8. ‘By what route shall we attack?’ he asked.‘Through the Desert of Edom,’ he answered.
9. So the king of Israel set out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. After a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them.
10. ‘What!’ exclaimed the king of Israel. ‘Has the Lord called us three kings together only to deliver us into the hands of Moab?’
11. But Jehoshaphat asked, ‘Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may enquire of the Lord?’An officer of the king of Israel answered, ‘Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.’
12. Jehoshaphat said, ‘The word of the Lord is with him.’ So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
13. Elisha said to the king of Israel, ‘Why do you want to involve me? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.’‘No,’ the king of Israel answered, ‘because it was the Lord who called us three kings together to deliver us into the hands of Moab.’
14. Elisha said, ‘As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not pay any attention to you.
15. But now bring me a harpist.’While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came on Elisha
16. and he said, ‘This is what the Lord says: I will fill this valley with pools of water.