Old Testament · History

2 Kings chapter 8

Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had , “Get up and go — you and your household. Settle wherever you can as foreigners, because Yahweh has , and it will hit the land for seven years.”So the woman did exactly what the told her. She left with her household and lived as a foreigner in for seven years.When the seven years were over, the woman came back from Philistine territory and went to for her house and her land.Now the king had been talking with , the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me about all the Elisha has done.”And right as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had brought a dead boy back to life — at that exact moment — the woman whose son Elisha had revived walked in to make her appeal to the king about her house and land. Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman! And this is her son — the one Elisha !”When the king asked the woman about it, she confirmed the whole story. So the king to her case, saying, “Restore everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her fields from the day she left the country until now.”Elisha went to . king of Aram was sick, and when he was told, “The man of God has come all the way here,”the king said to , “Take a gift with you and go meet the man of God. : ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”So Hazael went to meet him, bringing a gift — of every fine thing Damascus had to offer. He came and stood before Elisha and said, “ Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask you: ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”Elisha told him, “Go tell him, ‘.’ But Yahweh has shown me that he will actually die.”Then Elisha until Hazael became uncomfortable. And the man of God .Hazael asked, “Why is my lord weeping?” Elisha answered, “Because I know the you are going to do to the people of Israel. You will set their on fire, you will slaughter their young men with the sword, you will dash their children to pieces, and you will rip open their pregnant women.”Hazael said, “But how could your servant — — possibly do something that massive?” Elisha replied, “Yahweh has shown me that you will become king of Aram.”Then Hazael left Elisha and went back to his master. Ben-Hadad asked him, “What did Elisha tell you?” He answered, “He told me you would definitely recover.”But the very next day, Hazael took a , soaked it in water, and spread it over the king’s face, suffocating him. And Hazael became king in his place.In the fifth year of son of Ahab, king of Israel (while was still king of Judah), Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah.Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled in for eight years.He lived the way the kings of Israel did, just like Ahab’s family had — because he had married . He did .Yet Yahweh was not willing to destroy Judah, because of his promise to — he had told David he would always keep a for him and his descendants.During Jehoram’s reign, broke free from Judah’s control and set up their own king.So Jehoram crossed over to with all his chariots. He got up at night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but .So Edom has been independent from Judah . also broke away at the same time.As for the rest of Jehoram’s story — everything he did — isn’t it written in the ?Jehoram died and was in the . His son Ahaziah became king after him.In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel, son of Jehoram became king of Judah.Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for one year. His mother’s name was , granddaughter of king of Israel.He lived the way Ahab’s family did and did what was evil in Yahweh’s eyes, just like Ahab’s household — because he was .He went with Joram son of Ahab to fight against Hazael king of Aram at . The Arameans wounded Joram,and King Joram went back to to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to visit Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, because Joram was wounded.