14. He struck the water with the coat and wondered, “Will the Lord perform miracles for me as he did for Elijah?” As soon as Elisha did this, a dry path opened up through the water, and he walked across.
15. When the prophets from Jericho saw what happened, they said to each other, “Elisha now has Elijah's power.”They walked over to him, bowed down,
16. and said, “There are fifty strong men here with us. Please let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord carried him off to some mountain or valley.”“No,” Elisha replied, “they won't find him.”
17. They kept begging until he was embarrassed to say no. He finally agreed, and the prophets sent the men out. They looked three days for Elijah but never found him.
18. They returned to Jericho, and Elisha said, “I told you that you wouldn't find him.”
19. One day the people of Jericho said, “Elisha, you can see that our city is in a good spot. But the water from our spring is so bad that it even keeps our crops from growing.”
20. He replied, “Put some salt in a new bowl and bring it to me.”They brought him the bowl of salt,
21. and he carried it to the spring. He threw the salt into the water and said, “The Lord has made this water pure again. From now on you'll be able to grow crops, and no one will starve.”
22. The water has been fine ever since, just as Elisha said.
23. Elisha left and headed towards Bethel. Along the way some boys started making fun of him by shouting, “Go away, baldy! Get out of here!”
24. Elisha turned round and stared at the boys. Then he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Straight away two bears ran out of the woods and ripped to pieces forty-two of the boys.
25. Elisha went up to Mount Carmel, then returned to Samaria.