2 Kings

And Elisha saw [it], and he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen,” and he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces.

And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, [if] something great the prophet had spoken to you, would you not have done [it]? Then how much more when he says to you, ‘Wash and be clean’?”

And he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, “From where, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant did not go where and where.”

And he said to him, “Did my heart not go when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? [Is it] the time to receive silver, and to receive garments, and olive groves, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?

And the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” And he showed him the place, and he cut off a stick and threw [it] in there; and the iron he made float.

And Hazael said, “Why is my lord weeping?” And He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel—their strongholds you will send into the fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword, and their children you will dash to pieces, and their pregnant [women] you will split open.”

And Hazael said, “But what [is] your servant, a dog, that he should do this great thing?” And Elisha answered, “YHWH has made me see that you [will be] king over Aram.”

And Jehu had come to Jezreel, and Jezebel heard and put her eyes in paint and adorned her head, and she looked down through the window.

And YHWH said to Jehu, “Because that you have done well in doing right in My eyes—according to all that [is] in My heart you have done to the house of Ahab—sons of the fourth shall sit unto you on the throne of Israel.”

And Jehu did not take heed to walk in the law of YHWH, God of Israel, with all his heart. For he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had caused Israel to sin.

And Elisha had become sick with the illness from which He would die, and Joash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over his face and said, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen.”

He turned aside the high places, and he shattered the pillars, and he cut down the Asherah pole, and he crushed the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those days the sons of Israel were burning incense to it and calling it Nehushtan.

He trusted in YHWH, God of Israel, and after him none was like him among all the kings of Judah, nor those who were before him.

And do not let Hezekiah make you⁺ trust in YHWH, saying, ‘YHWH will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

Who among all the gods of the countries have delivered their lands from my hand, that YHWH should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

And Hezekiah prayed before the face of YHWH and said, “O YHWH, God of Israel, dwelling [between] the cherubim, You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth.

Incline, O YHWH, Your ear, and hear; open, O YHWH, Your eyes, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.

Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised [your] voice, and lifted up on high your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!

Because your raging against me and your tumult have come up to My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way in which you came.’

And it came to pass on that night that the angel of YHWH went out, and he struck in the camp of Assyria a hundred eighty-five thousand; and they rose early in the morning, and behold, all [were] dead corpses!

‘Therefore behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace. And your eyes shall not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place.’” And they brought back her word to the king.

And he tore down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes that [were] in the house of YHWH, where the women had woven houses for the Asherah.

And there was none like him before his face, a king who turned to YHWH with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses—and after him not one has arisen like him.