Lives of Scripture

Elisha, a farmer plowing with oxen, was called by Elijah, who threw his cloak over him; Elisha said goodbye to his family and became Elijah's attendant, later asking for and receiving "a double portion" of his spirit as Elijah was taken up to heaven (1 Kings 19:19-21; 2 Kings 2:1-15). His ministry shows an unusual concentration of miracles: he healed Jericho's poisoned water, multiplied a widow's oil to pay her debts, raised a Shunammite woman's son from death, fed a hundred men from twenty loaves, and made an axe head float (2 Kings 2:19-22; 4:1-44; 6:1-7). When some youths mocked him, Elisha's curse brought two bears out of the woods to maul forty-two of them — a stark judgment on contempt for God's prophet (2 Kings 2:23-25). Elisha healed Naaman, a Syrian military commander, of leprosy after Naaman washed seven times in the Jordan, but when Elisha's servant Gehazi secretly took payment Naaman had offered and Elisha had refused, Gehazi was struck with the same leprosy (2 Kings 5). Elisha wept when he foresaw the atrocities Hazael would commit as king of Aram, anointed Jehu to purge Ahab's house, and once had God blind an Aramean raiding party, then showed them mercy instead of harm (2 Kings 6:8-23; 8:7-15; 9:1-3). Remarkably, a dead man thrown into Elisha's grave was revived simply by touching his bones (2 Kings 13:20-21).