2 Kings 8: Elisha’s Prophecy & Jehoram’s Reign – Clear & Engaging Audio Bible Reading | A Mother’s Grief, God’s Plan, and a Wicked King’s Fate

Experience the dramatic events of 2 Kings 8 with this clear and engaging audio recording. Follow the story of Elisha’s prophecy and how a mother’s grief was comforted, the triumph of God’s plan despite a wicked king’s reign, and the fate that awaited him. Perfect for study, reflection, or meditation, immerse yourself in this powerful chapter and let the Scriptures come alive.

2 KINGS 8 (NIV)

1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away
with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has
decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.”

2 The woman
proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and
stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

3 At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines
and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.

4 The king was talking
to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the
great things Elisha has done.”

5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how
Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought
back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.
Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom
Elisha restored to life.”

6 The king asked the woman about it, and she told
him.
Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back
everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from
the day she left the country until now.”

7 Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king
was told, “The man of God has come all the way up here,”

8 he said to Hazael,
“Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the Lord through
him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”

9 Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of
all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said,
“Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this
illness?’”

10 Elisha answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’
Nevertheless, the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die.”

11 He
stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed. Then the man of
God began to weep.

12 “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael.
“Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You
will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword,
dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women.”

13 Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?”
“The Lord has shown me that you will become king of Aram,” answered Elisha.

14 Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked,
“What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael replied, “He told me that you would
certainly recover.”

15 But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in
water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael
succeeded him as king.

16 In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was
king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah.

17
He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem
eight years.

18 He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of
Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of
the Lord.

19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not
willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his
descendants forever.

20 In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own
king.

21 So Jehoram went to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites
surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by
night; his army, however, fled back home.

22 To this day Edom has been in
rebellion against Judah. Libnah revolted at the same time.

23 As for the other events of Jehoram’s reign, and all he did, are they not
written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

24 Jehoram rested
with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And Ahaziah
his son succeeded him as king.

25 In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of
Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.

26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when
he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was
Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.

27 He followed the ways of
the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab
had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.

28 Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at
Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram;

29 so King Joram returned to
Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth
in his battle with Hazael king of Aram.
Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram
son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.