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Another miracle that Elisha did
6 One day, the group of prophets said to Elisha, ‘The place where we meet with you is too small for us. 2 We must go to the Jordan River to cut down some trees. Each one of us can bring back some wood to build a new place for us to meet in.’ Elisha agreed and he told them to go.
3 One of the prophets said, ‘Please come with us, sir.’ Elisha replied, ‘I will come with you.’ 4 So he went with them. They arrived at the Jordan River. They started to cut down some trees. 5 While one of them was cutting down a tree, his iron axe fell into the water. He shouted, ‘Oh! My master! The axe did not belong to me!’ 6 Elisha asked him, ‘Where did it fall in the water?’ He showed Elisha the place. Then Elisha cut a branch from a tree. He threw it in the water at that place. It caused the iron axe to come to the top of the water. 7 Elisha told the prophet, ‘Lift it out of the water.’ So the man took hold of it with his hand.
Elisha stops the Syrian army
8 There was a war between the king of Syria and Israel. The king of Syria talked with his officers. He said to them, ‘I will attack Israel at a certain place.’ 9 But Elisha, the man of God, sent a message to the king of Israel. He said, ‘Do not travel through that place. The Syrian army is going there to attack us.’ 10 So the king of Israel warned the people in that place to be careful. Several times Elisha told the king where the Syrian army would attack so that the king would be careful.
11 This made the king of Syria very angry. He asked his officers to come to him. He said to them, ‘One of you is helping the king of Israel. Who is it?’ 12 One of his officers said, ‘None of us is helping him, my master the king. There is a prophet who lives in Israel. His name is Elisha. He tells the king of Israel every word that you speak secretly, even what you say in your bedroom!’ 13 The king of Syria said, ‘Go and find the place where he is. Then I will send some men there to catch him.’
A report came back to the king of Syria, ‘Elisha is in Dothan.’ 14 So the king sent a big army of soldiers there, with horses and chariots. They arrived during the night and they made their camp all around the city.
15 The servant of Elisha, the man of God, got up early the next morning. He went out and he saw an army with horses and chariots all around the city. He said to Elisha, ‘Oh! My master! What can we do?’ 16 Elisha replied, ‘Do not be afraid. There are more men to fight for us than there are for them.’ 17 Then Elisha prayed, ‘Lord, please open my servant's eyes so that he can see clearly.’ The Lord opened the servant's eyes. Now he could see lots of horses and chariots that burned with fire. They were on the hill all around Elisha.
18 When the enemy soldiers came towards Elisha, he prayed, ‘Lord, please make these people become blind.’ The Lord did what Elisha had asked. He made the enemy soldiers become blind. 19 Elisha said to them, ‘You are on the wrong road. You have come to the wrong city. Follow me! I will lead you to the man that you are looking for.’ Elisha led them to Samaria.
20 After they had gone into the city of Samaria, Elisha prayed again, ‘Lord, please open the eyes of these men so that they can see again.’ The Lord opened their eyes. Now they could see that they were in the middle of Samaria! 21 When the king of Israel saw the Syrian army in his city, he asked Elisha, ‘My master, what should I do? Should I kill them?’ 22 Elisha answered, ‘You must not kill them. That would not be right. You did not win a fight against them with your weapons. Give them some food and water. Then they can eat and drink before they go back to their master.’
23 So the king of Israel made a big feast for them. They had a lot of food and drink. Then he sent them back to their master, the king of Syria. After this happened, no more groups of Syrian soldiers came to attack Israel.
The Syrian army attacks Samaria
24 But later, King Ben-Hadad of Syria sent his whole army to attack Samaria. His soldiers made their camp all around the city. 25 As a result, there was a famine in the city. The Syrian army were all around the city for a long time. Food in the city was very expensive. A donkey's head cost 80 pieces of silver. A small cup of dove's dung cost five pieces of silver.[a]
26 While the king of Israel was walking on the wall of the city, a woman shouted to him, ‘Please help me, my master the king!’ 27 The king replied, ‘Why do you ask me? Only the Lord can help you. I have no wheat or wine to give you.’ 28 Then the king asked her, ‘What is your problem?’ She answered, ‘This woman here said to me, “Let us take your son today, so that we can eat him. Tomorrow we will eat my son.” 29 So we cooked my son and we ate him. The next day I said to her, “Now we will take your son, so that we can eat him.” But she has hidden him somewhere!’
30 When the king heard the woman's words, he was very upset. He tore his clothes. As he walked along the wall, people could see what he was wearing. They saw that he was wearing sackcloth under his other clothes.[b] 31 He said, ‘I will certainly cut off Elisha's head today! May God punish me with death if Elisha still has his head by the end of the day!’
32 Elisha was sitting in his house. The leaders of the city were with him. The king sent a man to Elisha with a message. But before he arrived, Elisha said to the leaders, ‘I tell you this. That murderer, the king, has sent someone to cut off my head. When the king's man arrives, shut the door. Stop him from coming in here. We will soon hear the sound of his master as he arrives too.’
33 While Elisha was still talking to the city's leaders, the king's man arrived with this message: ‘The Lord has caused this terrible trouble to happen to us. I cannot wait any longer for the Lord to help us.’[c]
7 Elisha said, ‘Now listen to the Lord's message! This is what the Lord says: “About this time tomorrow, five kilograms of good flour will cost only one piece of silver. Ten kilograms of barley will also cost one piece of silver. You will be able to buy this food at the gate of Samaria.” ’[d]
2 The special officer who was near to the king said to the man of God, ‘That will never happen! Even if the Lord opens the skies and sends us rain, it could not happen so soon.’ Elisha said, ‘You yourself will see this happen, but you will not eat any of the food!’
How the war finished
3 At this time, there were four men who had leprosy. They were at Samaria's gate where people went in to the city. They said to each other, ‘We should not stay here. If we wait here we will die. 4 There is no food in the city. If we go in there we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So we will go out to the camp of the Syrian army. We will ask them to be kind to us. They may let us stay alive, or they may kill us. But we would have died anyway.’
5 At evening time, the men went towards the Syrian army's camp. When they reached the edge of the camp, they saw that there was nobody there! 6 The Lord God had caused the Syrian soldiers to hear the sound of horses, chariots and a very big army. So they said among themselves, ‘Listen! The king of Israel has paid the king of the Hittites and the king of Egypt to come here and attack us!’
7 So, that evening, the Syrian soldiers all ran away. They left their tents, their horses and their donkeys. They did not take anything with them. They ran away to save their lives. 8 When the four men reached the edge of the camp, they went into one of the tents. They ate and they drank what was there. They carried away silver and gold and clothes. They went away and they hid those things. Then they came back and they went into another tent. They took the valuable things from there too and they hid them.
9 Then they said to each other, ‘We should not be doing this. It is not right! This is a day of good news and we have not told anyone. If we wait until the morning, we will be in trouble. We must go now and tell the king's officers what has happened.’ 10 So they went back to the city's gate and they called out to the guards. They said to them, ‘We went out to the camp of the Syrian army. There was nobody there! We did not hear anyone at all. The horses and donkeys are still there, where the soldiers had tied them. The tents are still there, as they were before.’
11 The guards at the city gate then shouted the news. People in the king's palace heard the news. 12 The king got up in the middle of the night. He said to his officers, ‘I will tell you what the Syrian soldiers have done to deceive us. They know that we have no food. So they have left their tents and they have hidden in the fields. They are thinking, “The Israelites will surely come out of the city. Then we will catch them while they are still alive. We will then get into their city.” ’
13 One of the king's officers answered him, ‘Send some men with five of the horses that are still in our city. We will see what happens to them. All of us Israelites in the city will soon die. If the Syrian soldiers kill those men, they would have died anyway. So send them out of the city to find out what is happening.’ 14 So they prepared two chariots with their horses. The king sent the men to see what had happened to the Syrian army. He commanded the men, ‘Go and look for them.’
15 The king's men followed the Syrian soldiers as far as the Jordan River. They saw many things that the soldiers had dropped along the road. They had dropped clothes and weapons because they were in a hurry to run away. So the men returned to the king. They told him what they had seen.
16 Then the people in Samaria went out of the city. They took all the valuable things from the Syrian soldiers' tents. So then people could buy five kilograms of good flour for one piece of silver. They could also buy ten kilograms of barley for one piece of silver. That is what the Lord had said would happen.
17 The king had told his special officer to stand at the gate of the city. When the people ran out of the city, they knocked him down. He fell under their feet and he died. The man of God had already said that this would happen, when the king had come to his house.
18 Elisha had said to the king, ‘This time tomorrow, five kilograms of good flour will cost only one piece of silver. Ten kilograms of barley will also cost one piece of silver. You will be able to buy this food at the gate of Samaria.’ 19 But the officer had replied to the man of God, ‘That will never happen! Even if the Lord opens the skies and sends us rain, it could not happen so soon.’ Elisha had said, ‘You yourself will see this happen, but you will not eat any of the food!’
20 That is what really happened to him! At the city gate, the people ran over the king's officer and he died.
36 After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, ‘We should go back to the towns where we already spoke the message about the Lord Jesus. Then we can visit the believers in all those places. We can see if they are doing well.’
37 Barnabas agreed and he wanted to take John Mark with them. 38 But Paul did not think that this was right. He said to Barnabas, ‘John Mark did not remain with us until we had finished our work. He left us when we were in Pamphylia.’
39 Paul and Barnabas argued strongly about this. They could not agree, so they went in different directions. Barnabas took John Mark with him and they sailed to Cyprus. 40 Paul chose Silas to go with him. The believers in Antioch asked the Lord God to take care of Paul and Silas. 41 They travelled through Syria and Cilicia. Paul taught the believers in those regions. He helped them to be strong and to trust Jesus.
Timothy travels with Paul and Silas
16 Paul travelled to Derbe and then he arrived in Lystra. A man called Timothy lived in Lystra. He was a believer. His mother was a Jew who had become a believer in Jesus. But Timothy's father was a Gentile who came from Greece. 2 All the believers in Lystra and Iconium said good things about Timothy. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to travel with him to different places. All the Jews in that region knew that Timothy's father was a Gentile. So Paul circumcised Timothy, so that the Jews would accept him.[a]
4 Paul, Silas and Timothy travelled through many towns. In each place, they told the believers the things that the apostles and the other leaders in Jerusalem had decided. They told the believers to obey those rules. 5 In this way, the groups of believers in those towns became stronger. They trusted Jesus more. More and more people joined the groups of believers every day.
Paul has a vision
6 Paul and his friends wanted to go to the region of Asia to speak God's message. But the Holy Spirit stopped them from doing this. So they travelled through the regions of Phrygia and Galatia. 7 Then they arrived at the edge of the region of Mysia. They wanted to go from there into the region of Bithynia. But the Holy Spirit of Jesus stopped them from going there too. 8 So they went quickly through Mysia and they arrived at the city of Troas, on the coast.
9 During that night, Paul had a vision. In the vision, he saw a man from the region called Macedonia. The man stood there and he said to Paul, ‘Please, please come across the sea to Macedonia and help us.’ 10 After Paul's vision, we immediately prepared ourselves for the journey to Macedonia.[b] We decided that God was telling us to go there. He wanted us to tell the people there the good news about Jesus.
Lydia becomes a believer
11 We got in a ship at Troas and we sailed across the sea. We went across to an island called Samothrace. The next day, we continued our journey to a port called Neapolis. 12 We then travelled across the land to Philippi, the most important city in the region of Macedonia. The Romans ruled Philippi and many Roman people lived there. We stayed there for a few days.
13 On the Jewish day of rest, we went out of the city gate. We went down to the edge of the river. We thought that the Jews might have a special meeting place there. We thought that they would meet there to pray. We found a group of women who were meeting there. So we sat down and we talked to them.[c]
14 One of the women who listened to us was called Lydia. She was from the city of Thyatira. She bought and sold expensive dark red cloth. She was a Gentile woman who now worshipped God. The Lord helped her to understand Paul's message. So she believed the things that he said.
15 Then Paul and Silas baptized Lydia and the other people who lived in her house. After this, Lydia asked us to go to her house. She said to us, ‘If you think that I really believe in the Lord Jesus, then please stay in my house.’ We agreed to go and to stay there.
This is a special song that David wrote.
He prayed this when he was in the cave.[a]
Please help me, Lord!
142 I am calling to the Lord to help me.
I ask him to be kind to me.
2 I tell him about all my problems.
I tell him about all my troubles.
3 When I do not feel brave,
you are still my guide, Lord.
In the path where I walk,
my enemies have prepared a trap to catch me.
4 Look at me!
I have no friend to help me.
There is no safe place where I can go.
Nobody thinks about me.
5 Yes Lord, I am calling to you to help me.
You are my safe place where I can hide.
You are all that I need in this world where I live.
6 Please listen to me as I cry to you.
I am very upset!
My enemies are trying to catch me.
Save me from their power!
They are stronger than I am.
7 Please take me out of this prison.[b]
Then I will praise your name.
Your own good people will see how you have helped me.
They will meet round me to praise you.
24 A person who knows what is right can easily find wisdom.
But a foolish person looks everywhere and never finds it.
25 To have a foolish son makes his father sad.
It makes his mother very upset.
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