(1) When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha had set out from Gilgal.
(2) Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Bethel.” “As the LORD lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. (3) Disciples of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” He replied, “I know it, too; be silent.”
(10) Jacob left Beer-sheba, and set out for Haran. (11) He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. (12) He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it. (13) And the LORD was standing beside him and He said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac: the ground on which you are lying I will assign to you and to your offspring. (14) Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants. (15) Remember, I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (16) Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is present in this place, and I did not know it!” (17) Shaken, he said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven.” (18) Early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. (19) He named that site Bethel; but previously the name of the city had been Luz.
(6) Thus Jacob came to Luz—that is, Bethel—in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. (7) There he built an altar and named the site El-bethel, for it was there that God had revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. (8) Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and was buried under the oak below Bethel; so it was named Allon-bacuth. (9) God appeared again to Jacob on his arrival from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. (10) God said to him, “You whose name is Jacob, You shall be called Jacob no more, But Israel shall be your name.” Thus He named him Israel. (11) And God said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Be fertile and increase; A nation, yea an assembly of nations, Shall descend from you. Kings shall issue from your loins. (12) The land that I assigned to Abraham and Isaac I assign to you; And to your offspring to come Will I assign the land.” (13) God parted from him at the spot where He had spoken to him; (14) and Jacob set up a pillar at the site where He had spoken to him, a pillar of stone, and he offered a libation on it and poured oil upon it. (15) Jacob gave the site, where God had spoken to him, the name of Bethel.
(4) Then Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Jericho.” “As the LORD lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went on to Jericho. (5) The disciples of the prophets who were at Jericho came over to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” He replied, “I know it, too; be silent.”
(13) Once, when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him, drawn sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked him, “Are you one of us or of our enemies?” (14) He replied, “No, I am captain of the LORD’s host. Now I have come!” Joshua threw himself face down to the ground and, prostrating himself, said to him, “What does my lord command his servant?” (15) The captain of the LORD’s host answered Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so. (1) Now Jericho was shut up tight because of the Israelites; no one could leave or enter. (2) The LORD said to Joshua, “See, I will deliver Jericho and her king [and her] warriors into your hands.
(6) Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.” “As the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you,” he said, and the two of them went on. (7) Fifty men of the disciples of the prophets followed and stood by at a distance from them as the two of them stopped at the Jordan.
(7) Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he answered, “Yes, my son.” And he said, “Here are the firestone and the wood; but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” (8) And Abraham said, “God will see to the sheep for His burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them walked on together.
(14) They broke into weeping again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law farewell. But Ruth clung to her. (15) So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods. Go follow your sister-in-law.” (16) But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. (17) Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may the LORD do to me if anything but death parts me from you.” (18) When [Naomi] saw how determined she was to go with her, she ceased to argue with her; (19) and the two went on until they reached Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole city buzzed with excitement over them. The women said, “Can this be Naomi?”
(14) When the people set out from their encampment to cross the Jordan, the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant were at the head of the people. (15) Now the Jordan keeps flowing over its entire bed throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the bearers of the Ark reached the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the Ark dipped into the water at its edge, (16) the waters coming down from upstream piled up in a single heap a great way off, at Adam, the town next to Zarethan; and those flowing away downstream to the Sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea) ran out completely. So the people crossed near Jericho. (17) The priests who bore the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant stood on dry land exactly in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over on dry land, until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.
(8) Thereupon Elijah took his mantle and, rolling it up, he struck the water; it divided to the right and left, so that the two of them crossed over on dry land. (9) As they were crossing, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” Elisha answered, “Let a double portion of your spirit pass on to me.” (10) “You have asked a difficult thing,” he said. “If you see me as I am being taken from you, this will be granted to you; if not, it will not.”
It means to say...I should be bestowed a double portion of that which you have bestowed upon each of the other prophets. This is the same language as in Deuteronomy 21:17, that a father must acknowledge his eldest son as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has.
(11) As they kept on walking and talking, a fiery chariot with fiery horses suddenly appeared and separated one from the other; and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. (12) Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “Oh, father, father! Israel’s chariots and horsemen!” When he could no longer see him, he grasped his garments and rent them in two. (13) He picked up Elijah’s mantle, which had dropped from him; and he went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
From where do we derive that one must rend his clothing for his father, his mother, and his teacher who taught him Torah? As it is written with regard to the prophet Elijah, when he ascended to Heaven in a tempest: “And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen” (II Kings 2:12). The Gemara interprets this verse as follows: “My father, my father”; this comes to teach that one must rend his garments for the death of his father or mother. “The chariots of Israel and their horsemen”; this comes to include also one’ teacher who taught him Torah. The Gemara asks: From where may it be inferred that this is referring to one’s teacher? The Gemara explains: As the verse was translated by Rav Yosef: My teacher, my teacher, who was better for the protection of the Jewish people with his prayers than an army with chariots and horsemen.
(14) Taking the mantle which had dropped from Elijah, he struck the water and said, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” As he too struck the water, it parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over. (15) When the disciples of the prophets at Jericho saw him from a distance, they exclaimed, “The spirit of Elijah has settled on Elisha!” And they went to meet him and bowed low before him to the ground.
(16) They said to him, “Your servants have fifty able men with them. Let them go and look for your master; perhaps the spirit of the LORD has carried him off and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” “Do not send them,” he replied. (17) But they kept pressing him for a long time, until he said, “Send them.” So they sent out fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him. (18) They came back to him while he was still in Jericho; and he said to them, “I told you not to go.”
(19) The men of the town said to Elisha, “Look, the town is a pleasant place to live in, as my lord can see; but the water is bad and the land causes bereavement.” (20) He responded, “Bring me a new dish and put salt in it.” They brought it to him; (21) he went to the spring and threw salt into it. And he said, “Thus said the LORD: I heal this water; no longer shall death and bereavement come from it!” (22) The water has remained wholesome to this day, in accordance with the word spoken by Elisha.
(23) From there he went up to Bethel. As he was going up the road, some little boys came out of the town and jeered at him, saying, “Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!” (24) He turned around and looked at them and cursed them in the name of the LORD. Thereupon, two she-bears came out of the woods and mangled forty-two of the children.
(25) He went on from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.