2 Kings 7

Revised Geneva Translation

7 Then Elisha said, “Hear the Word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD: ‘Tomorrow at this time, a measure of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’”

² Then a prince on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, “Though the LORD can make windows in the sky, could this thing happen?” And he said, “Behold, you shall see it with your eyes. But you shall not eat of it.”

³ Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. And they said one to another, “Why sit here until we die?

⁴ “If we say, ‘We will enter into the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now, therefore, come and let us fall into the camp of the Aramites. If they save our lives, we shall live. And if they kill us, we are already dead.”

⁵ So they rose up in the twilight, to go to the camp of the Aramites. And when they had come to the outermost part of the camp of the Aramites, lo, there was no man there.

⁶ For the LORD had caused the camp of the Aramites to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses (a noise of a great army), so that they said one to another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites against us, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us!”

⁷ Therefore, they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents and their horses and their donkeys — the camp as it was — and fled for their lives.

⁸ And when these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they entered into one tent, and ate and drank, and carried silver and gold from there, and clothing, and went and hid it. Afterward, they returned and entered into another tent and carried from there, and went and hid it,

⁹ then said to one another, “We do not do well. This day is a day of good news, and we hold our peace. If we wait until daylight, some mischief will come upon us. Now, therefore, come. Let us go and tell the king’s household.

¹⁰ So, they came and called the porters of the city and told them, saying, “We came to the camp of the Aramites. And lo, there was neither man there, nor voice of man, but tied horses and donkeys. And the tents are as they were.”

¹¹ And the porters cried and declared to the king’s house within.

¹² Then the king arose in the night and said to his servants, “I will now show you what the Aramites have done to us. They know that we are famished. Therefore, they have 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.’”

¹³ And one of his servants answered, and said, “Let me now take five of the horses that remain and are left in the city. Behold, they are either as all the multitude of Israel who are left in it, or they are as the multitude of the Israelites who are consumed. And we will send to see.”

¹⁴ So, they took two chariots of horses. And the king sent them after the army of the Aramites, saying, “Go and see.”

¹⁵ And they went after them, to Jordan. And lo, the whole way was full of clothes and vessels which the Aramites had cast from them in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.

¹⁶ Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Aramites. So a measure of fine flour was at a shekel, and two measures of barley at a shekel, according to the Word of the LORD.

¹⁷ And the king gave the prince on whose hand he leaned the charge of the gate. But the people tread upon him in the gate. And he died, as the man of God had said, who spoke it when the king came down to him.

¹⁸ And it happened at that time, as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “Two measures of barley at a shekel and a measure of fine flour shall be at a shekel, tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria.”

¹⁹ But the prince had answered the man of God, and said, “Though the LORD can make windows in the sky, could it so happen?” And he had said, “Behold, you shall see it with your eyes. But you shall not eat of it.”

²⁰ And so it happened to him. For the people tread upon him in the gate. And he died.