Chapter Seven

1–20. The miraculous cessation of the siege of Samaria and the famine by the word of the prophet Elisha.

2 Kings 7:1. But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord, ‘Tomorrow about this time a measure of choice meal shall be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’ 2 Kings 7:2. Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “Even if the Lord were to make windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?” He said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat from it. “The prophet, when threatened with death, besought the Lord, and immediately ended the siege” (the blessed Theodoret, question 22). The prophet speaks to the king and elders of the people (cf. 2 Kgs 6:32-33) of the coming extraordinary cheapness of bread namely “at the gates of Samaria” – at the gates, where in the East all public life was concentrated, among other things, also commerce. A measure, Heb. seah, Gr. τριστάτης, see the note to (1 Kgs 9:22). In the accepted Hebrew text stands lammeleḵ – “to the king,” which makes no sense; in many codices: “hammelek,” i.e., “king” (codices 70, 149, 174, 224 at Kennicott and others). The question of the captain to the prophet – the voice of unbelief and mockery, soon heavily punished (2 Kgs 7:19-20).

2 Kings 7:3. Now there were four leprous men outside the city gate. They said to one another, “Why should we sit here until we die? 2 Kings 7:4. “If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; but if we sit here, we shall also die. Now then, come, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans; if they spare us, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. 2 Kings 7:5. So they arose in the twilight to go to the camp of the Arameans; when they came to the edge of the camp of the Arameans, there was no one there. 2 Kings 7:6. For the Lord had caused the army of the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots, and of horses, and of a great army; so they said to one another, “The king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the king of Egypt to fight against us. 2 Kings 7:7. 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. 2 Kings 7:8. When these leprous men came to the edge of the camp, they went into one tent, ate and drank, carried off silver, gold, and clothing, and went and hid them. Then they came back, entered another tent, carried off things from it, and went and hid them. According to the Talmud (Sanhedr. 107, b.), the four lepers mentioned here were Gehazi and his three sons (cf. 2 Kgs 5:27). According to the law, lepers were strictly isolated from society (Lev 13:46; Num 5:2 and following), so these four lepers sat only at the gates of the city; now, during the famine, they were all the more left to die of hunger. This and prompted them to the desperate decision to go (in twilight so as not to be noticed in Samaria) to the Syrian camp, and they, to their surprise and joy, found it abandoned by the Syrians so suddenly and miraculously, just as after suddenly and miraculously lifted the siege of Jerusalem the Assyrian army (2 Kgs 19:7). Verses 6–7 constitute an inserted remark explaining the reason for the Syrian retreat. – “Kings of the Hittites” (v. 6): not Hittites – subjects of the Israelites (1 Kgs 9:20), but an independent and powerful people in the north of Palestine (1 Kgs 10:29), which even before the coming of the Hebrews to it had constituted a mighty kingdom, standing in vassal relations to Egypt, as is known from the Tells Amarna correspondence.

2 Kings 7:9. Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This is a day of good news; if we are silent and wait until the morning light, we will be blamed. Come therefore, let us go and tell the king’s household. 2 Kings 7:10. So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city, and told them, “We went to the camp of the Arameans, but there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied, the donkeys tied, and the tents as they were. 2 Kings 7:11. Then the gatekeepers called out and proclaimed it to the king’s household. 2 Kings 7:12. 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 starving; 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.’ 2 Kings 7:13. One of his servants said, “Let some take five of the remaining horses. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel that has perished; let us send and see. 2 Kings 7:14. So they took two pairs of horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, “Go and see. 2 Kings 7:15. They went after them all the way to the Jordan; the whole way was littered with the garments and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their haste. The messengers returned and told the king. Having satisfied their own need for food and even the passion of greed (v. 8), the lepers remember their civic duty – to bring to the knowledge of the king and the population the joyful news of the danger passed and of the abundant supplies left by the Syrians. Against the disbelief expressed by the king of the reality of the fact and his suspicion of military deception on the part of the Syrians (v. 12), his attendants proposed to first verify the reality of the Syrian departure (verses 13–15).

2 Kings 7:16. Then the people went out, and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a measure of choice meal was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. 2 Kings 7:17. The king appointed the captain on whose hand he had leaned to have charge of the gate; the people trampled him in the gate, and he died, just as the man of God had said when the king came down to him. 2 Kings 7:18. For when the man of God said to the king, “Two measures of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a measure of choice meal for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria, 2 Kings 7:19. the captain had answered the man of God, “Even if the Lord were to make windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?” And he had said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat from it. 2 Kings 7:20. It did indeed happen to him; the people trampled him in the gate, and he died. When the enemy’s retreat was no longer in doubt, the hungry people rushed to plunder the enemy camp, and the appointed captain, who had not believed the prophet Elisha’s prediction (v. 19; cf. 2), perished.