1. Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “Behold now, the place where we are living in your presence is too cramped for us.
2. So please, let’s go to the Jordan and pick from there each one a beam, and make ourselves a place there to live.” “Go,” he answered.
3. Then one of them said, “Will you please come with your servants?” “I will go,” he answered.
4. So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they began to cut down trees.
5. But as one of them was cutting down a beam, the axe-head fell into the water; and he cried, and said, “Ah, my master! It was borrowed.”
6. Then the man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it there, and made the ax head float.
7. Then he said, “Pick it up for yourself.” So he reached out his hand and took it.
8. Now the king of Aram was warring against Israel. He consulted with his officers, saying, “In such and such a place will be my camp.”
9. But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, saying, “Be careful not to pass this place, for the Arameans are coming down there.”
10. So the king of Israel sent word to the place the man of God told him and warned him about, and so he was on his guard there—more than once or twice.
11. His heart upset over this matter, the king of Aram summoned his officers and said to them, “Tell me, which one of us is on the king of Israel’s side?”
12. But one of his officers said, “No, my lord the king. Rather, Elisha the prophet who is in Israel keeps telling the king of Israel the very words that you speak in your bedroom!”
13. So he said, “Go, see where he is, so I may send and seize him.” Then it was reported to him, “Behold, he is in Dothan.”
14. So he sent horses, chariots and a great army there. They arrived at night and surrounded the city.
15. Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was surrounding the city. So his attendant said to him, “Alas, my master! What are we going to do?”
16. “Fear not,” he replied, “for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”