Elijah Is Taken Up to Heaven

¹The time came for the Lord to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha set out from Gilgal,

²and on the way Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to Bethel.” But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on to Bethel.

³A group of prophets who lived there went to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?” “Yes, I know,” Elisha answered. “But let's not talk about it.”

⁴Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to Jericho.” But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on to Jericho.

⁵A group of prophets who lived there went to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?” “Yes, I know,” Elisha answered. “But let's not talk about it.”

⁶Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Now stay here; the Lord has ordered me to go to the Jordan River.” But Elisha answered, “I swear by my loyalty to the living Lord and to you that I will not leave you.” So they went on,

⁷and fifty of the prophets followed them to the Jordan. Elijah and Elisha stopped by the river, and the fifty prophets stood a short distance away.

⁸Then Elijah took off his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water with it; the water divided, and he and Elisha crossed to the other side on dry ground.

⁹There, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what you want me to do for you before I am taken away.” “Let me receive the share of your power that will make me your successor,” Elisha answered.

¹⁰“That is a difficult request to grant,” Elijah replied. “But you will receive it if you see me as I am being taken away from you; if you don't see me, you won't receive it.”

¹¹They kept talking as they walked on; then suddenly a chariot of fire pulled by horses of fire came between them, and Elijah was taken up to heaven by a whirlwind.

¹²Elisha saw it and cried out to Elijah, “My father, my father! Mighty defender of Israel! You are gone!” And he never saw Elijah again. In grief Elisha tore his cloak in two.

¹³Then he picked up Elijah's cloak that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

¹⁴He struck the water with Elijah's cloak and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Then he struck the water again, and it divided, and he walked over to the other side.

¹⁵The fifty prophets from Jericho saw him and said, “The power of Elijah is on Elisha!” They went to meet him, bowed down before him,

¹⁶and said, “There are fifty of us here, all strong men. Let us go and look for your master. Maybe the spirit of the Lord has carried him away and left him on some mountain or in some valley.” “No, you must not go,” Elisha answered.

¹⁷But they insisted until he gave in and let them go. The fifty of them went and looked high and low for Elijah for three days, but didn't find him.

¹⁸Then they returned to Elisha, who had waited at Jericho, and he said to them, “Didn't I tell you not to go?”

Miracles of Elisha

¹⁹Some men from Jericho went to Elisha and said, “As you know, sir, this is a fine city, but the water is bad and causes miscarriages.”

²⁰“Put some salt in a new bowl and bring it to me,” he ordered. They brought it to him,

²¹and he went to the spring, threw the salt in the water, and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I make this water pure, and it will not cause any more deaths or miscarriages.’”

²²And that water has been pure ever since, just as Elisha said it would be.

²³Elisha left Jericho to go to Bethel, and on the way some boys came out of a town and made fun of him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they shouted.

²⁴Elisha turned around, glared at them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys to pieces.

²⁵Elisha went on to Mount Carmel and later returned to Samaria.

King Amaziah of Judah

¹Amaziah became king at the age of twenty-five, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Jehoaddin from Jerusalem.

²He did what was pleasing to the Lord, but did it reluctantly.

³As soon as he was firmly in power, he executed the officials who had murdered his father.

⁴He did not, however, execute their children, but followed what the Lord had commanded in the Law of Moses: “Parents are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their children, and children are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their parents; people are to be put to death only for crimes they themselves have committed.”

War against Edom

⁵King Amaziah organized all the men of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin into army units, according to the clans they belonged to, and placed officers in command of units of a thousand and units of a hundred. This included all men twenty years of age or older, 300,000 in all. They were picked troops, ready for battle, skilled in using spears and shields.

⁶In addition, he hired 100,000 soldiers from Israel at a cost of about four tons of silver.

⁷But a prophet went to the king and said to him, “Don't take these Israelite soldiers with you. The Lord is not with these people from the Northern Kingdom.

⁸You may think that they will make you stronger in battle, but it is God who has the power to give victory or defeat, and he will let your enemies defeat you.”

⁹Amaziah asked the prophet, “But what about all that silver I have already paid for them?” The prophet replied, “The Lord can give you back more than that!”

¹⁰So Amaziah sent the hired troops away and told them to go home. At this they went home, bitterly angry with the people of Judah.

¹¹Amaziah summoned up his courage and led his army to Salt Valley. There they fought and killed ten thousand Edomite soldiers

¹²and captured another ten thousand. They took the prisoners to the top of the cliff at the city of Sela and threw them off, so that they were killed on the rocks below.

¹³Meanwhile the Israelite soldiers that Amaziah had not allowed to go into battle with him attacked the Judean cities between Samaria and Beth Horon, killed three thousand men, and captured quantities of loot.

¹⁴When Amaziah returned from defeating the Edomites, he brought their idols back with him, set them up, worshiped them, and burned incense to them.

¹⁵This made the Lord angry, so he sent a prophet to Amaziah. The prophet demanded, “Why have you worshiped foreign gods that could not even save their own people from your power?”

¹⁶“Since when,” Amaziah interrupted, “have we made you adviser to the king? Stop talking, or I'll have you killed!” The prophet stopped, but not before saying, “Now I know that God has decided to destroy you because you have done all this and have ignored my advice.”

War against Israel

¹⁷King Amaziah of Judah and his advisers plotted against Israel. He then sent a message to King Jehoash of Israel, who was the son of Jehoahaz and grandson of Jehu, challenging him to fight.

¹⁸Jehoash sent this answer to Amaziah: “Once a thorn bush in the Lebanon Mountains sent a message to a cedar: ‘Give your daughter in marriage to my son.’ A wild animal passed by and trampled the bush down.

¹⁹Now Amaziah, you boast that you have defeated the Edomites, but I advise you to stay at home. Why stir up trouble that will only bring disaster on you and your people?”

²⁰But Amaziah refused to listen. It was God's will for Amaziah to be defeated, because he had worshiped the Edomite idols.

²¹So King Jehoash of Israel went into battle against King Amaziah of Judah. They met at Beth Shemesh in Judah,

²²the Judean army was defeated, and the soldiers fled to their homes.

²³Jehoash captured Amaziah and took him to Jerusalem. There he tore down the city wall from Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, a distance of two hundred yards.

²⁴He took back to Samaria as loot all the gold and silver in the Temple, the Temple equipment guarded by the descendants of Obed Edom, and the palace treasures. He also took hostages with him.

²⁵King Amaziah of Judah outlived King Jehoash of Israel by fifteen years.

²⁶All the other things that Amaziah did from the beginning to the end of his reign are recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷Ever since the time when he rebelled against the Lord, there had been a plot against him in Jerusalem. Finally he fled to the city of Lachish, but his enemies followed him there and killed him.

²⁸His body was carried to Jerusalem on a horse, and he was buried in the royal tombs in David's City.

A Prayer for Help

¹Save me, O God! Lord, help me now!

²May those who try to kill me be defeated and confused. May those who are happy because of my troubles be turned back and disgraced.

³May those who make fun of me be dismayed by their defeat.

⁴May all who come to you be glad and joyful. May all who are thankful for your salvation always say, “How great is God!”

⁵I am weak and poor; come to me quickly, O God. You are my savior and my Lord— hurry to my aid!