2 Kings 7
1 Elisha said, “Listen to the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: ‘About this time tomorrow, a seah of fine flour will cost a shekel, and two seahs of barley will cost a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’”
2 The officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, “Even if the LORD opened windows in the sky, could this happen?” He replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it.”
3 There were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the gate. They said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die?
4 If we say, ‘Let’s go into the city,’ there is famine in the city, and we will die there. And if we stay here, we will die too. So now, let’s surrender to the Aramean camp. If they let us live, we will live; if they kill us, we will die.”
5 They got up at dusk to go to the Aramean camp. When they reached the edge of the Aramean camp, there was no one there.
6 For the Lord had made the Aramean camp hear the sound of chariots, the sound of horses, the sound of a great army. They said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.”
7 So they got up and fled at dusk, leaving their tents, their horses, and their donkeys—the camp just as it was—and fled for their lives.
8 Those men with leprosy reached the edge of the camp, went into a tent, ate and drank, and took silver, gold, and clothes from it and went and hid them. Then they returned, went into another tent, took things from it too, and went and hid them.
9 Then they said to one another, “We are not doing what is right. This day is a day of good news, and we are keeping quiet. If we wait until morning light, we will be guilty. So now, let’s go in and tell the king’s household.”
10 They went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went to the Aramean camp, and there was no one there, not even the sound of anyone; only the horses tied up, the donkeys tied up, and the tents just as they were.”
11 He called the gatekeepers, and they took the news inside the king’s palace.
12 The king got up in the night and said to his servants, “I’ll tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are hungry, so they left the camp to hide in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we’ll capture them alive and enter the city.’”
13 One of his servants answered, “Please take five of the horses that remain in the city. They are like all the multitude of Israel left in it; they are like all the multitude of Israel that have already perished. Let’s send them and see.”
14 They took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, “Go and see.”
15 They followed them as far as the Jordan, and the whole way was full of clothes and articles that the Arameans had thrown away in their hurried flight. The messengers returned and told the king.
16 Then the people went out and plundered the Aramean camp. A seah of fine flour came to cost a shekel, and two seahs of barley a shekel, as the word of the LORD had said.
17 The king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to be in charge at the gate, and the people trampled him at the gate, and he died. It happened just as the man of God had said when the king came down to him.
18 For the man of God had told the king, “Two seahs of barley will cost a shekel, and a seah of fine flour will cost a shekel, about this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria.”
19 The officer had answered the man of God, “Even if the LORD opened windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?” And he had said, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it.”
20 And that is what happened to him: the people trampled him at the gate, and he died.
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