Elisha was a powerful prophet in Israel who succeeded Elijah. He performed many miracles and served as God's spokesperson through the reigns of several kings in the northern kingdom. He is known for receiving a double portion of Elijah's spirit and for his numerous miracles that testified to God's power and care.
Elijah threw his cloak over Elisha while he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and Elisha left everything to follow Elijah as his servant and successor.
19So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah passed by him and threw his cloak over him.
20Elisha left the oxen and ran after Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye," he said, "and then I will follow you." "Go back," Elijah replied. "What have I done to you?"
21So he turned back from him, took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He cooked the meat using the plowing equipment for fuel, gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.
When Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire, Elisha called out after him and took up Elijah's cloak. He received a double portion of Elijah's spirit, which he had asked for.
9As they were crossing, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I may do for you before I am taken from you." Elisha answered, "Let me receive a double portion of your spirit."
11As they walked on, 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.
12Elisha saw it and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two.
14Taking the cloak that had fallen from Elijah, he struck the water and said, "Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" When he had struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
1Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master's eyes and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a mighty warrior, but he had leprosy.
5"Go, then," said the king of Aram, "and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman set out, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of clothing.
6He brought the letter to the king of Israel, and it read: "With this letter I am sending you my servant Naaman, so that you may cure him of his leprosy."
7When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure someone of his leprosy? Only see now, and mark how he is looking for a quarrel with me!"
8When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent word to the king: "Why have you torn your clothes? Let the man come to me, and he will learn that there is a prophet in Israel."
11But Naaman went away angry. "I thought," he said, "that he would surely come out to me and stand there and call on the name of the LORD his God, that he would wave his hand over the place and cure the leprosy.
12Are not the Abana and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went off in a rage.
13But his servants came up to him and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he simply says to you, 'Wash and be clean'?"
14So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, as the man of God had said, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
1A certain woman, the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the creditor has come to take my two boys as his slaves."
2Elisha said to her, "What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" She answered, "Your servant has nothing at all in the house except a jar of oil."
34Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out over him, the boy's body grew warm.
35Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room, then got on the bed and stretched out over him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
When the Syrians surrounded the city of Dothan to capture Elisha, the prophet asked God to strike the enemy with blindness. He then led them to Samaria and asked the king to give them food instead of killing them.
15When the servant of the man of God got up early and went out, there was an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" he cried to Elisha.
17Then Elisha prayed, "LORD, open his eyes so he may see." The LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked, and there was the mountain, full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18As the Arameans came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, "Strike this army with blindness." So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
19Elisha told them, "This is not the road, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for." And he led them to Samaria.
20When they had entered the city, Elisha said, "LORD, open the eyes of these men so they may see." The LORD opened their eyes, and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.
22"Do not kill them," he answered. "Would you kill men you have captured with your own sword and bow? Set food and water before them so they may eat and drink and then go back to their master."
23So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. And the raiding bands from Aram stopped invading Israel's territory.