Daily Text and Bible Reading: Wednesday, April 29 [Press play below]

6.1 The sons of the prophets said to Elisha: “Look! The place where we are staying with you is too cramped for us.
6.2 Please let us go to the Jordan. Let each of us take a log from there and make a place there where we can dwell.” He said: “Go.”
6.3 One of them said: “Will you please come along with your servants?” At that he said: “I will come.”
6.4 So he went with them, and they came to the Jordan and began to cut down the trees.
6.5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the axhead fell into the water, and he cried out: “Alas, my master, it was borrowed!”
6.6 The man of the true God said: “Where did it fall?” So he showed him the place. He then cut off a piece of wood and threw it there and made the axhead float.
6.7 He said: “Lift it out.” So he reached out his hand and took it.
6.8 Now the king of Syria went to war against Israel. He consulted with his servants and said: “I will encamp at such and such a place with you.”
6.9 Then the man of the true God sent word to the king of Israel, saying: “Beware of passing by this place, because that is where the Syrians are coming down.”
6.10 So the king of Israel sent word to the place that the man of the true God had warned him about. He kept warning him, and he stayed away from there on several occasions.
6.11 This enraged the king of Syria, so he summoned his servants and said to them: “Tell me! Who among us is on the side of the king of Israel?”
6.12 Then one of his servants said: “None of us, my lord the king! It is Elisha the prophet in Israel who tells the king of Israel the things that you say in your own bedroom.”
6.13 He said: “Go and find out where he is, so that I may send men to capture him.” Later the report was made to him: “He is in Dothan.”
6.14 He immediately sent horses and war chariots there, as well as a large army; they came by night and surrounded the city.
6.15 When the attendant of the man of the true God rose early and went outside, he saw that an army with horses and war chariots was surrounding the city. At once the attendant said to him: “Alas, my master! What are we to do?”
6.16 But he said: “Do not be afraid! For there are more who are with us than those who are with them.”
6.17 Then Elisha began to pray and say: “O Jehovah, open his eyes, please, that he may see.” Immediately Jehovah opened the attendant’s eyes and he saw, and look! the mountainous region was full of horses and war chariots of fire all around Elisha.
6.18 When the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to Jehovah and said: “Please, strike this nation with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, just as Elisha had requested.
6.19 Elisha now said to them: “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and let me lead you to the man you are looking for.” However, he led them to Samaria.
6.20 When they arrived in Samaria, Elisha said: “O Jehovah, open their eyes so that they may see.” So Jehovah opened their eyes, and they saw that they were in the middle of Samaria.
6.21 When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha: “Should I strike them down, should I strike them down, my father?”
6.22 But he said: “You must not strike them down. Do you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Give them bread and water so they may eat and drink and return to their lord.”
6.23 So he spread a great feast for them, and they ate and drank, after which he sent them away to return to their lord. And not once did the marauder bands of the Syrians come again into the land of Israel.
6.24 Afterward Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his army together and went up and besieged Samaria.
6.25 So there was a great famine in Samaria, and they besieged it until a donkey’s head was worth 80 silver pieces, and a fourth of a cab measure of dove’s droppings was worth 5 silver pieces.
6.26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him: “Help us, O my lord the king!”
6.27 To this he said: “If Jehovah does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? Or from the wine or oil press?”
6.28 The king asked her: “What is the matter with you?” She replied: “This woman said to me, ‘Hand over your son, and we will eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’
6.29 So we boiled my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Hand over your son so that we may eat him.’ But she hid her son.”
6.30 As soon as the king heard the woman’s words, he ripped his garments apart. When he passed by on the wall, the people saw that he was wearing sackcloth under his clothes.
6.31 Then he said: “So may God do to me and add to it if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today!”
6.32 Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders: “Have you seen how this son of a murderer has sent to take off my head? Watch when the messenger comes, close the door, and hold the door shut against him. Is not the sound of his lord’s footsteps behind him?”
6.33 While he was still speaking with them, the messenger came to him, and the king said: “This calamity is from Jehovah. Why should I wait any longer for Jehovah?”

7.1 Elisha now said, “Listen to the word of Jehovah. This is what Jehovah says: ‘Tomorrow about this time at the gate of Samaria, a seah measure of fine flour will be worth a shekel, and two seah measures of barley will be worth a shekel.’”
7.2 At that the adjutant whom the king relied on said to the man of the true God: “Even if Jehovah should open floodgates in the heavens, could this possibly take place?” To that he said: “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat from it.”
7.3 There were four lepers at the entrance of the city gate, and they said to one another: “Why are we sitting here until we die?
7.4 If we say, ‘Let us go into the city,’ while the famine is in the city, we would die there. And if we sit here, we will die anyway. So now let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives, we will live, but if they put us to death, then we will die.”
7.5 They then got up in the evening darkness and entered the camp of the Syrians. When they reached the outskirts of the Syrian camp, there was nobody there.
7.6 For Jehovah had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of war chariots and horses, the sound of a huge army. So they said to one another: “Look! The king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us!”
7.7 They immediately got up and fled in the evening darkness, leaving their tents, horses, donkeys, and the whole camp just as it was, and they fled for their lives.
7.8 When these lepers reached the outskirts of the camp, they entered into one of the tents and began to eat and drink. They carried away from there silver, gold, and garments and went and hid them. Then they returned and entered another tent and carried things away from there and went and hid them.
7.9 Finally they said to one another: “What we are doing is not right. This day is a day of good news! If we hesitate and wait until dawn, we will deserve to be punished. Let us now go and report this at the king’s house.”
7.10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers of the city and reported to them: “We went into the camp of the Syrians, but nobody was there—we did not hear anyone at all. There were only the horses and donkeys tied and the tents left just as they were.”
7.11 At once the gatekeepers called out, and it was reported inside the king’s house.
7.12 Immediately the king got up by night and said to his servants: “Please let me tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry, so they left the camp to hide in the field, saying, ‘They will come out of the city, and we will catch them alive and enter into the city.’”
7.13 Then one of his servants said: “Please, let some men take five of the remaining horses that are in the city. Look! They will end up the same as all the crowd of Israel that remain here. Look! They will end up the same as all the crowd of Israel that perished. Let us then send them out and see.”
7.14 So they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them out to the camp of the Syrians, saying: “Go and see.”
7.15 They followed them as far as the Jordan, and the entire way was covered with garments and utensils that the Syrians had thrown away as they fled in panic. The messengers returned and reported it to the king.
7.16 The people then went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians, so that a seah measure of fine flour came to be worth a shekel, and two seah measures of barley came to be worth a shekel, according to the word of Jehovah.
7.17 The king had appointed the adjutant whom he relied on to be in charge of the gate, but the people trampled him to death at the gate, just as the man of the true God had told the king when he came down to him.
7.18 It happened just as the man of the true God had said to the king: “Two seah measures of barley will be worth a shekel, and a seah measure of fine flour will be worth a shekel tomorrow at this time at the gate of Samaria.”
7.19 But the adjutant had said to the man of the true God: “Even if Jehovah should open floodgates in the heavens, could such a thing take place?” To this Elisha had said: “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat from it.”
7.20 That is exactly what happened to him, because the people trampled him to death at the gate.

8.1 Elisha said to the woman whose son he had restored to life: “Rise up and go, you with your household, and live as a foreigner wherever you can, for Jehovah has declared a famine, and it will come on the land for seven years.”
8.2 So the woman got up and did what the man of the true God said. She went with her household and settled in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
8.3 At the end of seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and her field.
8.4 Now the king was speaking to Gehazi the attendant of the man of the true God, saying: “Relate to me, please, all the great things that Elisha has done.”
8.5 Just as he was relating to the king how he had restored the dead one to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life came to the king, appealing for her house and her field. At once Gehazi said: “My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.”
8.6 At that the king asked the woman, and she related the story to him. Then the king assigned her a court official, telling him: “Return all that belongs to her and all the products of the field from the day she left the land until now.”
8.7 Elisha came to Damascus when Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick. So the report was made to him: “The man of the true God has come here.”
8.8 At that the king said to Hazael: “Take a gift with you and go and meet the man of the true God. Inquire of Jehovah through him, asking, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”
8.9 Hazael went to meet him and took a gift with him, every sort of good thing of Damascus, the load of 40 camels. He came and stood before him and said: “Your son, Ben-hadad the king of Syria, has sent me to you, asking, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”
8.10 Elisha replied to him: “Go and tell him, ‘You will certainly recover,’ but Jehovah has shown me that he will certainly die.”
8.11 And he kept staring at him to the point of embarrassment. Then the man of the true God gave way to weeping.
8.12 Hazael asked: “Why is my lord weeping?” He replied: “Because I know what harm you will do to the people of Israel. Their fortified places you will set on fire, their choice men you will kill with the sword, their children you will dash to pieces, and their pregnant women you will rip open.”
8.13 Hazael said: “How could your servant, who is a mere dog, do such a deed?” But Elisha said: “Jehovah has shown me that you will be king over Syria.”
8.14 Then he left Elisha and returned to his own lord, who said to him: “What did Elisha say to you?” He replied: “He told me that you will certainly recover.”
8.15 But the next day, Hazael took a coverlet, dipped it in water, and held it over his face until he died. And Hazael became king in his place.
8.16 In the fifth year of Jehoram the son of Ahab the king of Israel, while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram the son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah became king.
8.17 He was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem.
8.18 He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as those of the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter had become his wife; and he kept doing what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes.
8.19 But Jehovah did not want to bring Judah to ruin for the sake of David his servant, since he had promised him to give a lamp to him and to his sons always.
8.20 In his days Edom revolted against Judah and then set up its own king.
8.21 So Jehoram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots, and he rose up by night and defeated the Edomites who were surrounding him and the chariot commanders; and the troops fled to their tents.
8.22 But Edom has kept up its revolt against Judah to this day. Libnah also revolted at that time.
8.23 And the rest of the history of Jehoram, all that he did, is it not written in the book of the history of the times of the kings of Judah?
8.24 Then Jehoram was laid to rest with his forefathers and was buried with his forefathers in the City of David. And his son Ahaziah became king in his place.
8.25 In the 12th year of Jehoram the son of Ahab the king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of King Jehoram of Judah became king.
8.26 Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king, and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the granddaughter of King Omri of Israel.
8.27 He walked in the way of the house of Ahab and kept doing what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes, like the house of Ahab, for he was related to the house of Ahab by marriage.
8.28 So he went with Jehoram the son of Ahab to wage war against King Hazael of Syria at Ramoth-gilead, but the Syrians wounded Jehoram.
8.29 So King Jehoram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Syrians had inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. Ahaziah the son of Jehoram the king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Jehoram the son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.