2 Kings 6 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

The followers 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, and each of us will get a log there. We can build ourselves a place to meet there." He answered, "Go."

Then one of them said, "Please, come with your servants." And he said, "I will come."

So he went with them. When they arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees.

But as one of them was cutting a log, the iron axe head fell into the water. He cried out, "Oh no, my master! It was borrowed!"

The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the spot, Elisha cut a stick, threw it into the water, and made the iron float.

"Pick it up," he said. So the man reached out his hand and grabbed it.

Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After consulting with his officers, he said, "I will set up camp at such-and-such a place."

But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel: "Watch out -- don't pass through that place, because the Arameans are setting up an ambush there."

So the king of Israel would send scouts to the place the man of God had warned him about. Time after time, Elisha warned him, and he stayed on guard.

This infuriated the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded, "Tell me! Which one of us is leaking information to the king of Israel?"

One of his officers said, "None of us, my lord the king. It's Elisha, the prophet in Israel -- he 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 to capture him." The report came back: "He's in Dothan."

So he sent horses, chariots, and a massive army. They arrived at night and surrounded the city.

When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there was an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. His servant said, "Oh no, my master! What are we going to do?"

"Don't be afraid," Elisha said. "There are more on our side than on theirs."

Then Elisha prayed, "Yahweh, open his eyes so he can see." And Yahweh opened the servant's eyes, and he looked up and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

As the Arameans came down toward him, Elisha prayed to Yahweh, "Strike this army with blindness." And Yahweh struck them with blindness, just as Elisha had asked.

Elisha told them, "This isn't the right road, and this isn't the right city. Follow me, and I'll take you to the man you're looking for." Then he led them to Samaria.

When they entered Samaria, Elisha prayed, "Yahweh, open these men's eyes so they can see." Yahweh opened their eyes, and they looked around -- and there they were, right in the middle of Samaria.

When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, "Should I kill them, my father? Should I kill them?"

"No, don't kill them," he answered. "Would you execute prisoners you captured with your own sword and bow? Set food and water in front of them so they can eat and drink, and then send them back to their master."

So he prepared a huge feast for them. After they ate and drank, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. And the Aramean raiding parties stopped invading Israel's territory.

Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up to lay siege to Samaria.

The famine in Samaria became so severe that a donkey's head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a quarter-measure of seed pods sold for five pieces of silver.

As the king of Israel was walking along the city wall, a woman cried out to him, "Help me, my lord the king!"

He replied, "If Yahweh won't help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the wine press?"

Then the king asked her, "What's wrong?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give up your son so we can eat him today, and we'll eat my son tomorrow.'"

"So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Now give up your son so we can eat him,' but she had hidden her son."

When the king heard the woman's words, he tore his robes. As he walked along the wall, the people could see that he was wearing sackcloth underneath, against his skin.

He said, "May God strike me dead and worse if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on his shoulders by the end of today!"

Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the elders. The king had sent a messenger ahead, but before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, "Do you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and hold it against him. Isn't that the sound of his master's footsteps right behind him?"

While he was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, "Look at how much suffering Yahweh has caused! Why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?"