Elisha was a son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah. Scripture says nothing about his birth or childhood. When Elijah found him, Elisha was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen and was with the twelfth pair. Elijah passed by and threw his mantle over him. Elisha asked to kiss his parents farewell, then slaughtered a pair of oxen and used the plowing equipment as fuel to cook the meat. He gave it to the people to eat, left, and became Elijah’s attendant.
As Elijah’s departure approached, the two traveled from Gilgal through Bethel and Jericho to the Jordan. Groups of prophets at Bethel and Jericho knew that Elisha was about to lose his master, and Elisha answered that he knew. Elijah struck the river with his mantle, and they crossed on dry ground. Elisha asked for a double share of Elijah’s spirit. A chariot and horses of fire separated them, and Elijah went up in a whirlwind. Elisha picked up the fallen mantle and struck the Jordan, which divided again. The prophets said that Elijah’s spirit rested on Elisha.
When the people of Jericho complained that their water was bad and the land unfruitful, Elisha asked for salt in a new bowl. He threw it at the spring and declared that God had healed the water. Kings says that the water remained wholesome. On his way to Bethel, young people came out and mocked him. After Elisha cursed them in God’s name, two female bears came from the woods and mauled forty-two of them. The violent account does not say that they died. Elisha then traveled by Mount Carmel and returned to Samaria.
When King Joram of Israel joined King Jehoshaphat of Judah and the king of Edom against Moab, their army ran out of water. Elisha agreed to prophesy out of regard for Jehoshaphat, called for a musician, and told them to dig many ditches in the valley. Though they would see neither wind nor rain, water would fill the area and Moab would be defeated. The water came in the morning. The Moabites mistook its red reflection for blood, approached for plunder, and were defeated. At the end, the king of Moab offered his firstborn son as a burnt offering on the wall. Great wrath came against Israel, and the allies withdrew. Kings does not further identify or explain that wrath.
The widow of a prophet’s disciple reported that a creditor was coming to take her two sons as slaves. When she said she had only a jar of oil, Elisha told her to borrow many empty vessels, close the door, and pour. The oil continued until every vessel was full. He told her to sell it, pay the debt, and live on the remainder. A wealthy woman at Shunem prepared a small room for Elisha. He promised that the childless woman would have a son. When the boy later died suddenly, Elisha prayed and stretched himself over the child until he returned to life.
Naaman, the commander of Aram’s army, was a great warrior with a skin disease. A captive Israelite girl said that the prophet in Samaria could heal him, so Naaman arrived with valuable gifts. Elisha sent a messenger telling him to wash seven times in the Jordan. Naaman protested that other rivers were better, but his servants persuaded him to obey, and his flesh became clean. He confessed that there was no God except in Israel, while Elisha refused his gift. Elisha’s servant Gehazi then followed secretly and obtained silver and clothes with a lie. Elisha exposed him and declared that Naaman’s disease would cling to Gehazi and his descendants.
Elisha’s story also records ordinary life among the prophetic community. At Gilgal, wild gourds were cut into a stew. When the men cried that there was death in the pot, Elisha added flour, and the stew caused no harm. When a man brought twenty barley loaves, he said that one hundred people would eat and have some left, and they did. As the prophets cut timber beside the Jordan for a larger dwelling, a borrowed iron ax head fell into the water. Elisha cut a stick, threw it there, and made the iron float. Between accounts of kings and wars, his work reached an indebted family, a hungry community, and one person distressed over a borrowed tool.
When the king of Aram attacked Israel, Elisha repeatedly warned Israel’s king of the enemy’s positions. The Aramean army surrounded Dothan to seize him, and his servant was afraid. Elisha said that those with them outnumbered the enemy and prayed for the servant’s eyes to open. The man saw the mountain filled with fiery horses and chariots. Elisha then prayed for the enemy’s sight to be confused and led them into Samaria. When Israel’s king asked whether to kill them, Elisha told him to feed them and send them home. Later Ben-hadad of Aram besieged Samaria, causing a severe famine, and the king sent a man to kill Elisha.
Elisha predicted that food prices would collapse the next day. Four men with skin disease found the Aramean camp abandoned. God had caused the Arameans to hear chariots and an army, and they had fled. The people plundered the camp, fulfilling Elisha’s word. The Shunammite woman returned after escaping a seven-year famine at his warning and recovered her land. In Damascus, when Hazael asked about the sick King Ben-hadad, Elisha told him to report that the king would recover, while saying that God had shown him Ben-hadad would surely die. He added that Hazael would become king of Aram and bring great harm upon Israel, and he wept as he foresaw that cruelty. Hazael returned and told the king he would recover, but the next day he smothered him with a wet cloth and became king.
Elisha sent a prophetic disciple to anoint Jehu and command him to strike Ahab’s house. In the resulting coup Jehu killed Joram, Jezebel, and Ahab’s descendants. Kings does not hide that Elisha’s ministry was connected not only with healing and provision but also with violent dynastic change. Years later, when Elisha became fatally ill, King Joash of Israel visited him and wept. Elisha had him shoot an arrow eastward and called it an arrow of victory over Aram. When the king struck the ground only three times, Elisha became angry and said that he would win three victories rather than destroy Aram completely.
Elisha died and was buried. Moabite raiders entered the land each year. While some men were burying a body, they saw a raiding band and hastily threw the corpse into Elisha’s tomb. When it touched Elisha’s bones, the man revived and stood up. Scripture does not provide Elisha’s age or a detailed burial location, but it records this unexpected event as his final sign. His life began with a call from the plow and continued as Elijah’s successor among poor families, kings, Israelites, and foreigners. It ended after a ministry where aid, judgment, and warfare belonged to the same troubled age.