2 Kings 7

1Elisha said, “Hear the word of Yahweh. This is what Yahweh says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.”

2The officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God, “Look, even if Yahweh were to make windows in the sky, could this happen?” Elisha said, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it.”

3Now there were four men with a serious skin disease at the entrance to the city gate. They said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die?

4If we say, ‘Let us go into the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we will die there. And if we stay here, we will die. So come, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they spare our lives, we will live; if they kill us, we will die.”

5So at dusk they got up to go to the Aramean camp. But when they came to the edge of the Aramean camp, no one was there.

6For the Lord had made the Aramean army hear the sound of chariots and horses, the sound of a great army, and they had said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to attack us!”

7So they had gotten up and fled at dusk, abandoning their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp just as it was, and they ran for their lives.

8When these men with the serious skin disease came to the edge of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank. Then they carried off silver, gold, and clothing from it, and went and hid them. They came back, went into another tent, carried things off from it, and went and hid them.

9Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This is a day of good news, and we are keeping quiet about it. If we wait until morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now come, let us go and tell the king’s household.”

10So they went and called out to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, “We went to the Aramean camp, and no one was there, not a human voice, only the horses tied up, the donkeys tied up, and the tents just as they were.”

11The gatekeepers called out, and the news was reported inside the king’s household.

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

13One of his officers answered, “Let some men take five of the horses that are left here in the city. They are only like the rest of the Israelites who are left in it; they are like all the Israelites who have already perished. Let us send them to see.”

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

15They followed them as far as the Jordan, and the whole road was full of clothing and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their haste. The messengers returned and told the king.

16Then the people went out and plundered the Aramean camp. So a seah of fine flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of Yahweh.

17Now 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 said when the king came down to him.

18For when the man of God had said to the king, “About this time tomorrow, two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria,”

19the officer had answered the man of God, “Look, even if Yahweh were to make 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.”

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