Aram’s Siege of Samaria

²⁴ Now it happened afterwards, that ^(A)Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his military camp and went up and besieged Samaria. ²⁵ Now there was a great ^(B)famine in Samaria. And behold, they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for ^[a]eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a ^[b]kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. ²⁶ As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Save, my lord, O king!” ²⁷ He said, “^[c]If Yahweh does not save you, from where shall I save you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?” ²⁸ And the king said to her, “^(C)What ^[d]is the matter with you?” And she said, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ ^29 (D)So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.” ³⁰ Now it happened that when the king heard the words of the woman, ^(E)he tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth ^[e]beneath on his ^[f]body. ³¹ Then he said, “May ^(F)God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat ^[g]remains on him today.”

Flour and Barley in Samaria

³² Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and ^(G)the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man from his presence; but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you ^(H)see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and ^[h]hold the door shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?” ³³ While he was still speaking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him and he said, “^(I)Behold, this evil is from Yahweh; why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?”