2 Kings 8

Hazael

Woman returns, property restored

Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son had been restored to life,

“Take your household and travel wherever you can, because the Existing One has called for a famine that will persist for seven years.”

So the woman did what the man of God told her: She and her family traveled to the land of the Philistines for seven years. When the seven years were up, she returned and went to the king to appeal for her house and land.

The king was talking with the man of God’s servant, Gehazi, saying,

“Tell me stories of all the great things Elisha has done.”

And while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, ironically, this woman walked in to appeal for her land. At this, Gehazi said,

“Your majesty, oh king, this is the woman I was telling you about, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life!”

When the king asked the woman, she told him the story. So the king connected her with an official telling him,

“Restore everything that was hers, along with everything that her fields produced from the day she left until now.”

Elisha prophesies, Hazael assassinates king

Then Elisha went to Damascus. Syria’s King Ben-hadad had gotten sick, and when he heard that the man of God has arrived, the king told Hazael,

“Bring him a gift, greet him, and ask him if the Existing One says I’ll recover from this sickness.”

So Hazael went to meet him and took forty camel-loads of Damascan gifts for him. When he reached him, he said,

“Your son, Ben-hadad, Syria’s King sent me asking, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

Elisha answered him,

“Go let him know, ‘You will definitely recover,’ but the Existing One has shown me that he will definitely die.”

And Hazael stared at him so long that he got embarrassed, and the man of God broke down and cried. Hazael asked,

“Why does my superior cry?”

Elisha answered,

“Because I know the evil things you will do to Israel’s people. You’ll set their fortresses on fire, and you’ll kill their young men with the sword and rip open their pregnant woman, cutting their little ones to pieces.”

Hazael responded,

“What is your inferior, who is just a dog, that he would ever do such a horrible thing?”

Elisha answered,

“The Existing One has shown me that you will become Syria‘a king.”

Then he left Elisha and returned to his boss who asked him,

“What did Elisha say to you?”

And he answered,

“He told me that you would most definitely recover.”

But the next day he soaked a bed sheet in water and suffocated him with it till he died. And then Hazael became king in his place.

Jhoram becomes Judah’s King

In the fifth year of Joram’s (Ahab’s son) reign over Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king over Judah, Jehoshaphat’s son Jhoram started to reign. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for eight years from Jerusalem. He walked in the ways of Israel’s kings, just like Ahab’s line had done, for Ahab had taken his own daughter as his wife. He did what was evil in the sight of the Existing One. Yet the Existing One wasn’t willing to destroy Judah since he promised David that he and his sons would have a lamp forever.

Ahaziah becomes Judah’s King

In his days Edom seceded from Judah and set up their own king. One day Joram went to Zair with all his chariots at night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him, but his army fled home. So Edom remains separated from Judah to this day. And Libnah also seceded at that same time. The rest of Joram’s history along with everything he did is recorded in the book The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. So Joram slept in the ground with his fathers and was buried with them in David’s city. His son Ahaziah reigned in his place.

Jehoram becomes Judah’s King

In the twelfth year of Joram (Ahab’s son) reign over Israel, Jehoram began his reign over Judah. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year from Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, and she was a granddaughter of Israel’s former king Omri. He also walked in the way of Ahab’s line, doing evil in the sight of the Existing One, just like Ahab’s line had done (after all, he was a son in law to Ahab’s line).

He and Ahab’s son Joram went to battle against Syria’s king Hazael at Ramoth-gilead, and the Syrians wounded Joram. The Syrians wounded King Joram at Ramah, so he was on his way back to Jezreel for medical attention when he fought Syria’s King Hazael. Ahaziah (Judah’s King Jehoram’s son) went down to see Joram (Ahab’s son) in Jezreel because he was sick.