2 Kings 7

Then Elisha said, "Listen to what the LORD says. This is what the LORD says: about this time tomorrow, at the gate of Samaria, a measure of fine flour will sell for one shekel, and two measures of barley for one shekel."

1Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.

NoteA "measure" here is a seah, a dry measure of about seven quarts (roughly 7–8 liters). A shekel was not a coin but a weight of silver, about two-fifths of an ounce (11–12 grams); coined money did not yet exist, and payment was made by weighing out metal. Barley was the cheap grain, eaten mostly by the poor and by animals, which is why twice as much of it went for the same price as fine wheat flour. The city gate was the marketplace and public square of a walled town, where goods were traded, prices settled and legal business done, so a price quoted "at the gate" is the going market rate. Samaria was the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel, and at this moment it was under siege and starving, with food selling at grotesque prices (see the end of the previous chapter). Elisha is promising ordinary market prices by the next day.

2The officer whose arm the king leaned on answered Elisha, the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD opened windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?" Elisha said, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it."

2Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

Note"The officer whose arm the king leaned on" is a court position, not a description of an accident: a senior royal attendant who supported the king in public and stood closest to him. "Windows in the sky" draws on the old picture of the sky as a solid dome holding back an ocean above, pierced by hatches that were opened to let rain through, the same image used of the flood in Genesis. The officer is saying: even if God flung open the sky itself, food could not appear that fast. "Man of God" is a standard title for a prophet, roughly "God's spokesman."

3Now four men with a serious skin disease were sitting at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why should we sit here until we die?

3And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

NoteThe Hebrew word covers a range of disfiguring skin conditions, not specifically the modern disease called leprosy (Hansen's disease). Israelite law required people with these conditions to live apart from everyone else, which is why the four men are outside the city wall at the gateway rather than inside with the rest of the population, and why, once inside enemy lines, they had nothing further to lose.

4If we say, 'Let's go into the city,' the famine is in the city, and we will die there. And if we sit still here, we die too. So come on, let's go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare us, we live. If they kill us, we only die anyway."

4If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

Note"Syrians" translates "Arameans," the kingdom centered on Damascus to the north-east of Israel. They were Israel's most persistent military rival in this period, and their army is the one currently besieging Samaria.

5So they got up at twilight to go to the Syrian camp. But when they reached the edge of the camp, there was no one there.

5And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.

6The LORD had made the Syrian army hear the sound of chariots and horses, the sound of a great army. They had said to each other, "Look, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us."

6For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.

NoteHired foreign armies were a normal instrument of ancient warfare, and these were the two obvious sources of them from Israel's position: the "kings of the Hittites" were the rulers of a cluster of small states in northern Syria, remnants of the old Hittite empire, and Egypt lay to the south. The Arameans conclude they are about to be caught between two hired forces.

7So they got up and ran away at twilight. They left their tents, their horses, and their donkeys. They left the camp just as it stood, and they ran for their lives.

7Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

8When these men with the skin disease reached the edge of the camp, they went into one tent, ate and drank, and carried off silver, gold, and clothing from it, and went and hid it. Then they came back, entered another tent, carried things off from there too, and went and hid that.

8And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.

9Then they said to each other, "We are not doing right. Today is a day of good news, and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until morning light, punishment will catch up with us. Let's go now and tell the king's household."

9Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.

NoteThe Hebrew says literally "punishment" or "guilt will find us." Plunder taken from a defeated army was normally the king's to claim and distribute, and news affecting the city's survival was owed to the crown; four men quietly looting the camp overnight while a starving city went unwarned would have been treated as a punishable offense, not merely bad manners.

10So they came and called out to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, "We went to the Syrian camp, and there was no one there, not a sound of anyone. Only the horses and donkeys were still tied up, and the tents were left standing."

10So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were.

11The gatekeeper called the other gatekeepers, and they passed the news along to those inside the king's palace.

11And he called the porters; and they told it to the king’s house within.

12The king got up in the night and said to his servants, "Let me tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they have left the camp to hide in the open country. They are thinking, 'When they come out of the city, we will take them alive and get into the city.'"

12And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city.

13One of his servants answered, "Please, let some men take five of the horses that are still left in the city. They will end up no worse than the whole crowd of Israelites left here; yes, no worse than the whole crowd of Israelites who have already died. Let's send them and find out."

13And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and see.

NoteThe servant's sentence is compressed and awkward in the Hebrew, and translators divide over it. It is either "the horses we risk are no worse off than the rest of the Israelites left in the city, who are as good as dead already" or "the men we send risk no more than everyone else here already risks." Either way the argument is the same: the scouting party costs nothing that is not already lost. The horses matter because animals were being eaten or had starved during the siege; only a handful survived.

14So they took two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Syrian army, saying, "Go and see."

14They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.

NoteThe Hebrew is terse, and it is unclear whether the two chariot teams were drawn from the five horses the servant proposed or counted separately.

15They followed the Syrians as far as the Jordan River, and the whole road was littered with clothing and equipment the Syrians had thrown away in their rush. The messengers came back and told the king.

15And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.

NoteThe Jordan River lay some thirty-five to forty miles east of Samaria, on the route home to Damascus. The trail of discarded gear stretching that far shows the Arameans never stopped running.

16Then the people went out and stripped the Syrian camp of everything in it. So a measure of fine flour sold for one shekel, and two measures of barley for one shekel, just as the LORD had said.

16And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.

17The king had put the officer whose arm he leaned on in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him there in the gateway, and he died. It happened just as the man of God had said when the king came down to him.

17And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him.

NotePutting the officer "in charge of the gate" means posting him to control the crowd at the gateway market, the very place where the cheap flour and barley were now being sold. He is trampled by the rush of a starving city.

18It turned out exactly as the man of God had told the king: "Two measures of barley will sell for one shekel, and a measure of fine flour for one shekel, about this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria."

18And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria:

NoteVerses 18–20 stop the action to repeat the exchange from verses 1–2 word for word. This kind of verbatim recap is a standard device in Hebrew narrative for closing a story off, not a duplicated passage or a scribal slip.

19And that officer had answered the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD opened windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?" And Elisha had said, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it."

19And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

20That is exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.

20And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.