2 Kings
Chapter 2
1 When God was about to take Elijah to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha left Gilgal together.
2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here because God has sent me to Bethel.” Elisha replied, “As long as God lives and you are alive, I will not leave you.” So they went to Bethel.
3 The prophet students in Bethel went to Elisha and told him, “Do you know God will take your leader away from you today?” He replied, “Yes, I know; be quiet.”
4 Elijah told him, “Elisha, please stay here because God has sent me to Jericho.” Elisha replied, “As surely as God lives and you are alive, I won’t leave you.” So they went to Jericho together.
5 The prophets’ sons in Jericho approached Elisha and asked, “Do you know that God will take your leader away from you today?” He replied, “Yes, I know; be quiet.”
6 Elijah told him, “Please stay here, because God has sent me to Jordan.” He replied, “As surely as God lives, and as you live, I won’t leave you.” So they both went together.
7 Fifty sons of the prophets went and watched from a distance while the two of them stood by the Jordan River.
8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, struck the water, and it split apart so they both could cross on dry land.
9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken from you.” Elisha replied, “Please, let me inherit a double share of your spirit.”
10 He said, “You’ve asked for something difficult. But if you see me as I am being taken from you, you will get what you asked for. If you don’t see me, you won’t get it.”
11 As they were walking and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot and fiery horses appeared and separated them; then Elijah was taken up into heaven by a whirlwind.
12 Elisha saw it and yelled, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!” He saw him no more, grabbed his clothes, and tore them in half.
13 He picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him, went back, and stood by the Jordan River’s edge.
14 He took Elijah’s cloak that dropped, hit the water, and said, “Where is the God of Elijah?” After he struck the water, it split apart, and Elisha crossed over.
15 When the prophet students in Jericho saw him, they said, “Elijah’s spirit now rests on Elisha.” They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.
16 They said to him, “Look, we have fifty strong men with us. Please let them go and look for your master. Maybe God’s Spirit lifted him and put him on a mountain or in a valley.” But he answered, “Do not send them.”
17 When they pressed him until he felt embarrassed, he said, “Go.” So they sent fifty men who searched for three days but did not find him.
18 When they returned to him (since he stayed in Jericho), he said, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”
19 The city men told Elisha, “Please look, the place of this city is nice, as you see: but the water is bad, and the land does not produce.”
20 He said, “Bring me a new jar and put salt in it.” And they brought it to him.
21 He went to the water spring, threw in the salt, and said, “God says, ‘I have made these waters healthy; from now on, there will be no more death or unfruitful land here.’”
22 The waters are still healed today, just as Elisha had said.
23 He went from there to Bethel, and as he was walking along the road, some children came out of the city and made fun of him, saying, “Go on up, you baldy! Go on up, you baldy!”
24 He turned around, saw them, and cursed them in God’s name. Then two bears came out of the woods and attacked forty-two of the youths.
25 He left there for Mount Carmel, and then he went back to Samaria.