Elisha Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Miracles === [[Image:ElijahRefusingGifts PieterDeGrebber.jpg|left|thumb|''Elisha Refusing the Gifts of [[Naaman]]'', by [[Pieter de Grebber]] 1630]] By means of the mantle left to fall from Elijah, Elisha miraculously recrossed the Jordan and returned to Jericho, where he won the gratitude of the people by purifying the unwholesome waters of their spring and making them drinkable.<ref name=ocarm/> When the armies of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]], Israel and [[Edom]], then allied against [[Mesha]], the [[Moab]]ite king, were being tortured by drought in the [[Edom|Idumea]]n desert, Elisha consented to intervene. His double prediction regarding relief from drought and victory over the Moabites was fulfilled on the following morning.<ref name=je/> When a group of boys (or youths){{efn|Hebrew {{transliteration|hbo|na'ar}}, translated 'youths' in the [[New International Version]]. The ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' entry on [http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5682-elisha Elisha] states, "The offenders were not children, but were called so ({{transliteration|hbo|"ne'arim"}}) because they lacked ({{transliteration|hbo|"meno'arim"}}) all religion ([[SoαΉah]] 46b)." Although the [[Authorized King James Version]] used the words "little children", theologian [[John Gill (theologian)|John Gill]] stated in his [http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/2-kings-2-23.html ''Exposition of the Bible''] that the word was "used of persons of thirty or forty years of age".}} from Bethel taunted the prophet for his baldness, Elisha cursed them in the name of [[Yahweh]] and two female bears came out of the forest and tore forty-two of the boys.<ref name=duffy>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Duffy|first=D|year=1909|title=Eliseus|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05386c.htm|encyclopedia=[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]|volume=5|location=New York|publisher=Robert Appleton Company|access-date=7 January 2014}}</ref> To relieve a prophet's widow importuned by a harsh creditor, Elisha multiplied a little oil as to enable her not only to pay her debt but to provide for her family needs.<ref>Zucker, David J., "Elijah and Elisha" Part II, ''Jewish Bible Quarterly'', vol.41, no.1, 2013</ref> Jewish tradition identifies the widow's husband as [[Obadiah (1 Kings)|Obadiah]], the servant of [[King Ahab]], who hid 100 prophets of Yahweh in two caves.<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Kings|18:3β16|NKJV}}; cf. [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/2_kings/4-1.htm Pulpit Commentary on 2 Kings 4], accessed 22 December 2017</ref> According to the first [[Books of Kings|Book of Kings]], Elijah resuscitated [[Raising of the son of the widow of Zarephath|a Phoenician boy]] in the city of [[Sarepta|Zarephath]].<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Kings|17}}</ref> In the second Book of Kings, Elisha obtained for [[Woman of Shunem|a rich lady of Shunem]] the birth of a son. When the child died some years later, Elisha successfully [[Raising of the son of the woman of Shunem|resuscitated the child]].<ref name=oca/> [[File:096.A Famine in Samaria.jpg|thumb|''A Famine in Samaria'' (illustration by [[Gustave DorΓ©]] from the 1866 {{lang|fr|La Sainte Bible}})]] To nourish the sons of the prophets pressed by famine, Elisha changed a pottage made from poisonous [[gourd]]s into wholesome food.<ref name=ocarm/> He fed a hundred men with twenty loaves of new [[barley]], leaving some leftover,<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|4:42β44|HE}}</ref> in a story which is comparable with the [[Feeding of the multitude|miracles of Jesus]] in the [[New Testament]].<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|14:15β21}}, {{bibleverse|Matthew|15:32β38}}, {{bibleverse|John|6:5β14}}</ref> Elisha cured the Syrian military commander [[Naaman]] of [[leprosy]] but punished his own servant [[Gehazi]], who took money from Naaman.<ref name=oca>{{cite web|url=http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/06/14/101718-prophet-elisha|title=Elisha|publisher=Orthodox Church in America}}</ref> Naaman, at first reluctant, obeyed Elisha, and washed seven times in the [[River Jordan]]. Finding his flesh "restored like the flesh of a little child", the general was so impressed by this evidence of God's power, and by the disinterestedness of his prophet, as to express his deep conviction that "there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel."<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|5:15}}</ref> Elisha allowed Naaman to continue in the service of the Syrian king and therefore be present in the worship of [[Rimmon]] in the Syrian temple. According to the [[Gospel of Luke]], [[Jesus]] referred to Naaman's healing when he said, "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet: and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian."<ref>{{bibleverse|Luke|4:27|KJV}}</ref> Elisha's actions included repeatedly saving King [[Jehoram of Israel]] from the ambushes planned by [[Hadadezer|Benhadad]],<ref name=duffy/> ordering the elders to shut the door against the messenger of Israel's ungrateful king,<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|6:25β32|HE}}</ref> bewildering with a strange blindness the soldiers of the Syrian king,<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|6:13β23|HE}}</ref> making iron float to relieve from embarrassment a son of a prophet,<ref name=ocarm>{{cite web|url=http://ocarm.org/en/content/liturgy/st-elisha-prophet-m|title=Eliseus|publisher=the Order of Carmelites|access-date=2014-01-07|archive-date=2020-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526202542/http://ocarm.org/en/content/liturgy/st-elisha-prophet-m|url-status=dead}}</ref> and confidently predicting the sudden flight of the enemy at the siege of Samaria and the consequent cessation of the famine in the city,<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|7:1β20|HE}}</ref> Elisha then journeyed to Damascus and prophesied that [[Hazael]] would be king over Syria.<ref name=Basilica/> Elisha directs one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu, the son of [[Jehoshaphat (father of Jehu)|Jehoshaphat]], as king of Israel, and commissions him to cut off the house of Ahab.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elisha "Elisha". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 1 December 2023]</ref> The death of Jehoram, pierced by an arrow from Jehu's bow, the end of [[Jezebel]],<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|9:30β34}}</ref> and the slaughter of Ahab's seventy sons, proved how he executed that demand.<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|9:11β10:30|HE}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page