Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here please, for Adonai has sent me on to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As Adonai lives, and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.
So the king sought counsel and made two golden calves. He said to them, “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough! Here are your gods O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
Then he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month—in the month that he had made up from his own heart—and made up a festival for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar to burn incense.
From there he went up to Bethel. As he was going up along the road, some young boys came out of the city. They mocked him saying to him, “Go on up, baldy! Go on up, baldy!”
Then Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here please, for Adonai has sent me on to Jericho.” But he said, “As Adonai lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho.
Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here please, for Adonai has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As Adonai lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So both of them went on.
They left us, but they didn’t really belong to us. If they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they left us so it became clear that none of them belongs to us.
Now when Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he asked Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this boy?” Abner said, “As your soul lives, your majesty, I don’t know.”
“So now my lord, as Adonai lives and as your soul lives, since Adonai has restrained you from shedding blood and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies and those who are seeking to harm my lord be as Nabal.