1 Elisha addressed the woman whose son he had brought back to life, saying, “Rise and go, you and your household, and dwell {guri: temporary residence} wherever you can; for the LORD {YHWH, Sovereign Provider} has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years.”
2 The woman got up and carried out what the man of God {Elohim: Prophetic Authority} had spoken. She left with her household {beitah: family dwelling} and lived as a resident alien in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
3 When the seven years were completed {vayhi: temporal marker}, the woman came back from the land of the Philistines {pelishtim: border people}. Then she went to make her plea to the king about her house and her field.
4 At that time the king was conversing with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God {ish-ha-elohim: divine agent}, and he said, “Please tell me the great things {gedolot: mighty acts} that Elisha has done.”
5 While he was reporting {mesaper: narrative report} to the king how Elisha had brought the dead back to life, the woman whose son had been restored came before the king, appealing about her house {bayit: household domain} and her field. Gehazi then identified them, saying, “My lord the king, this is the woman and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”
6 Then the king questioned the woman, and she explained it to him. So he assigned a royal officer {saris: royal officer} to her and ordered, “Restore {hashev: judicial restitution} everything that was hers, including all the produce of the field from the day she left the land until this time.”
7 Elisha went to Damascus. Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, was sick {choleh: ongoing illness}, and someone told him, “The man of God {Elohim: Divine Authority} has arrived here.”
8 And the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift in your hand and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD {YHWH, Supreme Healer} through him, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness {choli: physical affliction}?’”
9 Hazael went to meet Elisha, carrying a gift {minchah: tribute offering}—the finest goods of Damascus—loaded on forty camels. He entered and stood before him and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness {choli: physical affliction}?’”
10 Elisha said to him, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover {ḥāyô: assured recovery}.’ But the LORD {YHWH, Revealer of Destiny} has shown me that he will certainly die.”
11 Then he stared at him, holding his gaze until the other man felt ashamed, and the man of God {Elohim, Divine Messenger} wept {vayevkh: with deep emotion}.
12 And Hazael asked, “Why is my lord crying?” And he replied, “Because I know what you will do to the sons of Israel: you will set their fortresses ablaze, slay their young men with the sword, dash their infants {olal: nursing children} and rip open their pregnant women {harah: expectant mothers}.”
13 And Hazael said, “But what is your servant {avdekha: one who serves}, the dog, that he should accomplish this great thing?” And Elisha said, “The LORD {YHWH, Divine Revealer} has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”
14 And he left Elisha and went to his master {adonav: supreme overlord}. His master asked, “What did Elisha tell you?” He answered, “He told me, ‘You will surely recover {tichyeh: promised restoration}.’”
15 On the next day he took the covering {makhber: thick covering cloth}, soaked it in water, and spread it over his face; and he died. Then Hazael {hazael: God Sees} became king in his place.
16 In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab, king {melek: sovereign ruler} of Israel, with Jehoshaphat {Yehoshaphat: YHWH has judged} ruling Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began to reign as king of Judah.
17 He was thirty-two years old when he began his reign {malkhût: exercise of royal authority}, and he ruled eight years in Jerusalem {Yerushalayim: the city of peace}.
18 He lived according to the pattern of the kings of Israel, as the house {beit: royal dynasty} of Ahab had done, because Ahab’s daughter was his wife, and he did evil in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Moral Judge}.
19 But the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Keeper} was not willing to destroy Judah for the sake of David His servant, just as He had promised to give him a lamp {nir: enduring dynasty} for his sons all the days.
20 In his days Edom rebelled {pasha: act of revolt} from under Judah’s hand and set a king {melech: authority role} over themselves.
21 Jehoram{yoram: Judah’s king} crossed over to Zair with all the chariotry{rekhev: chariot force} with him. He rose at night and struck the Edomites who were surrounding him, and the commanders of the chariotry; and the people fled to their tents.
22 So Edom {edom: ancient neighbor-nation} rebelled {pashaʿ: ceased submission} from under the hand of Judah to this day; and at that same time Libnah rebelled.
23 As for the rest {yeter: remaining deeds} of Jehoram’s acts, and all that he did—are they not written in the book of the chronicles {divrei hayamim: official records} of the kings of Judah?
24 Then Jehoram lay down {shakav: euphemistic for death} with his fathers, was buried in the city of David, and his son Ahaziah reigned {yimlokh: ascended the throne} in his place.
25 In the twelfth year of Jehoram {yehoRam: God Has Lifted} son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah {achazyahu: Yah Has Grasped} son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign.
26 Ahaziah came to the throne at twenty-two years of age {ben esrim u-shetayim: son of twenty and two}, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother was named Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel {melech Yisrael: national ruler}.
27 He walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Moral Judge}, as the house of Ahab had done, because he was a son-in-law {khatan: family by marriage} of the house of Ahab.
28 He went with Joram {yo-RAM: royal heir}, son of Ahab, into battle against Hazael, king of Aram, at Ramoth-Gilead {ra-MOT gil-AD: strategic border town}, and the Arameans struck Joram.
29 And King Joram returned to Jezreel to be healed from the wounds {makkim: battle-inflicted injuries} the Arameans had given him at Ramah in his fighting {behillachmo: personal combat} with Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel because he was sick.