2 Kings 7:1-9 ▼

1 And Elisha said, “Hear the word of YHWH! Thus says YHWH: ‘About this time tomorrow a seah of fine flour will be for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.”

2 And the officer, whom the king on his hand leaned, answered the man of God and said, “Behold, if YHWH would make windows in the heavens, could this thing come to pass?” And he said, “Behold, you shall see it with your eyes, and from there you shall not eat.”

3 And four leprous men were at the entrance of the gate, and they said one to another, “Why are we sitting here until we die?

4 If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ and the famine is in the city, we shall die there. And if we sit we shall die, we die. And now, come and let us surrender to the camp of Aram. If they keep us alive, we shall live. And if they put us to death, we shall die.”

5 And they arose in the twilight to go in to the camp of Aram, and they came in to the outskirts of the camp of Aram. And behold, not a man was there.

6 For the Lord had caused the army of Aram to hear the noise of chariot and the noise of horse, the noise of a great force. And they said one to another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.”

7 And they arose and fled in the twilight, and they abandoned their tents and their horses and their donkeys—the camp as it was—and they fled for their life.

8 And these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, and they went into one tent and ate, and drank, and carried from it silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them. And they turned back and entered into another tent and lifted up from there, and went and hid it.

9 And they said one to another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. And if we wait until the light of the morning, then punishment will find us. And now come and let us go and declare it to the house of the king.”