1 And it comes to pass, at YHWH’s taking up Elijah to the heavens in a whirlwind, that Elijah goes, and Elisha, from Gilgal, 2 and Elijah says to Elisha, “Please abide here, for YHWH has sent me to Beth-El”; and Elisha says, “YHWH lives, and your soul lives, if I leave you”; and they go down to Beth-El. 3 And sons of the prophets who [are] in Beth-El come out to Elisha, and say to him, “Have you known that today YHWH is taking your lord from your head?” And he says, “I also have known—keep silent.” 4 And Elijah says to him, “Elisha, please abide here, for YHWH has sent me to Jericho”; and he says, “YHWH lives, and your soul lives, if I leave you”; and they come to Jericho. 5 And sons of the prophets who [are] in Jericho come near to Elisha, and say to him, “Have you known that today YHWH is taking your lord from your head?” And he says, “I also have known—keep silent.” 6 And Elijah says to him, “Please abide here, for YHWH has sent me to the Jordan”; and he says, “YHWH lives, and your soul lives, if I leave you”; and both of them go on— 7 and fifty men of the sons of the prophets have gone on, and stand opposite [them] far off—and both of them have stood by the Jordan. 8 And Elijah takes his robe, and wraps [it] together, and strikes the waters, and they are halved, here and there, and both of them pass over on dry land. 9 And it comes to pass, at their passing over, that Elijah has said to Elisha, “Ask what I do for you before I am taken from you.” And Elisha says, “Indeed, please let there be a double portion of your spirit to me”; 10 and he says, “You have asked a hard thing; if you see me taken from you, it is to you so; and if not, it is not.” 11 And it comes to pass, they are going, going on and speaking, and behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire [appear], and they separate between them both, and Elijah goes up to the heavens in a whirlwind. 12 And Elisha is seeing, and he is crying, “My father! My father! The chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” And he has not seen him again; and he takes hold on his garments and tears them into two pieces. 13 And he takes up the robe of Elijah that fell from off him, and turns back and stands on the edge of the Jordan, 14 and he takes the robe of Elijah that fell from off him, and strikes the waters, and says, “Where [is] YHWH, God of Elijah—even He?” And he strikes the waters, and they are halved, here and there, and Elisha passes over. 15 And they see him—the sons of the prophets who [are] in Jericho—from opposite [them], and they say, “The spirit of Elijah has rested on Elisha”; and they come to meet him, and bow themselves to him to the earth, 16 and say to him, “Now behold, there are fifty men with your servants, sons of valor: please let them go, and they seek your lord, lest the Spirit of YHWH has taken him up, and casts him on one of the hills or into one of the valleys”; and he says, “You do not send.” 17 And they press on him, until he is ashamed, and he says, “Send”; and they send fifty men, and they seek three days, and have not found him; 18 and they return to him—and he is abiding in Jericho—and he says to them, “Did I not say to you, Do not go?” 19 And the men of the city say to Elisha, “Now behold, the site of the city [is] good, as my lord sees, and the waters [are] bad, and the earth sterile.” 20 And he says, “Bring a new dish to me, and place salt there”; and they bring [it] to him, 21 and he goes out to the source of the waters, and casts salt there, and says, “Thus said YHWH: I have given healing to these waters; there is not anymore death and sterility there.” 22 And the waters are healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha that he spoke. 23 And he goes up from there to Beth-El, and he is going up in the way, and little youths have come out from the city, and scoff at him, and say to him, “Go up, bald-head! Go up, bald-head!” 24 And he looks behind him, and sees them, and declares them vile in the Name of YHWH, and two bears come out of the forest and ripped apart forty-two of the boys. 25 And he goes from there to the hill of Carmel, and from there he has turned back to Samaria.
2 Kings · Literal Standard Version
2 Kings 2 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Elisha
Son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah, found plowing with twelve teams of oxen when Elijah threw his cloak around him, who inherited a double portion of Elijah's spirit, worked many…
Cited in the guide: 1 Kings 19:16; 1 Kings 19:19; 2 Kings 2:9
Cross references (23)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5; 1 Kings 19:16–21; 1 Kings 19:11; Joshua 4:19
- 2 2 Kings 2:6; 2 Kings 4:30; Ruth 1:15–18; 2 Kings 2:4; 1 Samuel 1:26
- 3 2 Kings 4:38; 2 Kings 4:1; 2 Kings 9:1; 1 Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 2:15
- 4 2 Kings 2:2; Joshua 6:26; Luke 19:1; 1 Kings 16:34; 2 Kings 4:30
- 5 2 Kings 2:3; Joshua 1:1–2; Acts 1:2; Isaiah 41:1; Ecclesiastes 3:7
- 6 2 Kings 2:2; Joshua 3:15
- 7 1 Kings 18:4; 2 Kings 2:17; 1 Kings 18:13
- 8 1 Kings 19:19; Exodus 14:21–22; Joshua 3:14–17; 2 Kings 2:14; Isaiah 11:15
- 9 Numbers 11:17; Deuteronomy 21:17; John 16:7; Acts 20:25–36; Zechariah 12:8
- 10 John 16:24; Mark 11:22–24; 2 Kings 2:12; Acts 1:9–10
- 11 2 Kings 6:17; Psalm 104:3–4; Hebrews 1:14; Psalm 68:17; Ezekiel 10:9–22
- 12 2 Kings 13:14; Isaiah 57:1–2; Proverbs 30:4; Acts 8:2; Isaiah 37:21
- 13 1 Kings 19:19; 2 Kings 2:8
- 14 John 14:12; Psalm 42:10; Psalm 115:2; Acts 3:12–13; Joshua 1:1–9
- 15 1 Peter 4:14; Acts 1:8; Isaiah 59:21; 2 Kings 6:1–7; Isaiah 11:2
- 16 1 Kings 18:12; Acts 8:39; Ezekiel 11:24; Ezekiel 3:14; 2 Corinthians 12:2–3
- 17 2 Kings 8:11; Hebrews 11:5; Romans 10:2; Luke 11:8; 2 Samuel 18:22–23
- 19 Exodus 23:26; Deuteronomy 28:2–4; Deuteronomy 28:11; Deuteronomy 28:15–18; 1 Kings 16:34
- 20 Zephaniah 2:9; Judges 9:45; Ezekiel 47:11
- 21 Exodus 15:25–26; 2 Kings 4:41; Leviticus 2:13; Revelation 21:4; Revelation 22:2–3
- 23 2 Chronicles 36:16; Job 19:18; Job 30:1; Amos 5:5; Proverbs 22:6
- 24 Acts 13:9–11; Acts 5:5; Hosea 13:8; Acts 5:9; Amos 7:17
- 25 2 Kings 4:25; 1 Kings 18:19–20; 1 Kings 18:42
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
When God's Prophet Elisha was going up, children called after him mocking, "Go up thou bald head, Go up thou bald head:" but he, not so much in cruelty as in mystery, made those children to be devoured by bears out of the wood. If those children had not been devoured, would they have lived even till now?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)