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2 Kings 7
New English Translation

7 1 Elisha replied, “Listen to the Lord’s message. This is what the Lord has said, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah[a] of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’” 2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man[b] responded to the prophet,[c] “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?”[d] Elisha[e] said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”[f]

3 Now four men with a skin disease[g] were sitting at the entrance of the city gate. They said to one another, “Why are we just sitting here waiting to die?[h] 4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation,[i] and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect[j] to the Syrian camp! If they spare us,[k] we’ll live; if they kill us—well, we were going to die anyway.”[l] 5 So they started toward[m] the Syrian camp at dusk. When they reached the edge of the Syrian camp, there was no one there. 6 The Lord had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army. Then they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!” 7 So they got up and fled at dusk, leaving behind their tents, horses, and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. 8 When the men with a skin disease reached the edge of the camp, they entered a tent and had a meal.[n] They also took some silver, gold, and clothes and went and hid it all.[o] Then they went back and entered another tent. They looted it[p] and went and hid what they had taken. 9 Then they said to one another, “It’s not right what we’re doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven’t told anyone.[q] If we wait until dawn,[r] we’ll be punished.[s] So come on, let’s go and inform the royal palace.” 10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers[t] of the city. They told them, “We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice.[u] But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.”[v] 11 The gatekeepers relayed the news to the royal palace.[w]

12 The king got up in the night and said to his advisers,[x] “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’” 13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people—we’re all going to die!)[y] Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.”[z] 14 So they picked two horsemen and the king sent them out to track the Syrian army.[aa] He ordered them, “Go and find out what’s going on.”[ab] 15 So they tracked them[ac] as far as the Jordan. The road was filled with clothes and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their haste.[ad] The scouts[ae] went back and told the king. 16 Then the people went out and looted the Syrian camp. A seah[af] of finely milled flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, just as in the Lord’s message.

17 Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man[ag] at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate.[ah] This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him.[ai] 18 The prophet had told the king, “Two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of finely milled flour for a shekel; this will happen about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria.” 19 But the officer had replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?”[aj] Elisha[ak] had said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”[al] 20 This is exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him to death in the city gate.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 7:1 sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 11 quarts (11 liters).
  2. 2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”
  3. 2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “man of God.”
  4. 2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” Opening holes in the sky would allow the waters stored up there to pour to the earth and assure a good crop. But, the officer argues, even if this were to happen, it would take a long time to grow and harvest the crop.
  5. 2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  6. 2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”
  7. 2 Kings 7:3 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 5:1.
  8. 2 Kings 7:3 tn Heb “until we die.”
  9. 2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”
  10. 2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “fall.”
  11. 2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “keep us alive.”
  12. 2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.
  13. 2 Kings 7:5 tn Heb “they arose to go to.”
  14. 2 Kings 7:8 tn Heb “they ate and drank.”
  15. 2 Kings 7:8 tn Heb “and they hid [it].”
  16. 2 Kings 7:8 tn Heb “and they took from there.”
  17. 2 Kings 7:9 tn Heb “this day is a day of good news and we are keeping silent.”
  18. 2 Kings 7:9 tn Heb “the light of the morning.”
  19. 2 Kings 7:9 tn Heb “punishment will find us.”
  20. 2 Kings 7:10 tn The MT has a singular form (“gatekeeper”), but the context suggests a plural. The pronoun that follows (“them”) is plural and a plural noun appears in v. 11. The Syriac Peshitta and the Targum have the plural here.
  21. 2 Kings 7:10 tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”
  22. 2 Kings 7:10 tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”
  23. 2 Kings 7:11 tn Heb “and the gatekeepers called out and they told [it] within the house of the king.”
  24. 2 Kings 7:12 tn Heb “servants” (also in v. 13).
  25. 2 Kings 7:13 tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”
  26. 2 Kings 7:13 tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”
  27. 2 Kings 7:14 tn Heb “and the king sent [them] after the Syrian camp.”
  28. 2 Kings 7:14 tn Heb “Go and see.”
  29. 2 Kings 7:15 tn Heb “went after.”
  30. 2 Kings 7:15 tn Heb “and look, all the road was full of clothes and equipment that Syria had thrown away in their haste.”
  31. 2 Kings 7:15 tn Or “messengers.”
  32. 2 Kings 7:16 sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 11 quarts (11 liters).
  33. 2 Kings 7:17 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand he leans.”
  34. 2 Kings 7:17 tn Heb “and the people trampled him in the gate and he died.”
  35. 2 Kings 7:17 tn Heb “just as the man of God had spoken, [the word] which he spoke when the king came down to him.”
  36. 2 Kings 7:19 tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” See the note at 7:2.
  37. 2 Kings 7:19 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  38. 2 Kings 7:19 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”tn In the Hebrew text vv. 18-19a are one lengthy sentence, “When the man of God spoke to the king…, the officer replied to the man of God, ‘Look…so soon?’” The translation divides this sentence up for stylistic reasons.
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2 Kings 7
Amplified Bible

Elisha Promises Food

7 Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, ‘Tomorrow about this time a [a]measure of finely-milled flour will sell for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’” 2 Then the royal officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “If the Lord should make windows in heaven [for the rain], could this thing take place?” Elisha said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but [because you doubt] you will not eat of it.”

Four Lepers Relate Arameans’ Flight

3 Now four men who were [b]lepers were at the entrance of the [city’s] gate; and they said to one another, “Why should we sit here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We will enter the city’—then the famine is in the city and we will die there; and if we sit still here, we will also die. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans (Syrians). If they let us live, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die.” 5 So they got up at twilight to go to the Aramean camp. But when they came to the edge of the camp, there was no one there. 6 For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the sound of chariots, and the sound of horses, the sound of a great army. They had said to one another, “The king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come [and fight] against us.” 7 So the Arameans set out and fled during the twilight, and left their tents, horses, and donkeys, even left the camp just as it was, and fled for their lives. 8 When these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and carried away from there silver, gold, and clothing, and went and hid them. Then they went back and entered another tent and carried [some valuable things] from there also, and went and hid them.

9 Then they said one to another, “We are not doing the right thing. This is a day of good news, yet we are keeping silent. If we wait until the morning light, some punishment [for not reporting this now] will come on us. So now come, let us go and tell the king’s household.” 10 So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city. They told them, “We went to the camp of the Arameans (Syrians), and behold, there was no one there, nor the sound of man there—only the horses and donkeys tied up, and the tents [had been left] just as they were.” 11 Then the gatekeepers called out and it was reported to the king’s household inside [the city]. 12 Then the king got up in the night and said to his servants, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know that we are hungry; so they have left the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city.’” 13 One of his servants replied, “Please let some men take five of the horses which remain inside the city. Consider this: [if they are caught then at worst] they will be like all the people of Israel who are left in the city; [even if they are killed then] they will be like all the people of Israel who have already died. So let us send [them] and see [what happens].” 14 So they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, “Go and see.”

The Promise Fulfilled

15 They went after them to the Jordan, and all the road was entirely littered with clothing and equipment which the Arameans (Syrians) had thrown away when they hurriedly fled. And the messengers returned and told the king.

16 Then the people [of Israel] went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So [goods were so plentiful that] a measure of finely-milled flour [was sold] for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in accordance with the word of the Lord [as spoken through Elisha].(A) 17 Now the king had appointed the royal officer on whose arm he leaned to be in charge of the [city] gate; and the [starving] people trampled him at the gate [as they struggled to get through for food], and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to him. 18 It happened just as [Elisha] the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “Two measures of barley will be sold for a shekel and a measure of finely-milled flour for a shekel tomorrow about this time at the gate of Samaria.” 19 The royal officer had answered the man of God and said, “Now behold, [even] if the Lord should make windows in heaven, could such a thing happen?” And Elisha had answered, “You will see it with your own eyes, but [because of your doubt] you will not eat it.”(B) 20 And so it happened to him; for the people trampled him at the gate, and he died.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 7:1 Heb seah.
  2. 2 Kings 7:3 See note 5:1.
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