Two Kingdoms · c. 852 BC
Chapter 7
The Chariot of Fire
As they continued on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
For parents
When the king sends soldiers for Elijah, fire comes down from the sky and burns up two captains and the hundred men with them (2 Kings 1:9–12). At the end of the chapter, some youths mock Elisha on the road to Bethel; he curses them in the Lord’s name, and two bears come out of the woods and maul forty-two of them (2:23–24). Both are told plainly, as the Bible tells them, with nothing added.
After died, rebelled against Israel. Ahab’s son was king of Israel now, ruling from . He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, as his father and his mother had done. He served and worshiped him.
In his upstairs room in Samaria, Ahaziah fell through the lattice, a crisscross screen, and he lay sick. He sent messengers off with an order: “Go and ask , the god of , whether I will get well from this sickness.”
But the spoke to the Tishbite: “Get up and go meet the messengers of the king of Samaria. Tell them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you’re going to ask Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because of this, the Lord says: You will never get out of the bed you are in. You are sure to die.’” And Elijah went.
The messengers went back to the king. “What brings you back?” he asked them.
“A man came up to meet us,” they said. “He told us to go back to the king who sent us and give you a message. The Lord says this: ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you send messengers to ask Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because of that, you will never get out of the bed you are in. You are sure to die.’”
“What was he like,” the king asked, “this man who came up to meet you and told you all this?”
“He was a hairy man,” they answered, “wearing a leather belt around his waist.”
“It’s Elijah the Tishbite,” said the king.
Then the king sent a captain and his fifty men to Elijah. The captain went up to him, and there was Elijah, sitting on top of the hill. “,” the captain said, “the king says, ‘Come down!’”
Elijah replied, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky and burn you up, you and your fifty men!” And fire came down from the sky and burned up the captain and his fifty men.
The king sent another captain with another fifty men to Elijah. This captain said to him, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down, and be quick about it!’”
Elijah gave them the same answer: “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky and burn you up, you and your fifty men!” And the fire of God came down from the sky and burned up that captain and his fifty men.
The king sent a third captain, with his own fifty men. This captain went up and knelt before Elijah. “Please, man of God,” he begged, “treat my life and the lives of these fifty men as precious. We are your servants. Fire has come down from the sky and burned up the two captains who came before me, and their fifty men with them. But now, please, treat my life as precious.”
“Go down with him,” the angel of the Lord said to Elijah. “Don’t be afraid of him.” So Elijah left the hilltop and went down with the captain to the king.
Elijah told the king, “The Lord says this: You sent messengers to ask Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. Is it because there is no God in Israel you could ask for his word? Because of this, you will never get out of the bed you are in. You are sure to die.”
So Ahaziah died, and the Lord’s word that Elijah had spoken came true. Ahaziah had no son, so became king of Israel in his place. This happened in the second year that another , the son of , was king of Judah. The rest of what Ahaziah did is written in the records of the kings of Israel.
The Lord was about to take Elijah up into heaven by a whirlwind. Elijah was leaving Gilgal, and was with him.
Elisha had followed Elijah and served him ever since the day Elijah found him plowing with the oxen and put his own cloak on him.
Elijah said to Elisha, “Please wait here. The Lord has sent me on to .”
“As the Lord lives, and as you live,” Elisha answered, “I won’t leave you.” So the two of them went down to Bethel.
The prophets at Bethel, the men known as the , came out to Elisha. “Do you know that the Lord is taking your master from you today?” they asked.
“Yes, I know,” said Elisha. “Don’t talk about it.”
Then Elijah said to him, “Elisha, please wait here. The Lord has sent me to .”
And again Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, and as you live, I won’t leave you.” So they came to Jericho.
The sons of the prophets at Jericho came up to Elisha too. “Do you know that the Lord is taking your master from you today?” they asked.
“Yes, I know,” he answered. “Don’t talk about it.”
Then Elijah said to him, “Please wait here. The Lord has sent me to the .”
“As the Lord lives, and as you live,” said Elisha, “I won’t leave you.” So they went on, the two of them.
Fifty of the sons of the prophets went and stood some distance away, facing them, while the two of them stood beside the Jordan.
Elijah rolled up his cloak and struck the water with it. The water split apart, this way and that, and they both walked across on dry ground.
Once they were across, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I should do for you before I’m taken from you.”
“Please,” said Elisha, “let a double portion of your spirit be on me.”
“You have asked a hard thing,” said Elijah. “If you see me while I’m being taken from you, you will have it. If you don’t, you won’t.”
They were still walking on and talking when all at once a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” That was the last he saw of Elijah. He took hold of his own clothes and ripped them in two.
Elijah’s cloak had fallen from him. Elisha picked it up. He went back to the edge of the Jordan and stood there.
He struck the water with the cloak that had fallen from Elijah. “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he said. When Elisha, too, struck the water, it split apart, and he crossed over.
The sons of the prophets from Jericho were standing across from Elisha, and they saw him. “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha,” they said. Then they came to meet him, and they bowed to the ground in front of him.
“We have fifty strong men with us,” they said. “Please let them go and look for your master. The Spirit of the Lord may have taken him up and put him on some mountain, or in some valley.”
“Don’t send them,” said Elisha.
But they kept pressing him until he was ashamed, and he said, “Send them.” So they sent fifty men. The men searched for three days, but they didn’t find Elijah.
The men came back to Elisha while he was still at Jericho. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t go’?” he said to them.
The men of the city said to Elisha, “Please, my lord, you can see for yourself that this city stands in a pleasant spot. But the water is bad, and the land is barren.”
“Bring me a new jar,” said Elisha, “and put salt in it.” Then they brought it to him.
He went out to the spring where the water came from and threw the salt in. “The Lord says, ‘I have healed this water,’” he said. “‘No more death or barren land will come from it.’”
So the water was healed, as Elisha had said, and it has stayed healed to this day.
Elisha went up from Jericho to Bethel. On the way up, some youths came out of the town and mocked him. “Go up, you baldy!” they said. “Go up, you baldy!”
He looked behind him and saw them, and he cursed them in the Lord’s name. Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of those youths.
He went from there to , and then back to Samaria.