now up, and shining upon the waters, the Moabites saw the waters over-against them red, like blood. And they said: It is the blood of the sword: the kings have fought among themselves, and they have killed one another: go now, Moab, to the spoils. And they went into the camp of Israel: but Israel rising up defeated Moab, who fled before them. And they being conquerors went and smote Moab. And they destroyed the cities: and they filled every goodly field, every man casting his stone: and they stopt up all the springs of waters: and cut down all the trees that bore fruit, so that brick walls only remained: and the city was beset by the slingers, and a great part thereof destroyed.

And when the king of Moab saw this, to wit, that the enemies had prevailed, he took with him seven hundred men that drew the sword, to break in upon the king of Edom: but they could not. Then he took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall: and there was great indignation in Israel, and presently they departed from him, and returned into their own country.

SECT. LXXXV. FURTHER HISTORY AND MIRACLES OF ELISEUS.

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XXI. 1-6.

Joram.-And Josaphat slept with his fathers and was 2 Par. buried with them in the city of David: and Joram B.C. 889. his son reigned in his stead.

And he had brethren the sons of Josaphat, Azarias, and Jahiel, and Zacharias, and Azaria, and Michael, and Saphatias: all these were the sons of Josaphat king of Juda. And their father gave them great gifts of silver and of gold, and pensions, with strong cities in Juda: but the kingdom he gave to Joram, because he was the eldest. So Joram rose up over the kingdom of his father: and when he had established himself, he slew all his brethren with the sword, and some of the princes of Israel. Joram was two and thirty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Achab had done : for his wife was a daughter of Achab, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

Miracles of Eliseus.-Now a certain woman of the wives of 4 Kings the prophets cried to Eliseus, saying: Thy servant my husband Iv. 1–44. is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant was one that feared God, and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him. And Eliseus said to her: What wilt thou have me do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? And she answered: I thy handmaid have nothing in my house but a

little oil to anoint me. And he said to her: Go, borrow of all thy neighbours empty vessels not a few. And go in, and shut thy door, when thou art within, and thy sons: and pour out thereof into all those vessels: and when they are full take them away. So the woman went, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons: they brought her the vessels, and she poured in. And when the vessels were full, she said to her son: Bring me yet a vessel. And he answered: I have no more. And the oil stood. And she came and told the man of God. And he said: Go, sell the oil, and pay thy creditor: and thou and thy sons live of the rest.*

And there was a day when Eliseus passed by Sunam: now there was a great woman there, who detained him to eat bread and as he passed often that way, he turned into her house to eat bread. And she said to her husband: I perceive

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that this is a holy man of God, who often passeth by us. Let us therefore make him a little chamber, and put a little bed in it for him, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick, that when he cometh to us, he may abide there.

Now there was a certain day when he came and turned into the chamber, and rested there. And he said to Giezi his servant Call this Sunamitess. And when he had called her, and she stood before him, he said to his servant: Say to her: Behold thou hast diligently served us in all things, what wilt thou have me to do for thee? hast thou any business, and wilt thou that I speak to the king, or to the general of the army? And she answered: I dwell in the midst of my own people. And he said: What will she then that I do for her? And Giezi said: Do not ask, for she hath no son, and her husband is old. Then he hid him call her. And when she was called, and stood before the door, he said to her: At this time, and this same hour, next year, thou shalt have a son in thy womb. But she answered: Do not, I beseech thee, my lord, thou man of God, do not deceive thy handmaid. And the woman conceived, and brought forth a son in the time, and at the same hour, that Eliseus had said.

And the child grew. And on a certain day, when he went out to his father to the reapers, he said to his father: My head acheth, my head acheth. But he said to his servant: Take him, and carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, she set him on her knees until noon, and then he died. And she went up and laid him upon the bed of the man of God, and shut the door: and going out, she called her husband, and said: Send with me, I beseech thee, one of thy * This and the next miracle were very similar to some of the miracles of Elia".

servants, and an ass, that I may run to the man of God, and come again. And he said to her: Why dost thou go to him? to-day is neither new moon nor sabbath. She answered: I will go. And she saddled an ass, and commanded her servant: Drive, and make haste, make no stay in going, and do that which I bid thee.

So she went forward, and came to the man of God to mount Carmel and when the man of God saw her coming towards, he said to Giezi his servant: Behold that Sunamitess. Go therefore to meet her, and say to her: Is all well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son? And she answered: Well. And when she came to the man of God to the mount, she caught hold on his feet: and Giezi came to remove her. And the man of God said: Let her alone, for her soul is in anguish, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. And she said to him: Did I ask a son of my lord? did I not say to thee: Do not deceive me? Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him not and if any man salute thee, answer him not and lay my staff upon the face of the child. But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose, therefore, and followed her.

But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child, and there was no voice nor sense: and he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: The child is not risen. Eliseus therefore went into the house, and behold the child lay dead on his bed and going in he shut the door upon him, and upon the child, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the child: and he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands and he bowed himself upon him, and the child's flesh grew warm. Then he returned and walked in the house, once to and fro: and he went up, and lay upon him: and the child gaped seven times, and opened his eyes. And he called Giezi, and said to him: Call this Sunamitess. And she being called went in to him, and he said: Take up thy son. She came and fell at his feet, and worshipped upon the ground, and took up her son, and went out.

And Eliseus returned to Galgal, and there was a famine in the land, and the sons of the prophets dwelt before him. And he said to one of his servants: Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather wild herbs: and he found something like a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds of the field, and filled his mantle, and coming back he shred them into the pot of pot

4 Kings XV. 1-27.

tage, for he knew not what it was. And they poured it out for their companions to eat and when they had tasted of the pottage, they cried out, saying: Death is in the pot, O man of God. And they could not eat thereof. But he said: Bring some meal. And when they had brought it, he cast it into the pot, and said: Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was now no bitterness in the pot.

And a certain man came from Baalsalisa, bringing to the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and new corn in his scrip. And he said: Give to the people, that they may eat. And his servant answered him: How much is this, that I should set it before a hundred men? He said again: Give to the people, that they may eat for thus saith the Lord: They shall eat, and there shall be left. So he set it before them and they ate, and there was left, according to the word of the Lord.*

Story of Naaman.-Naaman, general of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable: for by him the Lord gave deliverance to Syria, and he was a valiant man and rich, but a leper.

Now there had gone out bandst from Syria, and had led away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited upon Naaman's wife. And she said to her mistress: I wish my master had been with the prophet that is in Samaria: he would certainly have healed him of the leprosy which he hath. Then Naaman went in to his lord, and told him, saying: Thus and thus said the girl from the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said to him: Go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment, and brought the letter to the king of Israel, in these words: When thou shalt receive this letter, know that I have sent to thee Naaman my servant, that thou mayst heal him of his leprosy. And when the king of Israels had read the letter, he rent his garments, and said: Am I God, to be able to kill and give life, that this man hath sent to me, to heal a man of his leprosy? mark, and see how he seeketh occasions against me. And when Eliseus the man of God had heard this, to wit, that the king of Israel had rent his garments, he sent to him, saying: Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come to me. and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel.

*This miracle prefigured the multiplication of the loaves by our Lord.
+Bands of soldiers.
Benadad.

§ This was Joram. He had the same name as the king of Juda.

So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus and Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thou shalt be clean. Naaman was angry, and went away, saying: I thought he would have come out to me, and standing would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me. Are not the Abana and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean?

So as he turned, and was going away with indignation, his servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, surely thou shouldst have done it: how much rather what he now hath said to thee: Wash, and thou shalt be clean? Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God: and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child, and he was made clean. And returning to the man of God with all his train, he came, and stood before him, and said: In truth, I know there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel. I beseech thee therefore take a blessing* of thy servant. But he answered: As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And when he pressed him, he still refused.

And Naaman said: As thou wilt: but I beseech thee, grant to me thy servant, to take from hence two mules' burden of earth † for thy servant will not henceforth offer holocaust, or victim, to other gods, but to the Lord. But there is only this, for which thou shalt entreat the Lord for thy servant; when my master goeth into the temple of Remmon to worship, and he leaneth upon my hand, if I bow down in the temple of Remmon, when he boweth down in the same place, that the Lord pardon me thy servant for this thing. And he said to him: Go in peace. So he departed from him in the spring time of the earth.

But Giezi the servant of the man of God said: My master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving of him that

i.e. a present.

To make an altar.

Go in peace. What the prophet here allowed was not an outward conformity to an idolatrous worship, but only a service which by his office he owed to his master; who on all public occasions leaned on him; so that his bowing down when his master bowed himself down was not in effect adoring the idols; nor was it so understood by the standers by, since he publicly professed himself a worshipper of the only true and living God but it was no more than doing a civil office to the king his master, whose leaning upon him obliged him to bow at the same time that he bowed. DoUAY BIBLE.