Study Desk

"Please run now to meet her and say to her, 'Is it going well for you? Is it going well for your husband? Is it going well for the child?'" Then she answered, "It is going well."

But she came to the man of God at the hill and took hold of his feet. And Gehazi came up to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone, for her soul is troubled within her; and the LORD has concealed it from me and has not informed me."

Then she said, "Did I ask for a son from my lord? Did I not say, 'Do not give me false hope'?"

When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting in front of him, he said to his servant, "Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."

So they poured it out for the men to eat. But as they were eating the stew, they cried out and said, "You man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they were unable to eat.

Then he said, "Bring flour." And he threw it into the pot, and said, "Pour it out for the people that they may eat." Then there was nothing harmful in the pot.

But his attendant said, "How am I to serve this to a hundred men?" Nevertheless he said, "Give them to the people that they may eat, for this is what the LORD says: 'They shall eat and have some left over.'"

Then Naaman said, "If not, please let your servant be given two mules' load of earth; for your servant will no longer offer a burnt offering nor a sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD.

Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "Behold now, the place before you where we are living is too cramped for us.

"Please let us go to the Jordan, and let us each take from there a beam, and let us construct a place there for ourselves, to live there." So he said, "Go."

Then he said, "Pick it up for yourself." So he reached out his hand and took it.

Now the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this matter; and he called his servants and said to them, "Will you not tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?"

And he said, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are greater than those who are with them."

So he provided a large feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the marauding bands of Arameans did not come again into the land of Israel.

So there was a severe famine in Samaria; and behold, they kept besieging it until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a kab of dove's dung for five shekels of silver.

While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him and he said, "Behold, this evil is from the LORD; why should I wait for the LORD any longer?"

Then Elisha said, "Listen to the word of the LORD; this is what the LORD says: 'About this time tomorrow a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.'"

For the Lord had made the army of the Arameans hear a sound of chariots, a sound of horses, that is, the sound of a great army; and they said to one another, "Behold, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians against us, to attack us!"

So they got up and fled at twilight, and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys—indeed the camp itself, just as it was; and they fled for their lives.

So the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. Then a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in accordance with the word of the LORD.