9. When they reached the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, “What can I do for you before I’m taken from you? Ask anything.”Elisha said, “Your life repeated in my life. I want to be a holy man just like you.”
10. “That’s a hard one!” said Elijah. “But if you’re watching when I’m taken from you, you’ll get what you’ve asked for. But only if you’re watching.”
15. The guild of prophets from Jericho saw the whole thing from where they were standing. They said, “The spirit of Elijah lives in Elisha!” They welcomed and honored him.
16. They then said, “We’re at your service. We have fifty reliable men here; let’s send them out to look for your master. Maybe God’s spirit has swept him off to some mountain or dropped him into a remote ravine.”Elisha said, “No. Don’t send them.”
17. But they pestered him until he caved in: “Go ahead then. Send them.”So they sent the fifty men off. For three days they looked, searching high and low. Nothing.
18. Finally, they returned to Elisha in Jericho. He told them, “So there—didn’t I tell you?”