2 Kings 6

6 ¹The company of prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we live under your care is too cramped for us.

²Let's go to the Jordan, each get a log, and build ourselves a place to live there." He said, "Go."

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

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

⁶The 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

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

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

¹²One 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 men and seize him." Word came back, "He is in Dothan."

¹⁴He sent horses, chariots, and a great army there; they came by night and surrounded the city. ¹⁵The 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." ¹⁷Elisha prayed, "my Father, please open his eyes to see." And our Father opened the young man's eyes: he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. ¹⁸As the Arameans came down to him, Elisha prayed to our Father, "Please strike these people with blindness." So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha said.

¹⁹Elisha 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. ²⁰When 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.

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

²²He 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."

²³He 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

²⁴Later Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered his whole army, marched up, and besieged Samaria. ²⁵A 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. ²⁶As Israel's king passed along the wall, a woman cried out, "Help me, my lord the king!"

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

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

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

³²Elisha sat 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, "See how this son of a murderer sends to cut off my head? Look, when he comes, shut the door and press it against him. Isn't the sound of his master's feet behind him?"

³³While 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?"