Elisha tricked the army of Syria

8 Whenever the king of Syria prepared to send his army to fight against Israel, he first consulted his officers, and then told them where they should set up their tents.

9 But each time, Elisha would send a message to warn the king of Israel, telling him where the army of Syria was planning to attack them, saying, “Be sure that your army does not go near that place, because the army of Syria has set up their tents there.” 10 So the king of Israel would send messengers to warn the people who lived in that place, and the people would remain on guard. That happened several times.

11 The king of Syria was very upset/disturbed/angry about that. So he summoned his army officers and said to them, “Obviously one of you is ◄betraying us/revealing our plans► to the king of Israel. Which one of you is doing it?”

12 One of his officers answered, “Your Majesty, it is not one of us. Elisha the prophet knows what we plan to do, and he tells the king of Israel everything. He even knows what you say in your own bedroom!”

13 The king of Syria replied, “Go and find out where he is, and I will send some men there to capture him.” Someone told him, “People say that he is in Dothan town north of Samaria.” 14 So the king sent a large group of soldiers to Dothan with horses and chariots. They arrived at night and surrounded the town.

15 Early the next morning, Elisha’s servant got up and went outside the house. He saw the soldiers of Syria with their horses and chariots surrounding the town. So he went inside the house and reported it to Elisha and exclaimed, “O, sir! What are we going to do?”

16 Elisha replied, “Do not be afraid! Those who will be helping us will be more than those who will be helping them!”

17 Then he prayed, “Yahweh, I request that you open my servant’s eyes in order that he can see what is out there!” So Yahweh enabled the servant to look out and see that surrounding the hill on which the town was built was a huge number of horses, and chariots made of fire!

18 When the army of Syria prepared to attack Elisha, he prayed again, saying, “Yahweh, cause all these soldiers to become blind!” Yahweh answered his prayer and caused them to be unable to see clearly.

19 Then Elisha went to them and said, “You are not on the right road; this is not the city that you are searching for. I will take you to the man whom you are searching for.” But he led them to Samaria, the capital of Israel!

20 As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha prayed again, saying, “Yahweh, now enable these soldiers to see correctly again!” So Yahweh enabled them to see correctly, and they were surprised to see that they were inside Samaria city.

21 When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “Sir, shall I tell my soldiers to kill them? Shall we kill all of them?”

22 Elisha replied, “No, you must not kill them. If your army captured many of your enemies in a battle, you would certainly not [RHQ] kill them. Give these men something to eat and drink, and then allow them to return to their king.” 23 So the king of Israel did that. He told his servants to provide a big feast for them. And when they had eaten and drunk plenty, he sent them away. They returned to the king of Syria and told him what had happened. So for a while after that, soldiers from Syria stopped raiding/attacking towns in Israel.