II Kings 2

1When GOD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha had set out from Gilgal.

2Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for GOD has sent me on to Bethel.” “As GOD lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

3Disciples of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that GOD will take your master away from you today?” He replied, “I know it, too; be silent.”

4Then Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for GOD has sent me on to Jericho.” “As GOD lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went on to Jericho.

5The disciples of the prophets who were at Jericho came over to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that GOD will take your master away from you today?” He replied, “I know it, too; be silent.”

6Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for GOD has sent me on to the Jordan.” “As GOD lives and as you live, I will not leave you,” he said, and the two of them went on.

7Fifty of the disciples of the prophets followed and stood by at a distance as the two of them stopped at the Jordan.

8Thereupon Elijah took his mantle and, rolling it up, he struck the water; it divided to the right and left, so that the two of them crossed over on dry land.

9As they were crossing, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” Elisha answered, “Let a double portion of your spirit pass on to me.”

10“You have asked a difficult thing,” he said. “If you see me as I am being taken from you, this will be granted to you; if not, it will not.”

11As they kept on walking and talking, a fiery chariot with fiery horses suddenly appeared and separated one from the other; and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.

12Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “Oh, father, father! Israel’s chariots and riders!” When he could no longer see him, he grasped his garments and rent them in two.

13He picked up Elijah’s mantle, which had dropped from him; and he went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

14Taking the mantle that had dropped from Elijah, he struck the water and said, “Where is the ETERNAL, the God of Elijah?” As he too struck the water, it parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over.

15When the disciples of the prophets at Jericho saw him from a distance, they exclaimed, “The spirit of Elijah has settled on Elisha!” And they went to meet him and bowed low before him to the ground.

16They said to him, “Your servants have fifty able men with them. Let them go and look for your master; perhaps the spirit of GOD has carried him off and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” “Do not send them,” he replied.

17But they kept pressing him for a long time, until he said, “Send them.” So they sent out fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him.

18They came back to him while he was still in Jericho; and he said to them, “I told you not to go.”

19The leaders of the town said to Elisha, “Look, the town is a pleasant place to live in, as my lord can see; but the water is bad and the land causes bereavement.”

20He responded, “Bring me a new dish and put salt in it.” They brought it to him;

21he went to the spring and threw salt into it. And he said, “Thus said GOD: I heal this water; no longer shall death and bereavement come from it!”

22The water has remained wholesome to this day, in accordance with the word spoken by Elisha.

23From there he went up to Bethel. As he was going up the road, some little boys came out of the town and jeered at him, saying, “Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!”

24He turned around and looked at them and cursed them in the name of GOD. Thereupon, two she-bears came out of the woods and mangled forty-two of the children.

25He went on from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.