2 Kings 2

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Elijah taken up into heaven

¹ And it came to pass, when Yahweh was about to take Elijah up into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. ² And Elijah said to Elisha, "Please stay here, for Yahweh has sent me as far as Bethel." But Elisha said, "As Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel. ³ And the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, "Do you know that today Yahweh will take your master away from over your head?" And he said, "Yes, I know; keep silent." ⁴ Then Elijah said to him, "Elisha, please stay here, for Yahweh has sent me to Jericho." But he said, "As Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." So they came to Jericho. ⁵ And the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came near to Elisha and said to him, "Do you know that today Yahweh will take your master away from over your head?" And he answered, "Yes, I know; keep silent." ⁶ Then Elijah said to him, "Please stay here, for Yahweh has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on. ⁷ Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood opposite them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan. ⁸ Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up and struck the water, and it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

⁹ And when they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you." And Elisha said, "Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." ¹⁰ And he said, "You have asked a hard thing. Yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so." ¹¹ And as they were still going on and talking, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and they separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. ¹² And Elisha saw it and cried out, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

Elisha succeeds Elijah

¹³ He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴ And he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water and said, "Where is Yahweh, the Elohim of Elijah?" And when he too had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over. ¹⁵ Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho opposite him saw him, they said, "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha." And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. ¹⁶ And they said to him, "See now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master, lest the Spirit of Yahweh has taken him up and cast him on some mountain or into some valley." And he said, "You shall not send." ¹⁷ But when they urged him until he was ashamed, he said, "Send." So they sent fifty men, and they searched for three days but did not find him. ¹⁸ And they came back to him while he was staying at Jericho, and he said to them, "Did I not say to you, 'Do not go'?"

Elisha heals the water of Jericho

¹⁹ Then the men of the city said to Elisha, "See now, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land causes miscarriage." ²⁰ And he said, "Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it." So they brought it to him. ²¹ Then he went out to the spring of the water and threw salt into it and said, "Thus says Yahweh: 'I have healed this water; from there shall come no more death or miscarriage.'" ²² So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.

The young lads at Bethel

²³ Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, some young lads came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, "Go up, bald head! Go up, bald head!" ²⁴ And he turned around and looked at them, and cursed them in the name of Yahweh. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. ²⁵ And he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

Notes

• 2:8 Elijah's mantle (adderet) is the one he once threw over Elisha when he called him (1 Kings 19:19). The waters "divided" and the two crossed "on dry ground," the words of Israel's crossing of the sea under Moses (Exodus 14:21-22) and of the Jordan under Joshua (Joshua 3:17). Elijah crosses to the east side of the Jordan, the land where Moses was taken from Israel before Joshua led them over; Elisha will return across it alone (verse 14), like a new Joshua.
• 2:9 "A double portion" is pi-shnayim, literally "a mouth of two," the inheritance of the firstborn son: "by giving him a double portion of all that he has" (Deuteronomy 21:17). Elisha is not asking to be twice as great as Elijah, but to be his heir, the firstborn among the sons of the prophets, carrying on the work that Elijah began. That is why he calls him "my father" in verse 12.
• 2:11 The text says that the chariot and horses of fire came between the two men, and that Elijah went up "by a whirlwind" (bis'arah), the storm in which Yahweh had answered Job (Job 38:1). The verb "take" runs through the chapter (verses 3, 5, 9, 10), as with Enoch: "he was not, for Elohim took him" (Genesis 5:24). The text says nothing of Elijah dying, and Malachi foretold that Elohim would send "Elijah the prophet" before the great day of Yahweh (Malachi 4:5); in the first century this hope was alive, and Elijah appears with Moses at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:3).
• 2:12 Elisha honors Elijah as "my father," as disciples spoke of their teacher, and as Israel's true strength: the prophet who carried the word of Yahweh was worth more to the nation than all its chariots and horsemen. Years later King Joash will weep over the dying Elisha with these same words (13:14).
• 2:21 "Causes miscarriage" translates meshakkelet, from shakal, "to be bereaved, to lose one's young": the water brought death to the young of people, animals or crops. Jericho had stood under Joshua's curse (Joshua 6:26), which fell on Hiel when he rebuilt it (1 Kings 16:34). Now, by a prophet's word, Yahweh heals what was harmful, as He made the bitter water sweet at Marah and declared, "I am Yahweh who heals you (Yahweh Rophe)" (Exodus 15:25-26); the verb "heal" here is the same rafa.
• 2:24 "Young lads" is ne'arim qetannim. Na'ar covers a wide range of ages, from a baby to a young man of fighting age; Solomon, already king, called himself "a little child" (na'ar qaton, 1 Kings 3:7), and "boys" in verse 24 (yeladim) is the word for the young men who had grown up with Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:8). So the words do not require small children. Bethel was the center of Jeroboam's calf worship (1 Kings 12:28-33), and the crowd from the city mocks the prophet of Yahweh; "Go up" may mock Elijah's going up just before. The covenant had warned that if Israel walked contrary to Yahweh, wild beasts would "rob you of your children" (Leviticus 26:22).

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