Healing of the Water

Healing of the Water

2 Kings 2:15-25

Bible Stories

2 Kings 2:15 Then the sons of the prophets, who were at Jericho, watching from a distance, said, “The spirit of Elijah has rested upon Elisha.” And approaching to meet him, they reverenced him prone on the ground.

2 Kings 2:16 And they said to him, “Behold, with your servants there are fifty strong men, who are able to go forth and to seek your lord. For perhaps, the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley.” But he said, “Do not send them.”

2 Kings 2:17 And they urged him, until he acquiesced and said, “Send them.” And they sent fifty men. And after they had searched for three days, they did not find him.

2 Kings 2:18 And they returned to him, for he was living in Jericho. And he said to them: “Did I not say to you, ‘Do not send them?’ ”

2 Kings 2:19 Also, the men of the city said to Elisha: “Behold, this city is a very good habitation, as you yourself perceive, O lord. But the waters are very bad, and the ground is barren.”

2 Kings 2:20 And so he said, “Bring a new vessel to me, and place salt in it.” And when they had brought it,

2 Kings 2:21 he went out to the source of the waters, and he cast the salt into it. And he said: “Thus says the Lord: I have healed these waters, and no longer shall there be death or barrenness in them.”

2 Kings 2:22 Then the waters were healed, even to this day, in accord with the word of Elisha, which he spoke.

2 Kings 2:23 Then he went up from there into Bethel. And as he was ascending along the way, little boys departed from the city. And they were mocking him, saying: “Go up, bald head! Go up, bald head!”

2 Kings 2:24 And when he had looked back, he saw them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two bears went out from the forest, and they wounded forty-two boys among them.

2 Kings 2:25 Then he went away from there to mount Carmel. And he returned from there into Samaria.