Study Desk

He said, "You have asked for a difficult thing. However, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so."

But when they urged him until he was embarrassed [to refuse them], he said, "Send them." So they sent fifty men, and they searched for three days but did not find Elijah.

Then the men of the city said to Elisha, "Look, this city is in a pleasant place, as my lord [Elisha] sees; but the water is bad and the land is barren."

He did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like his father and mother; for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made.

But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. They made a circuit of seven days' journey, but there was no water for the army or for the cattle that followed them.

But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there no prophet of the LORD here from whom we may inquire of the LORD?" One of the servants of the king of Israel answered, "Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water over Elijah's hands."

Now Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What business do you have with me? Go to the prophets of your [wicked] father [Ahab] and to the prophets of your [pagan] mother [Jezebel]." But the king of Israel said to him, "No, for the LORD has called these three kings together to be handed over to Moab."

"But now bring me a musician." And it came about while the musician played, that the hand (power) of the LORD came upon Elisha.

'This is but a simple thing in the sight of the LORD; He will also hand over the Moabites to you.

But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land, killing the Moabites [as they went].

They destroyed the [walls of the] cities, and each man threw a stone on every piece of good land, covering it [with stones]. And they stopped up all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees, until they left nothing in Kir-hareseth [Moab's capital city] but its stones. Then the [stone] slingers surrounded the city and destroyed it.

When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not.

Now one of the wives of a man of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha [for help], saying "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant [reverently] feared the LORD; but the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves [in payment for a loan]."

But the woman conceived and gave birth to a son at that season the next year, just as Elisha had said to her.

But he said to his father, "My head, my head." The man said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."

When she came to the mountain to the man of God, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away; but the man of God said, "Let her alone, for her soul is desperate and troubled within her; and the LORD has hidden the reason from me and has not told me."

Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response [from the boy]. So he turned back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened (revived)."

So they served it for the men to eat. But as they ate the stew, they cried out, "O man of God, there is death in the pot." And they could not eat it.

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