2 Kings 6

6 ¹ The company of prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we live under your care is too cramped for us. ² "Let's go to the Jordan, each get a log, and build ourselves a place to live there." He said, "Go."

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

⁴ So he went with them. They came to the Jordan and began cutting down trees. ⁵ As one felled a beam, the ax head fell into the water. He cried, "Oh no, my master! It was borrowed!"

⁶ The man of our Father asked, "Where did it fall?" The man showed Elisha the place. Elisha cut a stick, threw it there, and made the iron float. ⁷ "Lift it out," he said. So the man reached out his hand and took it.

The Father's Fiery Army Guards Elisha

⁸ Aram's king was fighting Israel. He conferred with his servants: "My camp will be at such and such a place."

⁹ The man of our Father warned Israel's king: "Don't pass this place—Arameans are coming down there." ¹⁰ So the king of Israel sent to the place the man of our Father named, warning him; he guarded himself there—not once, not twice. ¹¹ Aram's king raged over this. He summoned his servants and asked, "Won't you tell me who among us sides with Israel's king?"

¹² One of his servants said, "No one, my lord the king. Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells Israel's king the words you speak in your bedroom."

¹³ "Go, see where he is," the king said, "so I may send and seize him." Report: "Dothan."

¹⁴ He sent horses, chariots, and a great army there; they came by night and surrounded the city. ¹⁵ The servant of the man of our Father rose early and went out—an army with horses and chariots surrounded the city. "Oh no, my master! What will we do?" the servant said.

¹⁶ "Don't be afraid," he answered, "those with us outnumber those with them." ¹⁷ Elisha prayed, "my Father, open his eyes to see." And our Father opened the young man's eyes: he saw the mountain full of horses and fiery chariots around Elisha. ¹⁸ As they came down to him, Elisha prayed to our Father, 'Strike these people with blindness.' So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha said.

¹⁹ Elisha said, "This isn't the way, nor the city. Follow me—I'll lead you to the man you seek." Then he led them to Samaria. ²⁰ When they entered Samaria, Elisha said, "O my Father, open these men's eyes so they may see." Then our Father opened their eyes, and they saw—they were inside Samaria.

²¹ Seeing them, Israel's king said to Elisha, "My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?"

²² He said, "Don't kill them. Would you kill those captured by your sword and bow? Give them bread and water to eat and drink, then go to their master."

²³ He prepared a great feast; they ate and drank, then he sent them off to their master. Aramean raiders did not come into Israel's land again.

Siege and Famine Crush Samaria

²⁴ Later Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered his whole army, marched up, and besieged Samaria. ²⁵ A severe famine gripped Samaria during the siege, until a donkey's head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a quarter-kab of dove droppings for five pieces of silver. ^a a v25 A kab was a small dry measure, about a quart, so a fourth of a kab was a desperate scrap of food. ²⁶ As Israel's king passed along the wall, a woman cried out, "Help me, my lord the king!"

²⁷ He said, "If our Father doesn't help you, where can I help you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?" ²⁸ The king asked, "What's wrong?" She said, "This woman told me, 'Give your son to eat today; we'll eat mine tomorrow.'"

²⁹ So we boiled my son and ate him. Next day I said, 'Give your son for us to eat,' but she hid him.

³⁰ Hearing the woman's words, the king tore his robes; as he passed along the wall, people saw sackcloth on his skin, underneath. ³¹ He said, "May our Father punish me, and worse, if Elisha son of Shaphat's head stays on him today!"

³² Elisha sat in his house with the elders when the king sent a man ahead. Before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, "See how this son of a murderer sends to cut off my head? When he comes, shut the door and press it against him. Isn't the sound of his master's feet behind him?"

³³ While he was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. The king said, "This disaster is from our Father. Why wait for our Father longer?"