1. THE SONS of the prophets said to Elisha, Look now, the place where we live before you is too small for us.
2. Let us go to the Jordan, and each man get there a [house] beam; and let us make us a place there where we may dwell. And he answered, Go.
3. One said, Be pleased to go with your servants. He answered, I will go.
4. So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.
5. But as one was felling his beam, the axhead fell into the water; and he cried, Alas, my master, for it was borrowed!
6. The man of God said, Where did it fall? When shown the place, Elisha cut off a stick and threw it in there, and the iron floated.
7. He said, Pick it up. And he put out his hand and took it.
8. When the king of Syria was warring against Israel, after counseling with his servants, he said, In such and such a place shall be my camp.
9. Then the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Beware that you pass not such a place, for the Syrians are coming down there.
10. Then the king of Israel sent to the place of which [Elisha] told and warned him; and thus he protected and saved himself there repeatedly.
11. Therefore the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing. He called his servants and said, Will you show me who of us is for the king of Israel?
12. One of his servants said, None, my lord O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber.
13. He said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him. And it was told him, He is in Dothan.
14. So [the Syrian king] sent there horses, chariots, and a great army. They came by night and surrounded the city.
15. When the servant of the man of God rose early and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was around the city. Elisha's servant said to him, Alas, my master! What shall we do?