2 Kings
2
- When the LORD was about to take Elijah up
to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.
- Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here;
the LORD has sent me to Bethel." But Elisha said, "As surely as
the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So they went down
to Bethel.
- The company of the prophets at Bethel came
out to Elisha and asked, "Do you know that the LORD is going to take
your master from you today?" "Yes, I know," Elisha replied,
"but do not speak of it."
- Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here,
Elisha; the LORD has sent me to Jericho." And he replied, "As surely
as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So they went
to Jericho.
- The company of the prophets at Jericho went
up to Elisha and asked him, "Do you know that the LORD is going to take
your master from you today?" "Yes, I know," he replied, "but
do not speak of it."
- Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here;
the LORD has sent me to the Jordan." And he replied, "As surely
as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So the two
of them walked on.
- Fifty men of the company of the prophets
went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had
stopped at the Jordan.
- Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and
struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left,
and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
- When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha,
"Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?" "Let
me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied.
- "You have asked a difficult thing,"
Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be
yours -- otherwise not."
- As they were walking along and talking together,
suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two
of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
- Elisha saw this and cried out, "My
father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw
him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.
- He picked up the cloak that had fallen from
Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
- Then he took the cloak that had fallen from
him and struck the water with it. "Where now is the LORD, the God of
Elijah?" he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right
and to the left, and he crossed over.
- The company of the prophets from Jericho,
who were watching, said, "The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha."
And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
- "Look," they said, "we your
servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps
the Spirit of the LORD has picked him up and set him down on some mountain
or in some valley." "No," Elisha replied, "do not send
them."
- But they persisted until he was too ashamed
to refuse. So he said, "Send them." And they sent fifty men, who
searched for three days but did not find him.
- When they returned to Elisha, who was staying
in Jericho, he said to them, "Didn't I tell you not to go ?"
- The men of the city said to Elisha, "Look,
our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad
and the land is unproductive."
- "Bring me a new bowl," he said,
"and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.
- Then he went out to the spring and threw
the salt into it, saying, "This is what the LORD says: 'I have healed
this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.'"
- And the water has remained wholesome to
this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.
- From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As
he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered
at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you
baldhead !"
- He turned around, looked at them and called
down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the
woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.
- And he went on to Mount Carmel and from
there returned to Samaria.
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