7:1 Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
7:2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”
7:3 Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die?
7:4 If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’–the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”
7:5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, not a man was there,
7:6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!”
7:7 So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.
7:8 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank, and carried away silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.
7:9 Then they said to each other, “We’re not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”
7:10 So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and not a man was there–not a sound of anyone–only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.”
7:11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.
7:12 The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’”
7:13 One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here–yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”
7:14 So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.”
7:15 They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king.
7:16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the LORD had said.
7:17 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.
7:18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
7:19 The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!”
7:20 And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.
7:1 And Elisha said, Hear the word of Jehovah: Thus says Jehovah, At about this time tomorrow a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel and two seahs of barley will be sold for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.
7:2 Then the captain on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God and said, Even if Jehovah made windows in heaven, could this thing happen? And he said, Your eyes shall indeed see it, but you shall not eat from it.
7:3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. And they said to one another, Why are we sitting here until we die?
7:4 If we say, Let us enter the city, the famine is in the city and we will die there; but if we sit here, we will also die. Now therefore let us go and desert to the camp of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will die.
7:5 So they rose up in the twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. And when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, there was not a man there.
7:6 Now the Lord had made the camp of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and the sound of horses, the sound of a great army; and each man said to his brother, Now the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come against us.
7:7 And they rose up and fled in the twilight, and they abandoned their tents and their horses and their donkeys, indeed the whole camp just as it was, and fled for their lives.
7:8 So when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they entered one tent and began to eat and drink. And they took silver and gold and clothing from there, and went and hid them. And they went back and entered another tent and took things from there and went and hid them.
7:9 Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. This day is a day of good tidings, and we remain silent. If we delay until the morning s light, our iniquity will find us out. Now therefore, come and let us go and tell the king s household.
7:10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers of the city and told them saying, We went to the camp of the Syrians, and there was not a man there nor even the sound of a man; but the horses were tied, and the donkeys were tied, and the tents were left as they were.
7:11 And the gatekeepers proclaimed it and told the king s household within.
7:12 And the king rose up in the night and said to his servants, I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us: They know that we are hungry; and they have gone out from the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out from the city, we will take them alive; and into the city we will go.
7:13 And one of his servants answered and said, Let some men take five of the remaining horses that are left in the city ? they are like all the multitude of Israel which remain in the city; they are like all the multitude of Israel which have perished ? and let us send them and see.
7:14 So they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the army of Syria, saying, Go and see.
7:15 And when they went after them toward the Jordan, all the way was full of garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown off in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.
7:16 And the people went forth and plundered the camp of the Syrians. And a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of Jehovah.
7:17 Now the king had appointed the captain on whose arm he leaned to have charge of the gate; and the people trampled him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king had come down to him.
7:18 So just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two seahs of barley will be sold for a shekel and a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel at about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria;
7:19 And the captain had answered the man of God and said, Even if Jehovah made windows in heaven, could this thing happen? and the man of God had said, Your eyes shall indeed see it, but you shall not eat from it;
7:20 So it happened to him; for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.