2 Kings
Chapter 7
1 Elisha said, “Listen to God’s message: Tomorrow at this time, you can buy a measure of fine flour for one shekel and two measures of barley for one shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
2 A high-ranking official who the king trusted spoke to the man of God, saying, “Look, even if God could open windows in the sky, could this happen?” The man of God replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it.”
3 At the gate entrance, there were four men with leprosy. They asked each other, “Why are we sitting here waiting to die?”
4 If we say, “Let’s go into the city,” but there’s famine in the city and we’ll die there, and if we stay here, we’ll die too. So, let’s go to the Syrian army. If they spare us, we’ll live; if they kill us, we’ll just die.
5 They got up at dusk to go to the Syrian camp, and when they reached the edge of the Syrian camp, there was no one there.
6 God made the Syrian army hear sounds of chariots and horses, and the noise of a large army. They said to each other, “Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to attack us.”
7 So they got up and ran away at dusk, leaving their tents, horses, donkeys, and the camp just as it was, running to save their lives.
8 When the lepers reached the edge of the camp, they entered a tent, ate, drank, took silver, gold, and clothes, then went and hid them. They returned, went into another tent, took things, and hid those too.
9 They said to each other, “We are not doing right. This is a day of good news, yet we are silent. If we wait until morning, trouble will come to us. Let’s go now and tell the king’s family.”
10 They went and called to the city gatekeeper, and they said, “We went to the Syrian camp, and look, there was no one there, no sound of anyone, only horses and donkeys tied up, and the tents left just as they were.”
11 He called the gatekeepers, and they reported it to the king’s palace inside.
12 The king got up at night and told his servants, “I will show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are hungry; so they have left their camp to hide in the field, thinking, ‘When they leave the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’”
13 One of his servants replied, “Please, let’s take five of the remaining horses in the city – they’re like the few people of Israel still here; just as the rest of the Israelites who are gone – and let’s go to find out.”
14 They used two war horses, and the king sent them to follow the Syrian army, telling them, “Go and look.”
15 They followed them to the Jordan River, and look, the whole path was covered with clothes and items that the Syrians had thrown away as they fled quickly. The messengers came back and told the king.
16 The people went out and took things from the Syrian tents. A unit of good flour was sold for a coin, and two units of barley for a coin, just as God had said.
17 The king put the officer he relied on in charge of the gate, but the people trampled him there and he died, just like the man of God had predicted when the king visited him.
18 As the man of God told the king, “Tomorrow at this time, two measures of barley or one measure of fine flour will cost a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
19 The lord replied to the man of God, “Look, even if God could open windows in the sky, could this happen?” The man of God said, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it.”
20 And so it happened to him: the crowd stepped on him at the gate, and he died.