1. Elisha once said to the woman whose son he had restored to life: “Get ready! Leave with your household and live wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a seven-year famine which is coming upon the land.”
2. The woman got ready and did as the man of God said, setting out with her household, and living in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
3. At the end of the seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went out to the king to appeal for her house and her field.
4. The king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God: “Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.”
5. Just as he was telling the king how his master had restored a dead person to life, the very woman whose son Elisha had restored to life came to the king appealing for her house and field. Gehazi said, “My lord king, this is the woman, and this is that son of hers whom Elisha restored to life.”
6. The king questioned the woman, and she told him her story. With that the king placed an official at her disposal, saying, “Restore all her property to her, with all that the field produced from the day she left the land until now.”
7. Elisha came to Damascus at a time when Ben-hadad, king of Aram, lay sick. When he was told, “The man of God has come here,”
8. the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift with you and go call on the man of God. Consult the Lord through him, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”
9. Hazael went to visit him, carrying a present, and with forty camel loads of the best goods of Damascus. On his arrival, he stood before Elisha and said, “Your son Ben-hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to you to ask, ‘Will I recover from my sickness?’”
10. Elisha answered, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover.’ But the Lord has showed me that he will surely die.”
11. Then he stared him down until he became ill at ease. The man of God wept,