2 Kings 6
Open in the reader1Now the sons of the prophets said to My-God-Is-Salvation, “Please take note that the place where we meet with you is too small for us.
2Please let us go to the Descender, where each of us can get a log so we can build ourselves a place to live there.” “Go,” said My-God-Is-Salvation.
3Then one of them said, “Please come with your servants.” “I will come,” he replied.
4So My-God-Is-Salvation went with them, and when they came to the Descender, they began to cut down some trees.
5As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water. “Oh, my master,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!”
6“Where did it fall?” asked the man of God. And when he showed him the place, the man of God cut a stick, threw it there, and made the iron float.
7“Lift it out,” he said, and the man reached out his hand and took it.
8Now the king of Highland was at war against Strives-with-God. After consulting with his servants, he said, “My camp will be in such and such a place.”
9Then the man of God sent word to the king of Strives-with-God: “Be careful not to pass by this place, for the children of Highland are going down there.”
10So the king of Strives-with-God sent word to the place the man of God had pointed out. Time and again My-God-Is-Salvation warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
11For this reason the king of Highland became enraged and called his servants to demand of them, “Tell me, which one of us is on the side of the king of Strives-with-God?”
12But one of his servants replied, “No one, my lord the king. For My-God-Is-Salvation, the prophet in Strives-with-God, tells the king of Strives-with-God the very words you speak in your bedroom.”
13So the king said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send men to capture him.” On receiving the report, “My-God-Is-Salvation is in Dothan,”
14the king of Highland sent horses, chariots, and a great army. They went there by night and surrounded the city.
15When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early in the morning, behold, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. So he asked My-God-Is-Salvation, “Oh, my master, what are we to do?”
16“Do not be afraid,” My-God-Is-Salvation answered, “for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17Then My-God-Is-Salvation prayed, “O He-Who-Is, please open his eyes that he may see.” And He-Who-Is opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw that the hills were full of horses and chariots of fire all around My-God-Is-Salvation.
18As the Arameans came down against him, My-God-Is-Salvation prayed to He-Who-Is, “Please strike these people with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to the word of My-God-Is-Salvation.
19And My-God-Is-Salvation told them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are seeking.” And he led them to Watch-Mountain.
20When they had entered Watch-Mountain, My-God-Is-Salvation said, “O He-Who-Is, open the eyes of these men that they may see.” Then He-Who-Is opened their eyes, and they looked around and discovered that they were in Watch-Mountain.
21And when the king of Strives-with-God saw them, he asked My-God-Is-Salvation, “My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?”
22“Do not kill them,” he replied. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and then return to their master.”
23So the king prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. And the child of Highland raiders did not come into the land of Strives-with-God again.
24Some time later, Son-of-Hadad king of Highland assembled his entire army and marched up to besiege Watch-Mountain.
25So there was a great famine in Watch-Mountain. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.
26As the king of Strives-with-God was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
27He answered, “If He-Who-Is does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?”
28Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’
29So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.”
30When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. And as he passed by on the wall, the people saw the sackcloth under his clothes next to his skin.
31He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of My-God-Is-Salvation son of He-Has-Judged remains on his shoulders through this day!”
32Now My-God-Is-Salvation was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, My-God-Is-Salvation said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door to keep him out. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”
33While My-God-Is-Salvation was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, “This calamity is from He-Who-Is. Why should I wait for He-Who-Is any longer?”