Read the Modern Pastor’s Version

The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "The place where we dwell with you is too strait for us. Please let us go to the Jordan and take thence every man a beam so we can build there a house for ourselves." One said, "Please be pleased to go with your servants," and he answered, "I will go."

He went with them, and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood. As one was cutting down a tree, the axe head fell into the water, and he cried out in distress, saying, "Alas, my master! For it was borrowed." The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" He showed him the place, and then he cut down a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float. He said, "Take it up to you," and he put out his hand and took it.

The king of Syria was at war against Israel and took counsel with his servants, saying, "My camp will be in such and such a place." The man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, "Beware that you do not pass by such a place, for the Syrians are coming down there. The king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there twice.

The heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing, and he called his servants, saying, "Will you not show me which of us is loyal to the king of Israel? One of his servants said, "My lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words you speak in your bedroom." He said, "Go and find out where he is so I can send someone to bring him back." They told him, "He is in Dothan. Therefore, he sent horses and chariots and a large army there by night to surround the city.

When the servant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, he saw that an army surrounded the city with horses and chariots; his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" Fear not: for those who are with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, saying, "Lord, open his eyes."

And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, "Strike these people with blindness," and he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said to them, "This is not the way, nor is this the city; follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek." But he led them to Samaria.

When they had come into Samaria, Elisha said to the Lord, "Open the eyes of these men." The Lord opened their eyes, and they saw that they were in the midst of Samaria. The king of Israel said to Elisha, "My father, shall I strike them? Shall I smite them?" You shall not strike them, but set bread and water before them so they may eat and drink, and then go to their master.

He prepared great provision for them, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away to their master; the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. After this, Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host and went up to besiege Samaria. A great famine struck Samaria, and its people were besieged so severely that an ass's head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a fourth of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.

As the king of Israel passed by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help me, my lord, O king!" If the Lord does not help you, from where will I help you? Out of the threshing floor or out of the winepress?" The king asked her, "What is wrong?" and she replied, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son

We boiled my son and ate him, and I told her the next day to give me her son so we could eat him, but she has hidden her son. When the king heard the woman's words, he tore his clothes and passed by on the wall with sackcloth underneath on his body.

Then he said, "God do so to me, and more also, if Elisha son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day." Elisha sat in his house with the elders, and before the king's messenger arrived, he told them to shut the door and hold him fast at the door, saying, "Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?

While he was still speaking with them, behold, a messenger arrived and said, "Behold, this calamity is from the Lord; what more should I wait for the Lord?"