1
Elisha said, “Hear the word of Yahweh. This is what Yahweh says: ‘Tomorrow about this time a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’”
2
Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, “See, even if Yahweh should make windows in heaven, can this thing happen?” Elisha replied, “See, you will watch it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it.”
The Syrians Flee
3
Now there were four men with leprosy right outside the city gate. They said one to another, “Why should we sit here until we die?
4
If we say that we should go into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we will die there. But if we still sit here, we will still die. Now then, come, let us go to the army of the Arameans. If they keep us alive, we will live, and if they kill us, we will only die.”
5
So they rose up at twilight to go into the Aramean camp; when they arrived at the outermost part of the camp, there was no one there.
6
For the Lord had made the Aramean army hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses-the noise of another large army, and they said to each other, “The king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to come against us.”
7
So the soldiers arose and fled in the twilight; they left their tents, their horses, their donkeys, and the camp as it was, and fled for their lives.
8
When the men with leprosy came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and carried away silver and gold and clothes, and went and hid them. They came back and entered into another tent and carried plunder away from there also, and went and hid it.
9
Then they said to each other, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, but we are keeping quiet about it. If we wait until daybreak, punishment will overtake us. Now then, come, let us go and tell the king’s household.”
10
So they went and called the gatekeepers of the city. They told them, saying, “We went to the camp of the Arameans, but there was no one there, not the sound of anyone, but there were the horses tied, and the donkeys tied, and the tents as they were.”
11
Then the gatekeepers shouted out the news, and then it was told inside the king’s household.
12
Then the king arose at night and said to his servants, “I will tell you now what the Arameans have done to us. They know that we are hungry, so they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the fields. They are saying, ‘When they come out of the city, we will take them alive, and get into the city.’”
13
One of the king’s servants answered and said, “I beg you, let some men take five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city. They are like all the rest of the population of Israel who are left-most are now dead; let us send them and see.”
14
So they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the army of the Arameans, saying, “Go and see.”
15
They went after them to the Jordan, and all the road was full of clothes and equipment that the Arameans had cast away in their hurry. So the messengers returned and told the king.
Elisha’s Prophecy Fulfilled
16
The people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, just as the word of Yahweh had said.
17
The king had ordered the captain on whose hand he had leaned to be in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him down in the gateway. He died as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king had come down to him.
18
So it happened as the man of God had said to the king, saying, “About this time in the gate of Samaria, two measures of barley will be available for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel.”
19
That captain had answered the man of God and said, “See, even if Yahweh should make windows in heaven, can this thing happen?” Elisha had said, “See, you will watch it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it.”
20
That is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.
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