Part 216 (1/2)

2:18. And they came back to him: for he abode at Jericho, and he said to them: Did I not say to you? Do not send.

2:l9. And the men of the city, said to Eliseus: Behold the situation of this city is very good, as thou, my lord, seest: but the waters are very bad, and the ground barren.

2:20. And he said: Bring me a new vessel, and put salt into it. And when they had brought it,

2:21. He went out to the spring of the waters, and cast the salt into it, and said: Thus saith the Lord: I have healed these waters, and there shall be no more in them death or barrenness.

2:22. And the waters were healed unto this day, according to the word of Eliseus, which he spoke.

2:23. And he went up from thence to Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, little boys came out of the city and mocked him, saying: Go up, thou bald head, go up, thou bald head.

2:24. And looking back, he saw them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord: and there came forth two bears out of the forest, and tore of them, two and forty boys.

Cursed them... This curse, which was followed by so visible a judgment of G.o.d, was not the effect of pa.s.sion, or of a desire of revenging himself; but of zeal for religion, which was insulted by these boys, in the person of the prophet; and of a divine inspiration: G.o.d punis.h.i.+ng in this manner the inhabitants of Bethel, (the chief seat of the calf wors.h.i.+p,) who had trained up their children in a prejudice against the true religion and its ministers.

2:25. And from thence he went to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.

4 Kings Chapter 3

The kings of Israel, Juda, and Edom, fight against the king of Moab.

They want water, which Eliseus procureth without rain: and prophesieth victory. The king of Moab is overthrown, his city is besieged: he sacrificeth his firstborn son: so the Israelites raise the siege.

3:1. And Joram the son of Achab, reigned over Israel, in Samaria, in the eighteenth year of Josaphat, king of Juda. And he reigned twelve years.

3:2. And he did evil before the Lord, but not like his father and his mother: for he took away the statues of Baal, which his father had made.

3:3. Nevertheless, he stuck to the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, nor did he depart from them.

3:4. Now Mesa, king of Moab, nourished many sheep, and he paid to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs, and a hundred thousand rams, with their fleeces.

3:5. And when Achab was dead, he broke the league which he had made with the king of Israel.

3:6. And king Joram went out that day from Samaria, and mustered all Israel.

3:7. And he sent to Josaphat; king of Juda, saying: The king of Moab is revolted from me: come with me against him to battle. And he answered: I will come up: he that is mine, is thine: my people are thy people: and my horses, thy horses.

3:8. And he said: Which way shall we go up? But he answered: By the desert of Edom.

3:9. So the king of Israel, and the king of Juda, and the king of Edom, went, and they fetched a compa.s.s of seven days journey, and there was no water for the army, and for the beasts, that followed them.

3:10. And the king of Israel said: Alas, alas, alas, the Lord hath gathered us three kings together, to deliver us into the hands of Moab.

3:11. And Josaphat said: Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may beseech the Lord by him? And one of the servants of the king of Israel answered: Here is Eliseus, the son of Saphat, who poured water on the hands of Elias.

3:12. And Josaphat said: The word of the Lord is with him. And the king of Israel, and Josaphat, king of Juda, and the king of Edom, went down to him.

3:13. And Eliseus said to the king of Israel: What have I to do with thee? go to the prophets of thy father, and thy mother. And the king of Israel said to him: Why hath the Lord gathered together these three kings, to deliver them into the hands of Moab?

3:14. And Eliseus said to him: As the Lord of hosts liveth, in whose sight I stand, if I did not reverence the face of Josaphat, king of Juda, I would not have hearkened to thee, nor looked on thee.