2 Kings 8

Elisha had spoken to the woman whose son he had brought back to life. He said, "Get up and go away, you and your household. Live wherever you can as an outsider. The LORD has called for a famine, and it will come on this land for seven years."

1Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the LORD hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years.

Note"The LORD" in small capitals stands for the personal name of God in Hebrew, four consonants usually written YHWH. Jewish readers said "the Lord" aloud instead of pronouncing it, and English Bibles keep that practice by printing LORD. The woman is the wealthy Shunammite of 2 Kings 4, who gave Elisha a room and whose son he revived. "Live as an outsider" translates a word for settling in a place where you are a resident foreigner: you can stay and work, but you hold no land and have no legal standing of your own.

2The woman got up and did what the man of God said. She went with her household and lived as an outsider in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

2And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.

Note"The man of God" is a standard title for a prophet, used throughout these chapters as a plain synonym for Elisha. The Philistines occupied the coastal plain southwest of Israel, with cities such as Gaza, Ashdod and Ekron. They were Israel's long-standing rivals, which is part of the point: the famine drove her to take shelter among enemies.

3At the end of the seven years, the woman came back from the land of the Philistines. She went to the king to plead with him for her house and her land.

3And it came to pass at the seven years’ end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land.

NoteLand left empty for years could be taken over by neighbors or claimed by the crown. She is not begging for charity but bringing a legal appeal, and the king in this period heard such petitions in person.

4The king had been talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. He said, "Please tell me all the great things Elisha has done."

4And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done.

NoteGehazi is Elisha's personal attendant. In 2 Kings 5 he is struck with a skin disease for extorting a gift, which would normally bar him from the royal presence; so either this conversation happened before that, or the narrator has grouped Elisha's deeds by subject rather than in strict order.

5Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had brought a dead body back to life, the woman came in. She was the very woman whose son Elisha had raised, and she was pleading with the king for her house and her land. Gehazi said, "My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is her son, the one Elisha brought back to life."

5And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.

6The king asked the woman about it, and she told him. So the king put an officer in charge of her case and said, "Give back everything that was hers, along with all the income from her fields from the day she left the country until now."

6And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.

Note"Officer" translates a Hebrew word for a senior court official; the same word is often rendered "eunuch," since such officials frequently were. The order covers not only the property but the crops harvested from it during her seven-year absence, which the occupiers must now pay over.

7Elisha came to Damascus. Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick, and someone told him, "The man of God has come here."

7And Elisha came to Damascus; and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither.

NoteThe kingdom the King James calls "Syria" is Aram, an Aramaean state centered on Damascus, northeast of Israel. It is not modern Syria, though the territory overlaps. Aram was Israel's chief military rival in this period. "Ben-hadad" means "son of Hadad," Hadad being the Aramaean storm god. Several Damascus kings bore the name.

8The king said to Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go meet the man of God. Ask the LORD through him, 'Will I get well from this sickness?'"

8And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and enquire of the LORD by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease?

NoteTo "enquire of the LORD" is to seek an oracle: a formal request for a yes-or-no answer from a god through a prophet. Kings did this before battles and in illness. Ben-hadad is a foreign king consulting Israel's God through Israel's prophet, which the narrator reports without comment.

9So Hazael went to meet him. He took a gift with him, forty camel loads of every good thing in Damascus. He came and stood in front of Elisha and said, "Your son Ben-hadad king of Syria has sent me to ask you, 'Will I get well from this sickness?'"

9So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Thy son Benhadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease?

Note"Your son" is diplomatic language, not family. In treaty and letter-writing of the period, the lesser party addressed the greater as "father" and called himself "son." A king of Aram styling himself Elisha's son is a marked show of deference. Forty camel loads is a state-scale gift; whether the number is exact or a round figure for "a great many" cannot be told from the wording.

10Elisha said to him, "Go and tell him, 'You will certainly get well.' But the LORD has shown me that he will surely die."

10And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the LORD hath shewed me that he shall surely die.

NoteThe Hebrew here has a famous double reading. The consonants as written spell "say: you shall not recover"; the traditional reading aloud takes the same consonants as "say to him: you shall certainly recover." Ancient scribes preserved both. Either way the second half of the verse states the outcome plainly, and Hazael reports only the reassuring half.

11Elisha held his gaze steady and stared at Hazael until Hazael grew uncomfortable. Then the man of God wept.

11And he settled his countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept.

NoteThe Hebrew does not say who stares and who becomes ashamed or embarrassed; the words allow Elisha to be the one who holds the stare, or Hazael, and the discomfort could belong to either man. Translations differ. "Ashamed" in older English covers being disconcerted or put out of countenance, not only guilt.

12Hazael said, "Why is my lord crying?" Elisha answered, "Because I know the evil you will do to the people of Israel. You will set their strong forts on fire, kill their young men with the sword, smash their little children to the ground, and cut open their pregnant women."

12And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.

NoteThese four acts (burning fortified towns, killing the fighting-age men, killing the children, cutting open pregnant women) form a set phrase in the ancient world for the total destruction of a population, used both in Israelite writings and in the boastful inscriptions of neighboring kings. It describes what conquering armies did, and was understood as the worst that could be said of a war.

13Hazael said, "But what am I? Your servant is only a dog. How could I do such a huge thing?" Elisha answered, "The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Syria."

13And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.

NoteCalling yourself a dog was a standard formula of self-abasement in letters and speech of the period: dogs were scavengers, not pets, and the word stood for someone of no account. Hazael's question is ambiguous in Hebrew. It can mean "I am too insignificant to accomplish anything so great," or "how could someone as low as I am do something so monstrous", the same word covers both "great deed" and "outrageous deed."

14So Hazael left Elisha and came back to his master. Ben-hadad asked him, "What did Elisha say to you?" Hazael answered, "He told me that you would certainly get well."

14So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover.

15The next day Hazael took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over the king's face, so that he died. Hazael became king in his place.

15And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead.

NoteThe Hebrew does not name the person who takes the cloth; it simply says "he." Most readers take it as Hazael, though the sentence could in principle be read as a servant acting, or even as Ben-hadad's own attendants. The object is a woven covering (the word is used elsewhere of a mattress or netting) which, soaked and laid over the face, would suffocate a sick man while leaving no mark.

16In the fifth year that Joram son of Ahab was king of Israel, while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began to rule as king of Judah.

16And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Je hoshaphat king of Judah began to reign.

NoteThe chronology here is tangled, and the two names make it worse: Joram and Jehoram are the same Hebrew name, one being a shortened form of the other. From this point the chapter has a Joram/Jehoram ruling the northern kingdom of Israel (Ahab's son) and a Jehoram/Joram ruling the southern kingdom of Judah (Jehoshaphat's son) at the same time. The remark that Jehoshaphat was still king of Judah when his son began to reign suggests a period when father and son ruled jointly; some ancient manuscripts leave the phrase out.

17He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled eight years in Jerusalem.

17Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

18He lived the way the kings of Israel lived, just as Ahab's family did, because his wife was Ahab's daughter. He did what was evil in the LORD's sight.

18And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD.

NoteAfter Solomon's death the kingdom split in two: Israel in the north, ruled by a succession of dynasties, and Judah in the south, ruled by David's descendants in Jerusalem. "The way of the kings of Israel" means the northern kings' practices, which the writers of Kings uniformly condemn. "The house of Ahab" means Ahab's dynasty and family. The daughter of Ahab named here is Athaliah (verse 26).

19Even so, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of his servant David. He had promised David that he would always keep a lamp burning for him and for his descendants.

19Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light, and to his children.

Note"A lamp" is a set image for a surviving heir who keeps a family line alight, the way a household lamp was kept burning rather than let go out. The promise referred to is the one made to David in 2 Samuel 7, that his line would continue on the throne.

20While Jehoram was king, Edom rebelled against Judah's rule and set up its own king.

20In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves.

NoteEdom lay south and east of Judah, around the region south of the Dead Sea. It had been subject to Judah since David's conquest and was governed by a deputy rather than its own king; setting up a king is the formal act of independence. Control of Edom also meant control of trade routes to the Red Sea.

21So Joram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he got up in the night and attacked them. His own troops, though, ran away to their homes.

21So Joram went over to Zair, and all the chariots with him: and he rose by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him about, and the captains of the chariots: and the people fled into their tents.

NoteZair's location is unknown; some take it as a form of the name Zoar, southeast of the Dead Sea. The verse is compressed and its outcome unclear: Jehoram breaks out of an encirclement by night, but "the people fled to their tents" is the standard idiom for an army dispersing and going home, so the campaign achieved nothing, as the next verse confirms.

22So Edom has been in rebellion against Judah's rule down to this day. At that same time the town of Libnah also rebelled.

22Yet Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time.

Note"To this day" is the writer's own time, long after the events, not the reader's. Libnah was a town in the lowlands near the Philistine border; its revolt means Judah was losing control on two frontiers at once.

23The rest of what Joram did, everything he did, is written in the book of the records of the kings of Judah.

23And the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

NoteThis refers to official court records kept by the kings of Judah, a source the writer expects his readers could consult. It is not the biblical books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, which were written later and drew on similar material.

24Joram died and joined his ancestors, and he was buried with them in the City of David. His son Ahaziah became king in his place.

24And Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.

Note"Slept with his fathers" is a set phrase for dying, usually a death that was not violent; "buried with his fathers" is separate and literal, meaning burial in the ancestral tomb. The City of David is the oldest quarter of Jerusalem, the ridge David captured, where the royal tombs lay.

25In the twelfth year that Joram son of Ahab was king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.

25In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign.

26Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.

26Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.

NoteHebrew "daughter of" can mean any female descendant. Athaliah is called Omri's daughter here, but Omri was Ahab's father and Athaliah is elsewhere tied to Ahab's household, so she is most likely his granddaughter; the text itself does not settle it. Omri founded the northern dynasty that Ahab inherited, and the family was well enough known abroad that Assyrian records call Israel "the house of Omri" for generations afterwards.

27He lived the way Ahab's family lived and did what was evil in the LORD's sight, just as Ahab's family did, because he was a son-in-law of Ahab's family.

27And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the LORD, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab.

Note"Son-in-law of the house of Ahab" is used loosely for a relative by marriage. Ahaziah's mother was of Ahab's family, so by descent he was Ahab's grandson; the phrase marks the alliance between the two royal houses rather than a precise relationship.

28He went with Joram son of Ahab to fight against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead, and the Syrians wounded Joram.

28And he went with Joram the son of Ahab to the war against Hazael king of Syria in Ramothgilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram.

NoteRamoth-gilead was a fortified town east of the Jordan, on the disputed border between Israel and Aram, and changed hands repeatedly. Ahab had died attacking the same town (1 Kings 22).

29So King Joram went back to Jezreel to heal from the wounds the Syrians had given him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because Joram was hurt.

29And king Joram went back to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.

Note"Ramah" here is a shortened form of Ramoth-gilead, the place named in the previous verse; it is not the Ramah in the territory of Benjamin near Jerusalem. Jezreel was the northern kings' second residence, in the valley of the same name, about twenty-five miles north of Samaria. A wounded king would withdraw there to recover away from the front.