2 Kings 4

• 1. One day the widow of one of Elisha's fellow prophets came to Elisha and cried out to him, "My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the LORD. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves."
• 2. "What can I do to help you?" Elisha asked. "Tell me, what do you have in the house?Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil," she replied.
• 3. And Elisha said, "Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.
• 4. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting the jars aside as they are filled."
• 5. So she did as she was told. Her sons brought many jars to her, and she filled one after another.
• 6. Soon every container was full to the brim! "Bring me another jar," she said to one of her sons. "There aren't any more!" he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.
• 7. When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, "Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and there will be enough money left over to support you and your sons."
• 8. One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she invited him to eat some food. From then on, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there to eat.
• 9. She said to her husband, "I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God.
• 10. Let's make a little room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by."
• 11. One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to his room to rest.
• 12. He said to his servant Gehazi, "Tell the woman I want to speak to her." When she arrived,
• 13. Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tell her that we appreciate the kind concern she has shown us. Now ask her what we can do for her. Does she want me to put in a good word for her to the king or to the commander of the army?No," she replied, "my family takes good care of me."
• 14. Later Elisha asked Gehazi, "What do you think we can do for her?" He suggested, "She doesn't have a son, and her husband is an old man."
• 15. "Call her back again," Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway,
• 16. "Next year at about this time you will be holding a son in your arms!No, my lord!" she protested. "Please don't lie to me like that, O man of God."
• 17. But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.
• 18. One day when her child was older, he went out to visit his father, who was working with the harvesters.
• 19. Suddenly he complained, "My head hurts! My head hurts!" His father said to one of the servants, "Carry him home to his mother."
• 20. So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died.
• 21. She carried him up to the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there.
• 22. She sent a message to her husband: "Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back."
• 23. "Why today?" he asked. "It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath." But she said, "It's all right."
• 24. So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, "Hurry! Don't slow down on my account unless I tell you to."
• 25. As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, "Look, the woman from Shunem is coming.
• 26. Run out to meet her and ask her, `Is everything all right with you, with your husband, and with your child?' Yes," the woman told Gehazi, "everything is fine."
• 27. But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone. Something is troubling her deeply, and the LORD has not told me what it is."
• 28. Then she said, "It was you, my lord, who said I would have a son. And didn't I tell you not to raise my hopes?"
• 29. Then Elisha said to Gehazi, "Get ready to travel; take my staff and go! Don't talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child's face."
• 30. But the boy's mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, I won't go home unless you go with me." So Elisha returned with her.
• 31. Gehazi hurried on ahead and laid the staff on the child's face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, "The child is still dead."
• 32. When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet's bed.
• 33. He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the LORD.
• 34. Then he lay down on the child's body, placing his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on the child's eyes, and his hands on the child's hands. And the child's body began to grow warm again!
• 35. Elisha got up and walked back and forth in the room a few times. Then he stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
• 36. Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. "Call the child's mother!" he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, "Here, take your son!"
• 37. She fell at his feet, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she picked up her son and carried him downstairs.
• 38. Elisha now returned to Gilgal, but there was a famine in the land. One day as the group of prophets was seated before him, he said to his servant, "Put on a large kettle and make some stew for these men."
• 39. One of the young men went out into the field to gather vegetables and came back with a pocketful of wild gourds. He shredded them and put them into the kettle without realizing they were poisonous.
• 40. But after the men had eaten a bite or two they cried out, "Man of God, there's poison in this stew!" So they would not eat it.
• 41. Elisha said, "Bring me some flour." Then he threw it into the kettle and said, "Now it's all right; go ahead and eat." And then it did not harm them!
• 42. One day a man from Baal-shalishah brought the man of God a sack of fresh grain and twenty loaves of barley bread made from the first grain of his harvest. Elisha said, "Give it to the group of prophets so they can eat."
• 43. "What?" his servant exclaimed. "Feed one hundred people with only this?" But Elisha repeated, "Give it to the group of prophets so they can eat, for the LORD says there will be plenty for all. There will even be some left over!"
• 44. And sure enough, there was plenty for all and some left over, just as the LORD had promised.

2 Kings 5

• 1. The king of Aram had high admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the LORD had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.
• 2. Now groups of Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman's wife as a maid.
• 3. One day the girl said to her mistress, "I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy."
• 4. So Naaman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said.
• 5. "Go and visit the prophet," the king told him. "I will send a letter of introduction for you to carry to the king of Israel." So Naaman started out, taking as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing.
• 6. The letter to the king of Israel said: "With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy."
• 7. When the king of Israel read it, he tore his clothes in dismay and said, "This man sends me a leper to heal! Am I God, that I can kill and give life? He is only trying to find an excuse to invade us again."
• 8. But when Elisha, the man of God, heard about the king's reaction, he sent this message to him: "Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel."
• 9. So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha's house.
• 10. But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: "Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of leprosy."
• 11. But Naaman became angry and stalked away. "I thought he would surely come out to meet me!" he said. "I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the LORD his God and heal me!
• 12. Aren't the Abana River and Pharpar River of Damascus better than all the rivers of Israel put together? Why shouldn't I wash in them and be healed?" So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.
• 13. But his officers tried to reason with him and said, "Sir, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply to go and wash and be cured!"
• 14. So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his flesh became as healthy as a young child's, and he was healed!
• 15. Then Naaman and his entire party went back to find the man of God. They stood before him, and Naaman said, "I know at last that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. Now please accept my gifts."
• 16. But Elisha replied, "As surely as the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will not accept any gifts." And though Naaman urged him to take the gifts, Elisha refused.
• 17. Then Naaman said, "All right, but please allow me to load two of my mules with earth from this place, and I will take it back home with me. From now on I will never again offer any burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the LORD.
• 18. However, may the LORD pardon me in this one thing. When my master the king goes into the temple of the god Rimmon to worship there and leans on my arm, may the LORD pardon me when I bow, too."
• 19. "Go in peace," Elisha said. So Naaman started home again.
• 20. But Gehazi, Elisha's servant, said to himself, "My master should not have let this Aramean get away without accepting his gifts. As surely as the LORD lives, I will chase after him and get something from him."
• 21. So Gehazi set off after him. When Naaman saw him running after him, he climbed down from his chariot and went to meet him. "Is everything all right?" Naaman asked.
• 22. "Yes," Gehazi said, "but my master has sent me to tell you that two young prophets from the hill country of Ephraim have just arrived. He would like 75 pounds of silver and two sets of clothing to give to them."
• 23. "By all means, take 150 pounds of silver," Naaman insisted. He gave him two sets of clothing, tied up the money in two bags, and sent two of his servants to carry the gifts for Gehazi.
• 24. But when they arrived at the hill, Gehazi took the gifts from the servants and sent the men back. Then he hid the gifts inside the house.
• 25. When he went in to his master, Elisha asked him, "Where have you been, Gehazi?I haven't been anywhere," he replied.
• 26. But Elisha asked him, "Don't you realize that I was there in spirit when Naaman stepped down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to receive money and clothing and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and servants?
• 27. Because you have done this, you and your children and your children's children will suffer from Naaman's leprosy forever." When Gehazi left the room, he was leprous; his skin was as white as snow.

2 Kings 6

• 1. One day the group of prophets came to Elisha and told him, "As you can see, this place where we meet with you is too small.
• 2. Let's go down to the Jordan River, where there are plenty of logs. There we can build a new place for us to meet.All right," he told them, "go ahead."
• 3. "Please come with us," someone suggested. "I will," he said.
• 4. When they arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees.
• 5. But as one of them was chopping, his ax head fell into the river. "Ah, my lord!" he cried. "It was a borrowed ax!"
• 6. "Where did it fall?" the man of God asked. When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water. Then the ax head rose to the surface and floated.
• 7. "Grab it," Elisha said to him. And the man reached out and grabbed it.
• 8. When the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he would confer with his officers and say, "We will mobilize our forces at such and such a place."
• 9. But immediately Elisha, the man of God, would warn the king of Israel, "Do not go near that place, for the Arameans are planning to mobilize their troops there."
• 10. So the king of Israel would send word to the place indicated by the man of God, warning the people there to be on their guard. This happened several times.
• 11. The king of Aram became very upset over this. He called in his officers and demanded, "Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel of my plans?"
• 12. "It's not us, my lord," one of the officers replied. "Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!"
• 13. The king commanded, "Go and find out where Elisha is, and we will send troops to seize him." And the report came back: "Elisha is at Dothan."
• 14. So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city.
• 15. When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. "Ah, my lord, what will we do now?" he cried out to Elisha.
• 16. "Don't be afraid!" Elisha told him. "For there are more on our side than on theirs!"
• 17. Then Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes and let him see!" The LORD opened his servant's eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
• 18. As the Aramean army advanced toward them, Elisha prayed, "O LORD, please make them blind." And the LORD did as Elisha asked.
• 19. Then Elisha went out and told them, "You have come the wrong way! This isn't the right city! Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are looking for." And he led them to Samaria.
• 20. As soon as they had entered Samaria, Elisha prayed, "O LORD, now open their eyes and let them see." And the LORD did, and they discovered that they were in Samaria.
• 21. When the king of Israel saw them, he shouted to Elisha, "My father, should I kill them?"
• 22. "Of course not!" Elisha told him. "Do we kill prisoners of war? Give them food and drink and send them home again to their master."
• 23. So the king made a great feast for them and then sent them home to their king. After that, the Aramean raiders stayed away from the land of Israel.
• 24. Some time later, however, King Ben-hadad of Aram mobilized his entire army and besieged Samaria.
• 25. As a result there was a great famine in the city. After a while even a donkey's head sold for two pounds of silver, and a cup of dove's dung cost about two ounces of silver.
• 26. One day as the king of Israel was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him, "Please help me, my lord the king!"
• 27. "If the LORD doesn't help you, what can I do?" he retorted. "I have neither food nor wine to give you."
• 28. But then the king asked, "What is the matter?" She replied, "This woman proposed that we eat my son one day and her son the next.
• 29. So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said, `Kill your son so we can eat him,' but she had hidden him."
• 30. When the king heard this, he tore his clothes in despair. And as the king walked along the wall, the people could see that he was wearing sackcloth underneath next to his skin.
• 31. "May God kill me if I don't execute Elisha son of Shaphat this very day," the king vowed.
• 32. Elisha was sitting in his house at a meeting with the leaders of Israel when the king sent a messenger to summon him. But before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the leaders, "A murderer has sent a man to kill me. When he arrives, shut the door and keep him out. His master will soon follow him."
• 33. While Elisha was still saying this, the messenger arrived. And the king said, "It is the LORD who has brought this trouble on us! Why should I wait any longer for the LORD?"

New Living Translation: 110 of 324 days.