2 Kings 7; 2 Kings 8; 2 Kings 9; John 1:1-28

1 Elisha said, "Hear the LORD's word! This is what the LORD says: At this time tomorrow a seah of wheat flour will sell for a shekel at Samaria's gate, and two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel."

2 Then the officer, the one the king leaned on for support, spoke to the man of God: "Come on! Even if the LORD should make windows in the sky, how could that happen?" Elisha said, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you won't eat from it."

3 Now there were four men with skin disease at the entrance to the city. They said to each other, "What are we doing sitting here until we die?

4 If we decide, ‘Let's go into the city,' the famine is there, and we'll die in the city. But if we stay here, we'll die just the same. So let's go and surrender to the Aramean camp. If they let us live, we'll live. If they kill us, we'll die."

5 So they set out in the evening to the Aramean camp, and they came to the edge of the camp. But there was no one there because

6 the Lord had made the Aramean camp hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a strong army. They had said to each other, "Listen! Israel's king has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to come against us!"

7 So they had got up and fled in the evening, leaving their tents, horses, and donkeys. They left the camp exactly as it was and ran for their lives.

8 So these men with skin disease came to the edge of the camp. They entered a tent where they ate and drank. They carried off some silver, gold, and garments, and they hid them. Then they returned and went into another tent. They took more things from there, went away, and hid them.

9 But then they said to each other, "What we're doing isn't right. Today is a day of good news, but we're keeping quiet about it. If we wait until dawn, something bad will happen to us. Come on! Let's go and tell the palace."

10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers, telling them, "We went to the Aramean camp, and listen to this: No one was there, not even the sound of anyone! The only things there were tied-up horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were."

11 The gatekeepers shouted out the news, and it was reported within the palace.

12 The king got up in the night. He said to his servants, "Let me tell you what the Arameans are doing to us. They know we are starving, so they've left the camp to hide in the fields. They are thinking, The Israelites will come out from the city, and then we'll capture them alive and invade the city."

13 But one of his servants answered, "Please let some men take five of the horses that are left, and let's send them out to see what happens. They are in the same situation as the large number of Israelites who are left here; they are no better off than the large number of Israelites who've already perished."

14 So they chose two chariots with their horses. The king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, "Go and see!"

15 So they went after the Arameans as far as the Jordan River. The road was filled the whole way with garments and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their rush. The messengers returned and reported this to the king.

16 Then the people went out and looted the Aramean camp. And so it happened that a seah of wheat flour did sell for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, in agreement with the LORD's word.

17 But the king had put the officer whom he leaned on for support in charge of the city gate. The people trampled the officer at the gate, and he died. This was just what the man of God said when the king had come down to him.

18 Because when the man of God said to the king, "At this time tomorrow two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel at Samaria's gate, and one seah of wheat flour will sell for a shekel,"

19 the officer had answered the man of God, "Come on! Even if the LORD should make windows in the sky, how could that happen?" Then Elisha had said, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you won't eat from it."

20 That's exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him at the city gate, and he died.

1 Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had brought back to life: "You and your household must go away and live wherever you can, because the LORD has called for a famine. It is coming to the land and will last seven years."

2 So the woman went and did what the man of God asked. She and her household moved away, living in Philistia seven years.

3 When seven years had passed, the woman returned from Philistia. She went to appeal to the king for her house and her farmland.

4 The king was speaking to Gehazi, the man of God's servant, asking him, "Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done."

5 So Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had brought the dead to life. At that very moment, the woman whose son he had brought back to life began to appeal to the king for her house and her farmland. Gehazi said, "Your Majesty, this is the woman herself! And this is her son, the one Elisha brought to life!"

6 The king questioned the woman, and she told him her story. Then the king appointed an official to help her, saying, "Return everything that belongs to her, as well as everything that the farmland has produced, starting from the day she left the country until right now."

7 Now Elisha had gone to Damascus when Aram's King Ben-hadad became sick. The king was told, "The man of God has come all this way."

8 So the king said to Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Question the LORD through him: ‘Will I recover from this sickness?'"

9 So Hazael went out to meet Elisha. He took along forty camel-loads of Damascus' finest goods as a gift. He came and stood before Elisha and said, "Your son Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, sent me to you to ask, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?'"

10 Elisha said to him, "Go and tell him, ‘You will definitely recover,' but actually the LORD has shown me that he will die."

11 Elisha stared straight at Hazael until he felt uneasy. Then the man of God began to cry.

12 Hazael said, "Master, why are you crying?" "Because I know what violence you will do to the Israelites," Elisha said. "You will drive them from their forts with fire. You will kill their young men with the sword. You will smash their children and rip open their pregnant women."

13 Hazael replied, "How could your servant, who is nothing but a dog, do such mighty things?" Elisha said, "The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Aram."

14 Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. "What did Elisha say to you?" Ben-hadad asked. "He told me that you will certainly live," Hazael replied.

15 But the next day he took a blanket, soaked it in water, and put it over Ben-hadad's face until he died. Hazael succeeded him as king.

16 In the fifth year of Israel's King Joram, Ahab's son Jehoram, the son of Judah's King Jehoshaphat, became king.

17 He was 32 years old when he became king, and he ruled for eight years in Jerusalem.

18 He walked in the ways of Israel's kings, just as Ahab's dynasty had done, because he married Ahab's daughter. He did what was evil in the LORD's eyes.

19 Nevertheless, because of his servant David, the LORD wasn't willing to destroy Judah. The LORD had promised to preserve a lamp for David and his sons forever.

20 During Jehoram's rule Edom rebelled against Judah's power and appointed their own king.

21 Jehoram along with all his chariots crossed over to Zair. He got up at night to attack the Edomites who had surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but his army fled back home.

22 So Edom has been independent of Judah to this day. Libnah rebelled at the same time.

23 The rest of Jehoram's deeds and all that he accomplished, aren't they written in the official records of Judah's kings?

24 Jehoram died and was buried with his ancestors in David's City. His son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.

25 Ahaziah, the son of Judah's king Jehoram, became king in the twelfth year of Israel's King Joram, Ahab's son.

26 Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king, and he ruled for one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah; she was the granddaughter of Israel's King Omri.

27 He walked in the ways of Ahab's dynasty, doing what was evil in the LORD's eyes, just as Ahab's dynasty had done, because he had married into Ahab's family.

28 Ahaziah went with Joram, Ahab's son, to fight against Aram's King Hazael at Ramoth-gilead, where the Arameans wounded Joram.

29 King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had given him at Ramah in his battle with Aram's King Hazael. Then Judah's King Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, went down to visit Joram, Ahab's son, at Jezreel because he had been wounded.

1 The prophet Elisha called to a member of the group of prophets, "Get ready, take this jug of oil with you, and go to Ramoth-gilead.

2 When you arrive there, look for Jehu, Jehoshaphat's son and Nimshi's grandson. Go to him, then pull him away from his associates, taking him to a private room.

3 Take the jug of oil and pour it on his head. Then say, ‘This is what the LORD has said: I anoint you king of Israel.' Then open the door, and run out of there without stopping."

4 So the young prophet went to Ramoth-gilead.

5 He came in, and the military commanders were sitting right there. He said, "Commander, I have a word for you." "For which one of us?" Jehu asked. The young prophet said, "For you, Commander."

6 So Jehu got up and went inside. The prophet then poured oil on his head and said to him, "This is what the LORD, Israel's God, says: I anoint you king over the LORD's people, over Israel.

7 You will strike down your master Ahab's family. In this way I will take revenge for the violence done by Jezebel to my servants the prophets and to all the LORD's servants.

8 Ahab's whole family will die. I will eliminate from Ahab everyone who urinates on a wall, whether slave or free, in Israel.

9 I will make Ahab's dynasty like the dynasty of Jeroboam, Nebat's son, and like the dynasty of Baasha, Ahijah's son.

10 And as for Jezebel: The dogs will devour her in the area of Jezreel. No one will bury her." Then the young prophet opened the door and ran.

11 Jehu went out to his master's officers. They said to him, "Is everything okay? Why did this fanatic come to you?" Jehu said to them, "You know the man and the nonsense he talks."

12 "That's a lie!" they said. "Come on, tell us!" Jehu replied, "This is what he said to me: ‘This is what the LORD says: I anoint you king of Israel.'"

13 Then each man quickly took his cloak and put it beneath Jehu on the paved steps. They blew a trumpet and said, "Jehu has become king!"

14 Then Jehu, Jehoshaphat's son and Nimshi's grandson, plotted against Joram. Now Joram along with all of Israel had been guarding Ramoth-gilead against Aram's King Hazael,

15 but King Joram had gone back to Jezreel to recover from wounds that the Arameans had given him when he fought Hazael. So Jehu said, "If this is the way you feel, then don't let anyone escape from the city to talk about it in Jezreel."

16 Then Jehu got on a chariot and drove to Jezreel because Joram was resting there. Judah's King Ahaziah had also come to visit Joram.

17 The guard standing on the tower at Jezreel saw a crowd of people coming with Jehu. He said, "I see a crowd of people." Joram said, "Take a chariot driver. Send him out to meet them to ask, ‘Do you come in peace?'"

18 So the driver went to meet him and said, "The king asks, ‘Do you come in peace?'" Jehu replied, "What do you care about peace? Come around and follow me." Meanwhile, the tower guard reported, "The messenger met them, but he isn't returning."

19 The king sent a second driver. He came to them and said, "The king asks, ‘Do you come in peace?'" Jehu said, "What do you care about peace? Come around and follow me."

20 The tower guard reported, "The messenger met them, but he isn't returning. And the style of chariot driving is like Jehu, Nimshi's son. Jehu drives like a madman."

21 Joram said, "Hitch up the chariot!" So they hitched up his chariot. Then Israel's King Joram and Judah's King Ahaziah—each in his own chariot—went out to meet Jehu. They happened to meet him at the plot of ground that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite.

22 When Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Do you come in peace, Jehu?" He said, "How can there be peace as long as the immoralities of your mother Jezebel and her many acts of sorcery continue?"

23 Then Joram turned his chariot around and fled. He shouted to Ahaziah, "It's a trap, Ahaziah!"

24 Jehu took his bow and shot Joram in the back. The arrow went through his heart, and he fell down in his chariot.

25 Jehu said to Bidkar his chariot officer, "Pick him up, and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were driving chariot teams behind his father Ahab when the LORD spoke this prophecy about him:

26 Yesterday I saw Naboth's blood and his sons' blood, declares the LORD. I swear that I will pay you back on this very plot of ground, declares the LORD. Now pick him up, and throw him on that plot of ground, in agreement with the LORD's word."

27 Judah's King Ahaziah saw this and fled on the road to Beth-haggan. Jehu chased after him. "Do the same to him!" he commanded. They shot him in his chariot on the way up to Gur, near Ibleam. Ahaziah fled to Megiddo and died there.

28 His servants carried him back in a chariot to Jerusalem. He was buried in his tomb with his ancestors in David's City.

29 Ahaziah had become Judah's king in the eleventh year of Ahab's son Joram.

30 Jehu then went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard of it, she put on her eye shadow and arranged her hair. She looked down out of the window.

31 When Jehu came through the gate, she said, "Do you come in peace, Zimri, you master murderer?"

32 Jehu looked up to the window and said, "Who's on my side? Anyone?" Two or three high officials looked down at him.

33 Then he said, "Throw her out!" So they threw her out of the window. Some of her blood splattered against the wall and on the horses, and they trampled her.

34 Jehu then went in to eat and drink. He said, "Deal with this cursed woman and bury her. She was, after all, a king's daughter."

35 They went to bury her, but they couldn't find her body. Only her skull was left, along with her hands and feet.

36 They went back and reported this to Jehu. He said, "This is the LORD's word spoken through his servant Elijah from Tishbe: Dogs will devour Jezebel's flesh in the area of Jezreel.

37 Jezebel's corpse will be like dung spread out in a field in that plot of land in Jezreel, so no one will be able to say, This was Jezebel."

1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

2 The Word was with God in the beginning.

3 Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. What came into being

4 through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn't extinguish the light.

6 A man named John was sent from God.

7 He came as a witness to testify concerning the light, so that through him everyone would believe in the light.

8 He himself wasn't the light, but his mission was to testify concerning the light.

9 The true light that shines on all people was coming into the world.

10 The light was in the world, and the world came into being through the light, but the world didn't recognize the light.

11 The light came to his own people, and his own people didn't welcome him.

12 But those who did welcome him, those who believed in his name, he authorized to become God's children,

13 born not from blood nor from human desire or passion, but born from God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his home among us. We have seen his glory, glory like that of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

15 John testified about him, crying out, "This is the one of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than me because he existed before me.'"

16 From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace;

17 as the Law was given through Moses, so grace and truth came into being through Jesus Christ.

18 No one has ever seen God. God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made God known.

19 This is John's testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, "Who are you?"

20 John confessed (he didn't deny but confessed), "I'm not the Christ."

21 They asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?" John said, "I'm not." "Are you the prophet?" John answered, "No."

22 They asked, "Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"

23 John replied, "I am a voice crying out in the wilderness, Make the Lord's path straight, just as the prophet Isaiah said."

24 Those sent by the Pharisees

25 asked, "Why do you baptize if you aren't the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?"

26 John answered, "I baptize with water. Someone greater stands among you, whom you don't recognize.

27 He comes after me, but I'm not worthy to untie his sandal straps."

28 This encounter took place across the Jordan in Bethany where John was baptizing.