Chapter 2

S¹hortly before the LORD took Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal, ²and Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Bethel.” ³Then the sons of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” ⁴And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Jericho.” ⁵Then the sons of the prophets at Jericho came up to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” ⁶And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.”

⁷Then a company of fifty of the sons of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing Elijah and Elisha as the two of them stood by the Jordan. ⁸And Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the waters, which parted to the right and to the left, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground. ⁹After they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken away from you?” ¹⁰“You have requested a difficult thing,” said Elijah. “Nevertheless, if you see me as I am taken from you, it will be yours. But if not, then it will not be so.”

¹¹As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire with horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind. ¹²As Elisha watched, he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And he saw Elijah no more. So taking hold of his own clothes, he tore them in two. ¹³Elisha also picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah, and he went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the waters. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked.

W¹⁵hen the sons of the prophets who were watching him from Jericho saw what had happened, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him. ¹⁶“Look now,” they said to Elisha, “we your servants have fifty valiant men. Please let them go and search for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has taken him up and put him on one of the mountains or in one of the valleys.” ¹⁷But when they pressed him to the point of embarrassment, he said, “Send them.” ¹⁸When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”

T¹⁹hen the men of the city said to Elisha, “Please note, our lord, that the city’s location is good, as you can see. But the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.” ²⁰“Bring me a new bowl,” he replied, “and put some salt in it.” ²¹So they brought it to him, and Elisha went out to the spring, cast the salt into it, and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘I have healed this water. No longer will it cause death or unfruitfulness. ’” ²²And the waters there have been healthy to this day, according to the word spoken by Elisha.

F²³rom there, Elisha went up to Bethel, and as he was walking up the road, a group of boys came out of the city and jeered at him, chanting, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” ²⁴Then he turned around, looked at them, and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. ²⁵And Elisha went on to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.