2 Kings 6–7

2 Kings 6–7 WEB

^6:1The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See now, the place where we live and meet with you is too small for us. ²Please let us go to the Jordan, and each man take a beam from there, and let’s make us a place there, where we may live.” He answered, “Go!” ³One said, “Please be pleased to go with your servants.” He answered, “I will go.” ⁴So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood. ⁵But as one was cutting down a tree, the ax head fell into the water. Then he cried out and said, “Alas, my master! For it was borrowed.” ⁶The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” He showed him the place. He cut down a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float. ⁷He said, “Take it.” So he put out his hand and took it. ⁸Now the king of Syria was at war against Israel; and he took counsel with his servants, saying, “My camp will be in such and such a place.” ⁹The man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, “Beware that you not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down there.” ¹⁰The king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of; and he saved himself there, not once or twice. ¹¹The king of Syria’s heart was very troubled about this. He called his servants, and said to them, “Won’t you show me which of us is for the king of Israel?” ¹²One of his servants said, “No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” ¹³He said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him.” He was told, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” ¹⁴Therefore he sent horses, chariots, and a great army there. They came by night and surrounded the city. ¹⁵When the servant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was around the city. His servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” ¹⁶He answered, “Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” ¹⁷Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, please open his eyes, that he may see.” the LORD opened the young man’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. ¹⁸When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, “Please strike this people with blindness.” He struck them with blindness according to Elisha’s word. ¹⁹Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” He led them to Samaria. ²⁰When they had come into Samaria, Elisha said, “LORD, open these men’s eyes, that they may see.” The LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and behold, they were in the middle of Samaria. ²¹The king of Israel said to Elisha, when he saw them, “My father, shall I strike them? Shall I strike them?” ²²He answered, “You shall not strike them. Would you strike those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, then go to their master.” ²³He prepared a great feast for them. After they ate and drank, he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria stopped raiding the land of Israel. ²⁴After this, Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. ²⁵There was a great famine in Samaria. Behold, they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver. ²⁶As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” ²⁷He said, “If the LORD doesn’t help you, where could I get help for you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?” ²⁸Then the king asked her, “What is your problem?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ ²⁹So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him;’ and she has hidden her son.” ³⁰When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth underneath on his body. ³¹Then he said, “God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat stays on him today.” ³²But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Then the king sent a man from before him; but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Behold, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door shut against him. Isn’t the sound of his master’s feet behind him?” ³³While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him. Then he said, “Behold, this evil is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”

^7:1Elisha said, “Hear the LORD’s word. The LORD says, ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’” ²Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, “Behold, if the LORD made windows in heaven, could this thing be?” He said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.” ³Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. They said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die? ⁴If we say, ‘We will enter into the city,’ then the famine is in the city, and we will die there. If we sit still here, we also die. Now therefore come, and let’s surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die.” ⁵They rose up in the twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. When they had come to the outermost part of the camp of the Syrians, behold, no man was there. ⁶For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots and the sound of horses, even the noise of a great army; and they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.” ⁷Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. ⁸When these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drank, then carried away silver, gold, and clothing and went and hid it. Then they came back, and entered into another tent and carried things from there also, and went and hid them. ⁹Then they said to one another, “We aren’t doing right. Today is a day of good news, and we keep silent. If we wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let’s go and tell the king’s household.” ¹⁰So they came and called to the city gatekeepers; and they told them, “We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, not even a man’s voice, but the horses tied, and the donkeys tied, and the tents as they were.” ¹¹Then the gatekeepers called out and told it to the king’s household within. ¹²The king arose in the night, and said to his servants, “I will now show 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 field, saying, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city.’” ¹³One of his servants answered, “Please let some people take five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel who are left in it. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel who are consumed. Let’s send and see.” ¹⁴Therefore they took two chariots with horses; and the king sent them out to the Syrian army, saying, “Go and see.” ¹⁵They went after them to the Jordan; and behold, all the path was full of garments and equipment which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. The messengers returned and told the king. ¹⁶The people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the LORD’s word. ¹⁷The king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to be in charge of the gate; and the people trampled over him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him. ¹⁸It happened as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “Two seahs of barley for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, shall be tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria;” ¹⁹and that captain answered the man of God, and said, “Now, behold, if the LORD made windows in heaven, might such a thing be?” and he said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.” ²⁰It happened like that to him, for the people trampled over him in the gate, and he died.