2 Kings 2 - Easy To Read Version Easy To Read Version
2 Kings 2

¹ It was near the time for the Lord to take Elijah by a whirlwind up into heaven. Elijah went with Elisha to Gilgal.

² Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, because the Lord told me to go to Bethel.”

³ The group of prophets [8] at Bethel came to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?”

⁴ Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, because the Lord told me to go to Jericho.”

⁵ The group of prophets [9] at Jericho came to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?”

⁶ Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, because the Lord told me to go to the Jordan River.”

⁷ There were 50 men from the group of prophets [10] that followed them. Elijah and Elisha stopped at the Jordan River. The 50 men stood far away from Elijah and Elisha.

⁸ Elijah took off his coat, folded it, and hit the water with it. The water separated to the right and to the left. Then Elijah and Elisha crossed the river on dry ground.

⁹ After they crossed the river, Elijah said to Elisha, “What do you want me to do for you before God takes me away from you?”

¹⁰ Elijah said, “You have asked a hard thing. If you see me when I am taken from you, then that will happen. But if {you don’t see me when I am taken from you}, then it won’t happen.”

¹¹ Elijah and Elisha were walking and talking together. Suddenly, some horses and a chariot [11] came and separated Elijah from Elisha. The horses and the chariot were like fire! Then Elijah was carried up into heaven in a whirlwind.

¹² Elisha saw it, and shouted, “My father! My father! The Chariot of Israel and his horse soldiers! [12] ”

¹³ Elijah’s coat had fallen to the ground, so Elisha picked it up. Elisha hit the water and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?”

¹⁴ Just as Elisha hit the water, the water separated to the right and to the left! And Elisha crossed the river.

¹⁵ When the group of prophets [13] at Jericho saw Elisha, they said, “Elijah’s spirit is now on Elisha!” They came to meet Elisha. They bowed very low to the ground before Elisha.

¹⁶ They said to him, “Look, we have 50 good men. Please let them go and look for your master. Maybe the Lord’s Spirit has taken Elijah up and dropped him on some mountain or in some valley.”

¹⁷ The group of prophets [14] begged Elisha until he was embarrassed. Then Elisha said, “Fine, send the men {to look for Elijah}.”

¹⁸ So the men went to Jericho where Elisha was staying. {They told him that they could not find Elijah.} Elisha said to them, “I told you not to go.”

¹⁹ The men of the city said to Elisha, “Sir, you can see this city is in a nice place. But the water is bad. That is why the land cannot grow crops.”

²⁰ Elisha said, “Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it.”

²¹ Then Elisha went out to the place where the water began flowing {from the ground}. Elisha threw the salt into the water. He said, “The Lord said, ‘I am making this water pure! From now on this water will not cause any more death or keep the land from growing crops.’”

²² The water became pure. And the water is still good today. It happened just like Elisha said.

²³ Elisha went from that city to Bethel. Elisha was walking up the hill to the city, and some boys were coming down out of the city. They began making fun of Elisha. They said to him, “Go up, you bald headed man! Go up, you bald headed man!”

²⁴ Elisha looked back and saw them. He asked the Lord to cause bad things to happen to them. Then two bears came out of the forest and attacked the boys. There were 42 boys ripped apart by the bears.

²⁵ Elisha left Bethel and went to Mount Carmel. And from there, Elisha went back to Samaria.