2 Kings 6 — Read & Listen Online | Father's Heart Bible

The Father Recovers What Was Lost

Chapter 6.

Now the company of the prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we live under your care is too cramped for us. Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a log, and let us build a place there to live." And he said, "Go."

Then one of them said, "Please be willing to come with your servants." And he answered, "I will go."

So he went with them. They came to the Jordan and began cutting down trees. As one of them was felling a log, the axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, "Oh no, my master! It was borrowed!"

The man of our Father asked, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, Elisha cut off a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float. "Lift it out," he said. So the man reached out his hand and took it.

The Father's Fiery Army Guards Elisha

Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. He conferred with his servants and said, "I will set up my camp at such and such a place."

But the man of our Father sent word to the king of Israel: "Take care not to pass by this place, for the Arameans are going down there." So the king of Israel sent to the place the man of our Father had named, warning him; and time and again he was on guard there—more than once or twice. The king of Aram was enraged over this. He summoned his servants and said to them, "Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?"

But one of his servants said, "No one, my lord the king. It is Elisha, the prophet in Israel, who tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom."

"Go and find out where he is," the king said, "so I can send men and seize him." Word came back, "He is in Dothan."

So he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They came by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of our Father rose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city, with horses and chariots. "Oh no, my master!" the servant said to him. "What are we going to do?"

"Do not be afraid," he answered, "for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed, "O my Father, please open his eyes so he may see." And our Father opened the young man's eyes, and he saw: the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. As the Arameans came down toward him, Elisha prayed to our Father, "Please strike this people with blindness." So he struck them with blindness, just as Elisha had asked.

Elisha told them, "This is not the way, 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. When they entered Samaria, Elisha said, "O my Father, open the eyes of these men so they may see." Then our Father opened their eyes, and they looked—and there they were, inside Samaria.

When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, "My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?"

"Do not kill them," he answered. "Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword and bow? Set food and water before them so they may eat and drink, and then go back to their master."

So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went back to their master. And the Aramean raiders no longer came into the land of Israel.

Siege and Famine Crush Samaria

Some time later, Ben-hadad king of Aram mustered his whole army, marched up, and laid siege to Samaria. There was a great famine in Samaria, and the siege dragged on so long that a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a kab of dove's dung for five shekels of silver. ¹ As the king of Israel was passing along the wall, a woman cried out to him, "Help me, my lord the king!"

He replied, "If our Father does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?" Then the king asked her, "What is the matter?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give up your son so we can eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.'"

"So we boiled my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, '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 was passing along the wall, the people saw that he had sackcloth underneath, against his skin. He said, "May our Father deal with me, ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on his shoulders today!"

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

While he was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, "This disaster is from our Father. Why should I wait for our Father any longer?"

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