The Daily Audio Bible

Elisha helps the woman from Shunem

8 Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had made alive again, ‘Go away from here.^[a] The Lord says that there will be a famine in this country for seven years. So you and your family should go to live somewhere else during that time.’ ² The woman had done what the man of God had told her to do. She and her family went to live in the country of the Philistines for seven years. ³ After seven years, she came back from there. She went to the king to ask for her house and her land.^[b]

⁴ The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. The king said to Gehazi, ‘Tell me about all the great things that Elisha has done.’ ⁵ So Gehazi was telling the king that Elisha had made dead people alive again. While Gehazi was saying this, the woman from Shunem came in to ask the king for her house and her fields. It was her son that Elisha had made alive again. Gehazi said, ‘My master the king, this is the woman! And this is her son that Elisha made alive again!’

⁶ The king asked the woman about it. She told him what had happened. Then the king commanded one of his officers to take care of her. The king said to him, ‘This woman must receive back everything that belongs to her. She must also receive the value of all the crops that have grown in her fields since the day that she went away.’

King Ben-Hadad dies

⁷ Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, was ill in Damascus. Elisha went to Damascus at that time. Somebody told the king, ‘The man of God has come to the city.’ ⁸ The king said to Hazael, ‘Take a gift with you to go and meet the man of God. Ask him to get a message from the Lord. Ask him, “Will I get well again after this disease?” ’

⁹ So Hazael went to meet Elisha. He took a gift with him. There were 40 camels that carried many kinds of valuable things that came from Damascus. He arrived at Elisha's house and he stood in front of him. Hazael said, ‘Your servant, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, has sent me to you. He asks, “Will I get well again after this disease?” ’

¹⁰ Elisha answered, ‘Go back to the king. Tell him, “Certainly, you will get well again.” But the Lord has shown me that the king will surely die.’ ¹¹ Then Elisha looked at him with open eyes until Hazael became ashamed. Then the man of God began to weep. ¹² So Hazael asked him, ‘Why are you weeping, my master?’ Elisha replied, ‘Because I know that you will cause great trouble for Israel's people. You will destroy their strong cities with fire. You will fight their young men and you will kill them. You will knock down their children to kill them. You will cut open their pregnant women.’

¹³ Hazael said, ‘I am only an ordinary man, sir. I am not more important than a dog! How could I ever do great things like that?’ Elisha answered, ‘The Lord has shown me that you will become the king of Syria.’

¹⁴ Then Hazael left Elisha. He returned to his master, the king. King Ben-Hadad asked him, ‘What did Elisha say to you?’ Hazael replied, ‘He told me that you will surely get well again.’

¹⁵ The next day, Hazael took a thick cloth. He used water to make it wet. Then he put it over the king's face so that he could not breathe. So King Ben-Hadad died. Hazael became king of Syria after him.

Jehoram becomes the king of Judah

¹⁶ When Ahab's son Joram had been king of Israel for five years, Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram started to rule Judah as king.^{[c] 17} He was 32 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. ¹⁸ He lived in the same bad way that the kings of Israel did. He did what the family of Ahab had done. He married a daughter of King Ahab and he became as wicked as King Ahab's family was. He did things that the Lord said were evil. ¹⁹ But the Lord did not want to destroy the nation of Judah, because of his promise to his servant, David. The Lord had promised that King David would always have descendants who would rule the nation.

²⁰ While Jehoram was king, Edom's people turned against Judah. They would no longer accept the king of Judah's authority over them. They decided to have their own king. ²¹ So King Jehoram travelled to Zair with all his chariots.^[d] The Edomite army came and they were all around him. But that night, Jehoram and his officers attacked the Edomites and they escaped. The Israelite army ran away to go back home. ²² Even today, Edom's people do not obey the rulers of Judah. The people of Libnah city also turned against Judah at the same time.

²³ The other things that happened while Jehoram was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about all the things that Jehoram did. ²⁴ Jehoram died and they buried him with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Ahaziah became king after him.

Ahaziah becomes the king of Judah

²⁵ When Ahab's son Joram had been king of Israel for 12 years, Jehoram's son Ahaziah started to rule Judah as king. ²⁶ Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's name was Athaliah. She was a granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel.^{[e] 27} Ahaziah lived in the same bad way that Ahab's family had done. He did things that the Lord said were evil, as Ahab's family had done. That was because he had married a woman from Ahab's family.

²⁸ King Ahaziah went with Ahab's son, King Joram of Israel, to fight against Hazael, the king of Syria. They fought a battle at Ramoth Gilead. The Syrian army won the fight and they hurt King Joram. ²⁹ King Joram returned to Jezreel, so that his wounds could get better after the battle. While he was there, King Ahaziah went to visit him, because of his wounds.

Jehu becomes king of Israel

9 The prophet Elisha told a man from the group of prophets to come to him. Elisha said to him, ‘Tie your belt around you and prepare to travel. Take this bottle of olive oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. ² When you arrive there, look for Jehu. He is the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him and take him into a room away from his friends. ³ Pour the oil from the bottle onto his head. Say to him, “This is what the Lord says to you: I have now chosen you to be king of Israel.” Then open the door and run away quickly!’

⁴ The young prophet that Elisha had sent went to Ramoth Gilead. ⁵ When he arrived there, he found the army officers. They were sitting together. The prophet said, ‘Captain, I have a message for you.’ Jehu asked him, ‘The message is for which of us?’ The prophet replied, ‘It is for you, sir.’ ⁶ So Jehu stood up and he went into the house. The young prophet poured the oil onto Jehu's head. He said to him, ‘This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says to you: “I have now chosen you to be king of the Lord's people, Israel. ⁷ You will destroy the family of your master, Ahab. In this way I will punish Ahab's wife Jezebel, because she killed the prophets and other people who served me. ⁸ The whole family of Ahab must die. I will kill every male among his descendants in Israel, whoever they are. ⁹ I will destroy Ahab's family as I did to the family of Nebat's son Jeroboam and the family of Ahijah's son Baasha. ¹⁰ Dogs will eat Jezebel's body on the ground in Jezreel. Nobody will bury her.” ’

Then the young prophet opened the door and he ran away.

¹¹ Jehu went out to the other army officers. They asked him, ‘Is everything well? Why did that crazy man come to you?’ Jehu replied, ‘It was not important. You know what that man is like and the kind of things he says.’ ¹² But the officers said, ‘That is not true! Tell us what he said.’ So Jehu told them what the prophet had said. He told them, ‘The prophet said, “This is what the Lord says: I have now chosen you to be the king of Israel.” ’

¹³ The other officers then quickly took their coats. They put them on the stone steps for Jehu to walk on. Then they made a loud noise with a trumpet. They shouted, ‘Jehu is king!’

The Roman rulers put Paul and Silas in prison

¹⁶ One day, we were going to the place where people prayed to God. On the way there, we met a slave girl. A bad spirit was living inside her. This spirit told her what would happen soon. People gave her masters a lot of money when she told them about these future things. ¹⁷ She followed Paul and all of us. She was shouting, ‘These men are servants of the powerful God who is over all! They are telling you how God can save you!’

¹⁸ The slave girl continued to do this for many days. After some time, Paul became angry. So he turned round and he said to the bad spirit, ‘I am using the authority of Jesus Christ! I command you to leave this woman!’ When Paul said that, the spirit left her immediately.

¹⁹ Her masters now knew that the girl could not get money for them any more. So they took hold of Paul and Silas and they pulled them to the market place of the city. They took them to stand in front of the leaders of the city. ²⁰ They asked the important officers to judge them. They said, ‘These men are Jews. They are causing much trouble in our city. ²¹ They are teaching people to obey strange ideas. We are Roman people. We cannot agree with these laws. They are not right for us to do.’

²² A lot of people quickly came together there. They started to attack Paul and Silas. So the important officers said to their soldiers, ‘Tear the clothes off Paul and Silas. Then hit them with sticks!’ ²³ The soldiers hit Paul and Silas many times. Then they took hold of them and they pushed them into the prison. The officers said to the prison guard, ‘Lock the prison door carefully so that these men cannot get free.’

²⁴ The prison guard did what he had been told to do. He put Paul and Silas in a room in the middle of the prison. He put their feet between big heavy pieces of wood so that they could not move their legs.

²⁵ At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying. They were also singing songs to praise God. The other people in the prison were listening to them. ²⁶ The ground under the prison suddenly shook strongly. Immediately, all the prison doors opened. The chains that held the people in the prison all fell off. ²⁷ The prison guard woke up. He saw that the prison doors were open. He thought that all the people in the prison had become free. He decided that he should kill himself. So he pulled out his sword.^[a]

²⁸ Paul shouted very loudly to him, ‘Do not hurt yourself! We are all still in here!’

²⁹ The guard said, ‘Bring me some lights.’ Then he ran to the prison room where Paul and Silas were. He was very frightened. He went down on his knees in front of them. ³⁰ Then he led Paul and Silas out of the prison. He said to them, ‘Masters, what must I do so that God will save me? Tell me!’

³¹ Paul and Silas said to him, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus and then God will save you. He will save you and the people who live in your house, if they believe too.’ ³² Then Paul and Silas went to the guard's house. They spoke God's message about the Lord Jesus to him and to all the people in his house. ³³ In the middle of the night, the man took care of them. He washed their bodies where the soldiers had hurt them. Immediately after this, Paul and Silas baptized the man and his whole family. ³⁴ The man gave them some food to eat in his house. The guard and all his family were very happy because now they believed in God.

³⁵ The next morning, the important officers sent their police to the prison with a message for the guard. They told him, ‘Let those men go free.’ ³⁶ The guard went to Paul and he told him, ‘The city officers have sent a message to me. They said, “Let Paul and Silas go free.” So now you can leave the prison. Nobody will hurt you any more.’

³⁷ But Paul spoke to the police who had brought the message. He said, ‘The city officers did not find that we had done anything wrong. But they commanded their soldiers to hit us with sticks in front of everybody. We are citizens of Rome but they still did this to us. They even put us into prison. Now they want us to leave the prison and go away. They want to send us away secretly. We will not agree! The Roman officers must come here to the prison themselves. Then they must lead us out for everyone to see.’

³⁸ The police returned to the city officers. They told them what Paul had said. The officers now understood that Paul and Silas were citizens of Rome. This made them very afraid. ³⁹ So they went to see Paul and Silas in the prison. They told Paul and Silas that they were very sorry. Then they led Paul and Silas out of the prison. They asked them to leave the city. ⁴⁰ After Paul and Silas left the prison, they went to Lydia's house. There they met the other believers. They spoke to the believers to make them strong. Then Paul and Silas left Philippi.^[b]

This is a song that David wrote.

Please help me, Lord!^[a]