2 Kings 7:3
Good News Translation
Four men who were suffering from a dreaded skin disease were outside the gates of Samaria, and they said to each other, "Why should we wait here until we die?

New Revised Standard Version
Now there were four leprous men outside the city gate, who said to one another, “Why should we sit here until we die?

Contemporary English Version
About the same time, four men with leprosy were just outside the gate of Samaria. They said to each other, "Why should we sit here, waiting to die?

New American Bible
At the city gate four lepers were asking one another, “Why should we sit here until we die?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Now there were four lepers, at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another: What mean we to stay here till we die?

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Now there were four lepers, at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another: What mean we to stay here till we die?

four leprous

2 Kings 5:1 Naaman, general of the army, of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable: for by him the Lord gave deliverance to Syria: and he was a valiant man, and rich, but a leper.

2 Kings 8:4 And the king talked with Giezi, the servant of the man of God, saying: Tell me all the great things that Eliseus hath done.

Leviticus 13:46 All the time that he is a leper and unclean he shall dwell alone without the camp.

Numbers 5:2-4 Command the children of Israel, that they cast out of the camp every leper, and whosoever hath an issue of seed, or is defiled by the dead: . . .

Numbers 12:14 And the Lord answered him: If her father had spitten upon her face, ought she not to have been ashamed for seven days at least? Let her be separated seven days without the camp, and afterwards she shall be called again.

Why

2 Kings 7:4 If we will enter into the city, we shall die with the famine: and if we will remain here, we must also die: come therefore, and let us run over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare us, we shall live: but if they kill us, we shall but die.

Jeremiah 8:14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fenced city, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and hath given us water of gall to drink: for we have sinned against the Lord.

Jeremiah 27:13 Why will you die, thou and thy people by the sword, and by famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

Context
The Siege Lifted
2Then one of the lords, upon whose hand the king leaned, answering the man of God, said: If the Lord should make flood-gates in heaven, can that possibly be which thou sayest? And he said: Thou shalt see it with thy eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. 3Now there were four lepers, at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another: What mean we to stay here till we die?4If we will enter into the city, we shall die with the famine: and if we will remain here, we must also die: come therefore, and let us run over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare us, we shall live: but if they kill us, we shall but die.…
Cross References
Leviticus 13:45
Shall have his clothes hanging loose, his head bare, his mouth covered with a cloth: and he shall cry out that he is defiled and unclean.

Leviticus 13:46
All the time that he is a leper and unclean he shall dwell alone without the camp.

Numbers 5:2
Command the children of Israel, that they cast out of the camp every leper, and whosoever hath an issue of seed, or is defiled by the dead:

Numbers 12:10
The cloud also that was over the tabernacle departed: and behold Mary appeared white as snow with a leprosy. And when Aaron had looked on her, and saw her all covered with leprosy,

2 Kings 7:2
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