2 Kings 6:24-8:20

English Standard Version

Ben-hadad's Siege of Samaria

²⁴ Afterward ^(A)Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria. ²⁵ And there was a great famine in Samaria, as they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab^[a] of dove's dung for five shekels of silver. ²⁶ Now as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” ²⁷ And he said, “If the Lord will not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?” ²⁸ And the king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ ^29 (B)So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.” ³⁰ When the king heard the words of the woman, ^(C)he tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, ^(D)he had sackcloth beneath on his body— ³¹ and he said, ^(E)“May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today.”

³² Elisha was sitting in his house, ^(F)and the elders were sitting with him. Now the king had dispatched a man from his presence, but before the messenger arrived Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this ^(G)murderer has sent to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?” ³³ And while he was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him and said, “This trouble is from the Lord! ^(H)Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”

Elisha Promises Food

7 But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord, ^(I)Tomorrow about this time a seah^[b] of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel,^[c] and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” ² Then ^(J)the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, ^(K)“If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”

The Syrians Flee

³ Now there were four men who were lepers^{[d] (L)}at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? ⁴ If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” ⁵ So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. ⁶ For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians ^(M)hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us ^(N)the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.” ^7 (O)So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. ⁸ And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them.

⁹ Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king's household.” ¹⁰ So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, “We came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied and the donkeys tied and the tents as they were.” ¹¹ Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within the king's household. ¹² And the king rose in the night and said to his servants, “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of 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 And one of his servants said, “Let some men take five of the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole multitude of Israel who have already perished. Let us send and see.” ¹⁴ So they took two horsemen, and the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, “Go and see.” ¹⁵ So they went after them as far as the Jordan, and behold, all the way was littered with garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.

¹⁶ Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, ^(P)according to the word of the Lord. ¹⁷ Now the king had appointed ^(Q)the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said ^(R)when the king came down to him. ¹⁸ For when the man of God had said to the king, “Two seahs of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria,” ^19 (S)the captain had answered the man of God, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, ^(T)“You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” ²⁰ And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate and he died.

The Shunammite's Land Restored

8 Now Elisha had said to the woman ^(U)whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, and depart with your household, and sojourn wherever you can, for the Lord ^(V)has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for ^(W)seven years.” ² So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. She went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. ³ And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land. ⁴ Now the king was talking with ^(X)Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.” ⁵ And while he was telling the king how ^(Y)Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” ⁶ And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.”

Hazael Murders Ben-hadad

⁷ Now Elisha came to ^(Z)Damascus. ^(AA)Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick. And when it was told him, “The man of God has come here,” ⁸ the king said to ^(AB)Hazael, ^(AC)“Take a present with you and go to meet the man of God, ^(AD)and inquire of the Lord through him, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’” ⁹ So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camels' loads. When he came and stood before him, he said, ^(AE)“Your son Ben-hadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’” ¹⁰ And Elisha said to him, ^(AF)“Go, say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover,’ but^[e] the Lord has shown me that ^(AG)he shall certainly die.” ¹¹ And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, ^(AH)until he was embarrassed. And the man of God wept. ¹² And Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” He answered, “Because I know ^(AI)the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword ^(AJ)and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women.” ¹³ And Hazael said, “What is your servant, ^(AK)who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Elisha answered, ^(AL)“The Lord has shown me that you are to be king over Syria.” ¹⁴ Then he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me ^(AM)that you would certainly recover.” ¹⁵ But the next day he took the bed cloth^[f] and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, till he died. And Hazael became king in his place.

Jehoram Reigns in Judah

¹⁶ In the fifth year of ^(AN)Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah,^[g] Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign. ¹⁷ He was ^(AO)thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. ¹⁸ And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for ^(AP)the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹⁹ Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, ^(AQ)since he promised to give ^(AR)a lamp to him and to his sons forever.

²⁰ In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up ^(AS)a king of their own.