9 Hazael left with forty camel loads of the best things made in Damascus as a gift for Elisha. He found the prophet and said, “Your servant, King Benhadad, wants to know if he will get well.”
10 “Tell him he will,” Elisha said to Hazael. “But the Lord has already told me that Benhadad will definitely die.”
11 Elisha stared at him until Hazael was embarrassed, then Elisha began crying.
12 “Sir, why are you crying?” Hazael asked.Elisha answered, “Because I know the terrible things you will do to the people of Israel. You will burn down their walled cities and slaughter their young men. You will even crush the heads of their babies and rip open their pregnant women.”
13 “How could I ever do anything like that?” Hazael replied. “I'm only a servant and don't have that kind of power.”“Hazael, the Lord has told me that you will be the next king of Syria.”
14 Hazael went back to Benhadad and told him, “Elisha said that you will get well.”
15 But the very next day, Hazael got a thick blanket; he soaked it in water and held it over Benhadad's face until he died. Hazael then became king.