Dawn over Dothan: a small walled town on a high round hill in a green pass, the thin smoke of many campfires rising from an army's dark tents and horse lines in the valleys below, a pale clear sky above.

The Book of

2 Kings 6

The servant saw an army around the city. Elisha saw something more.

33 verses≈ 7 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–8ElishaThe prophet's double portionChapter 6
9–12JehuThe house of Ahab falls
13–17Last kings of IsraelSamaria falls
18–20HezekiahTrust in the LORD
21–23JosiahThe Book found
24–25ExileJerusalem falls

The Axe Head Floats

The sons of the prophets

Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “Please take note that the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Please let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a log so we can build ourselves a place to live there.”

Elisha

“Go,” said Elisha.

One of the prophets

Then one of them said, “Please come with your servants.”

Elisha

“I will come,” he replied.

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Midmorning in the green thicket by the muddy Jordan: young men in undyed wool swing iron axes at poplar and tamarisk trunks; at the water's edge one stands frozen, his empty axe handle raised over spreading ripples, while Elisha sits on a fallen log nearby.

So Elisha went with them, and when they came to the Jordan, they began to cut down some trees. As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water.

One of the prophets

“Oh, my master,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!”

Elisha

“Where did it fall?” asked the man of God.

Close over the brown Jordan shallows by the reeds: a dark iron axe head floats on the surface beside a freshly cut stick, the current curling round it; a young man's hand reaches in from one edge, the hem of a dark goat-hair cloak and a staff at the other.

And when he showed him the place, the man of God cut a stick, threw it there, and made the iron float.

“Lift it out,” he said, and the man reached out his hand and took it.

Reflect

It was borrowed

A student’s lost axe head was not too small for the LORD. “Oh, my master,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!” What small worry or loss have you thought too little to pray about? Write it down and bring it to Him today.

Elisha Captures the Blinded Arameans

Now the king of Aram was at war against Israel. After consulting with his servants, he said, “My camp will be in such and such a place.”

Then the man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Be careful not to pass by this place, for the Arameans are going down there.”

So the king of Israel sent word to the place the man of God had pointed out. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.

Ben-hadad

For this reason the king of Aram became enraged and called his servants to demand of them, “Tell me, which one of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”

A servant of Aram’s king

But one of his servants replied, “No one, my lord the king. For Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”

Ben-hadad

So the king said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send men to capture him.”

Night round Dothan: the small walled hill town dark on its round hill, and filling the valleys below on every side the Aramean army, rows of dark tents, horse lines, stacked spears and light chariots ranked by the campfires, under a deep starry sky.

On receiving the report, “Elisha is in Dothan,”

the king of Aram sent horses, chariots, and a great army. They went there by night and surrounded the city.

0:14

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early in the morning, behold, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.

Elisha’s servant

So he asked Elisha, “Oh, my master, what are we to do?”

2 Kings 6:16

Then Elisha prayed, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.”

And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw that the hills were full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Late afternoon on the road winding up to Samaria's round hill: Elisha in his dark goat-hair cloak walks ahead with his staff, and behind him a long, docile column of Aramean soldiers follows, each with a hand on the shoulder of the man ahead, heads lowered.

As the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, “Please strike these people with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha.

And Elisha told them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are seeking.” And he led them to Samaria.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Dothan to Samaria

Dothan stood on the road through the hills about ten miles north of Samaria. Elisha led the blinded army south along it, straight into Israel’s capital. Aram’s king ruled from Damascus, far to the northeast.

When they had entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O LORD, open the eyes of these men that they may see.” Then the LORD opened their eyes, and they looked around and discovered that they were in Samaria.

Question

Quick question

Elisha’s servant woke to an army around Dothan.

When the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, what did he see on the hills around Elisha?

The Siege and Famine of Samaria

Seen from a neighboring hill at midday: Samaria on its steep round hill, and round it in every valley the Aramean camp, rows of dark tents, horse lines and cookfire smoke; the olive groves below the walls cut and trampled, the fields stripped bare.

Some time later, Ben-hadad king of Aram assembled his entire army and marched up to besiege Samaria.

So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.

A woman of Samaria

As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”

Joram

He answered, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?”

Joram

Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?”

A woman of Samaria

And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’

So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.”

Late afternoon on top of Samaria's thick plain wall: the king walks with one attendant, his crimson robe torn open at the neck and shoulder to show rough dark sackcloth beneath; below in the narrow street gaunt townspeople look up at him beside empty clay jars.

When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. And as he passed by on the wall, the people saw the sackcloth under his clothes next to his skin.

He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!”

Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him.

Elisha

The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door to keep him out. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”

While Elisha was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him.

Joram

And the king said, “This calamity is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”

Pray

Why wait for the LORD?

The king said, “Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?” Pray for people living through hunger, war and siege today, and for leaders who carry a city’s grief. Ask for the patience the king lost, to wait for the LORD when help seems late. And thank Him that His answer can come by tomorrow.

You’ve experienced

2 Kings 6

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A verse to carry with you

“Do not be afraid,” Elisha answered, “for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

2 Kings 6:16

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