18They came down to him, and Elisha prayed to Yahweh and said, "Please strike this nation with blindness." He struck them with blindness at Elisha's word.

19Elisha said to them, "This is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you seek." He led them to Samaria.

20When they entered Samaria, Elisha said, "Yahweh, open the eyes of these, that they may see." Yahweh opened their eyes, and they saw; behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

21When he saw them, the king of Israel said to Elisha, "My father, should I strike them? Should I strike them?"

22He answered, "No, do not strike those you captured with your sword and bow—would you strike them yourself? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master."

23He prepared generous provisions for them, and after they ate and drank, he sent them away and they went to their master, so Aram's raiding bands no longer entered the land of Israel.

24Afterward Benhadad king of Aram assembled his entire army, went up, and besieged Samaria.

25There was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, they were besieging it until a donkey's head cost eighty pieces of silver and a quarter cab of dove's dung five pieces of silver.

26As the king of Israel passed by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord the king!"

27He said, "No, let Yahweh save you—from where shall I save you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress."

28The king said to her, "What troubles you?" She said, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, and we will eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.'"

29We boiled my son and ate him, and I said to her the next day, "Give your son so we may eat him," but she hid her son.

30When the king heard the woman's words, he tore his garments as he passed by on the wall, and the people saw—behold!—sackcloth underneath against his flesh.

31He said, “May God deal so with me, and more besides, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on him today.”

32Elisha was sitting in his house, the elders sitting with him, when the king sent a man from his presence; but before the messenger reached him, he said to the elders, "Do you see how this son of a slayer has sent to remove my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and press him fast at the door—isn't the sound of his master's feet behind him?"

33While he was still speaking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him. He said, "Behold, this calamity is from Yahweh. Why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?"