Elijah and Elisha
1 Then came the prophet Elijah like a fire, his words a burning torch.
2 He brought a famine on the peo ple and in his zealous love had them
reduced in number.
3 Speaking in the name of the Lord he closed the heavens, and on three
occasions called down fire.
4 How marvelous you were, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds! Who could ever
boast of being your equal?
5 By the word of the Most High you brought a dead man back to life;
6 you brought kings to destruction and thrust famous men from their beds.
7 You heard a rebuke at Sinai and sentences of punishment at Horeb;
8 you anointed kings to be avengers and pro phets to succeed you.
9 You were taken up by a whirlwind of flames in a chariot drawn by fiery
horses.
10 It was written that you should be the one to calm God��s anger in the
future be fore it broke out in fury, to turn the hearts of fathers to their
sons and to restore the tribes of Jacob.
11 Happy are those who will see you and those who die in love, for we too
shall live.
12 Such was Elijah, taken up in a whirlwind, and Elisha was filled with his
spirit.
During his life no leader could shake him, no one dominated him.
13 Nothing was too dif ficult for him and even in death his body prophesied.
14 In life he worked wonders, in death his deeds were amazing.
15 Despite all this, the people were not converted and did not turn away
from sin; not until they were deported far from their country and scattered
over the earth.
16 The people were greatly reduced in number but they still had a ruler from
the line of David. Some of them were upright people, others became sinful.
17 Hezekiah fortified his city and brought water within its walls, tunneling
the rock with iron tools to construct cisterns.
18 During his reign Sennacherib began his campaigns and sent off Rabshakeh,
and insolent and arrogant as he was, he raised his arm against Zion.
19 Then their courage was shaken, their hands trembled, they felt anguish
like women in labor.
20 They stretched out their hands and called on the merciful Lord.
From heaven the Holy One quickly heard them and saved them by the hand of
Isaiah.
21 The Lord struck the Assyrian camp and his angel wiped them out.
22 For Hezekiah did what was pleasing to the Lord and was firm in following
the ways of Da vid, his father, as the great and faithful proph et Isaiah
ordered, a man of trustworthy vision.
23 In his time the sun went back and he lengthened the life of the king.
24 In the power of the spirit he foresaw the last things and consoled the
afflicted people of Zion.
25 He revealed what would happen until the end of time and made hidden
events known before they oc curred.