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The Histories · Old Testament

2 Kings 7

2 Kings 7: flour for a shekel and the four lepers at the empty camp

General context

Elisha announces the word of the Lord: by the next day a measure of fine flour and two measures of barley will each sell for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. The lord on whose hand the king leans asks whether that could happen even if the Lord made windows in heaven, and Elisha answers that he will see it but not eat of it. Four leprous men at the gate reason that they will die whether they enter the city or stay, and decide to surrender to the Syrians. At twilight they find the camp empty. The narrator explains that the Lord made the Syrians hear the noise of chariots, horses and a great host, so they concluded that Israel had hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings and fled, leaving tents, horses and asses. The lepers eat, drink and hide silver, gold and clothing from two tents, then say they are doing wrong to keep good tidings silent and report to the porters. The king suspects an ambush. A servant proposes sending five of the remaining horses; two chariot horses go as far as Jordan and find the road strewn with discarded garments and vessels. The people plunder the tents, and the prices fall as Elisha said. The king sets the doubting lord in charge of the gate, and the crowd tramples him there. The narrator closes by repeating the prophecy and the lord's reply, and states again that he died in the gate.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 7:1, 2 Kings 7:2, 2 Kings 7:3, 2 Kings 7:4, 2 Kings 7:5, 2 Kings 7:6, 2 Kings 7:7, 2 Kings 7:8, 2 Kings 7:9, 2 Kings 7:10, 2 Kings 7:12, 2 Kings 7:13, 2 Kings 7:14, 2 Kings 7:15, 2 Kings 7:16, 2 Kings 7:17, 2 Kings 7:20

2 Kings 7 (KJV)

1Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.

2Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

3And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

4If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

5And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.

6For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.

7Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

8And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.

9Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.

10So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were.

11And he called the porters; and they told it to the king’s house within.

12And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they 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.

13And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and see.

14They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.

15And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.

16And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.

17And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him.

18And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria:

19And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

20And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.

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Historical context

The chapter continues the scene of 6:32-33 without a break; "Then Elisha said" is his answer to the words about waiting for the Lord. The king remains unnamed, as does the lord identified only by the king leaning on his hand, a posture that also described Naaman's master in 5:18. The four lepers are unnamed and sit outside "the entering in of the gate"; the text gives no reason beyond calling them leprous. The narrator states as fact that the Lord caused the Syrians to hear a noise; the explanation about hired Hittite and Egyptian kings is the Syrians' own speech, not the narrator's account of what happened. Verse 17 says the man of God "spake when the king came down to him", which settles that the king was present for the prophecy. The prices in verse 1 and verse 16 match; the recap in verse 18 lists barley before flour. The narrator gives no distance from Samaria to Jordan and no count of the Syrian dead, only that the road was full of what they threw away. The lord's death is recorded twice, in the narrative and in the closing recap.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 6:33, 2 Kings 7:1, 2 Kings 7:2, 2 Kings 5:18, 2 Kings 7:3, 2 Kings 7:6, 2 Kings 7:17, 2 Kings 7:18, 2 Kings 7:15, 2 Kings 7:20

Literary context

Prophecy and fulfilment frame the chapter: the word about flour and barley and the lord's reply open it, and the narrator repeats both, nearly word for word, to close it. In between, the news travels upward from the least to the greatest, from four lepers outside the gate to the porters to the king's house. The lepers' reasoning, "if we say... if we sit still...", is matched by the king's suspicion that the Syrians have gone to hide in the field; the servant's speech about the few remaining horses answers him. Their private looting turns into confession, "We do not well", and the report they give repeats what the narrator showed the reader: no man there, horses and asses tied, tents as they were. The lord's punishment fits his doubt exactly, he sees the cheap grain in the gate and dies under the feet of the crowd there. The narrator's aside, "For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear", is the only explanation of the empty camp, and the Syrians' own theory is left standing beside it as what they said.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 7:1, 2 Kings 7:19, 2 Kings 7:11, 2 Kings 7:4, 2 Kings 7:12, 2 Kings 7:13, 2 Kings 7:9, 2 Kings 7:10, 2 Kings 7:17, 2 Kings 7:6

Key moments

  1. Flour for a shekel foretold (2 Kings 7:1). Elisha announces that grain will be cheap in Samaria's gate by the next day.
  2. Windows in heaven (2 Kings 7:2). The king's lord doubts the word, and Elisha says he will see it but not eat.
  3. Why sit we here until we die? (2 Kings 7:3). Four lepers at the gate decide to surrender to the Syrians rather than starve.
  4. The Syrians flee a noise (2 Kings 7:6). The narrator explains that the Lord made the Syrian host hear chariots and a great army.
  5. A day of good tidings (2 Kings 7:9). The lepers stop plundering and decide to tell the king's household.
  6. The road to Jordan strewn (2 Kings 7:15). Riders sent with two chariot horses find the way full of garments and vessels the Syrians threw away.
  7. The doubting lord trampled (2 Kings 7:17). Set over the gate, the lord is trodden to death by the crowd as Elisha said.

For reflection

The four lepers stop hiding plunder and say "We do not well", then carry the news to the city they had been sitting outside. What turns their private survival into a duty toward the people inside?

People in this chapter

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