2Kings 7

7Elisha replied, "Listen to this message from the LORD! This is what the LORD says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of choice flour will cost only one piece of silver

, and ten quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver."H477H559H8085H1697H3068H559H3068H4279H6256H5429H5560H8255H5429H8184H8255H8179H81112The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, "That couldn't happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!" But Elisha replied, "You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won't be able to eat any of it!"H7991H3027H4428H8172H6030H376H430H559H3068H6213H699H8064H1697H559H7200H5869H398

Outcasts Visit the Enemy Camp

3Now there were four men with leprosy

sitting at the entrance of the city gates. "Why should we sit here waiting to die?" they asked each other.H702H6879H582H6607H8179H559H376H7453H3427H41914"We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway."H559H935H5892H7458H5892H4191H3427H4191H3212H5307H4264H758H2421H2421H4191H41915So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there!H6965H5399H935H4264H758H935H7097H4264H758H3766For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians

to attack us!" they cried to one another.H136H4264H758H8085H6963H7393H6963H5483H6963H1419H2428H559H376H251H4428H3478H7936H4428H2850H4428H4714H9357So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives.H6965H5127H5399H5800H168H5483H2543H4264H5127H53158When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it.H6879H935H7097H4264H935H259H168H398H8354H5375H3701H2091H899H3212H2934H7725H935H312H168H5375H3212H29349Finally, they said to each other, "This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren't sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let's go back and tell the people at the palace."H559H376H7453H6213H3117H3117H1309H2814H2442H1242H216H5771H4672H3212H935H5046H4428H100410So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened. "We went out to the Aramean camp," they said, "and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there wasn't a single person around!"H935H7121H7778H5892H5046H559H935H4264H758H376H6963H120H5483H631H2543H631H16811Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.H7121H7778H5046H4428H1004H6441

Israel Plunders the Camp

12The king got out of bed in the middle of the night and told his officers, "I know what has happened. The Arameans know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields. They are expecting us to leave the city, and then they will take us alive and capture the city."H4428H6965H3915H559H5650H5046H758H6213H3045H7457H3318H4264H2247H7704H559H3318H5892H8610H2416H935H589213One of his officers replied, "We had better send out scouts to check into this. Let them take five of the remaining horses. If something happens to them, it will be no worse than if they stay here and die with the rest of us."H259H5650H6030H559H3947H2568H5483H7604H7604H1995H3478H7604H1995H3478H8552H7971H720014So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army.H3947H8147H7393H5483H4428H7971H310H4264H758H559H3212H720015They went all the way to the Jordan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their mad rush to escape. The scouts returned and told the king about it.H3212H310H3383H1870H4392H899H3627H758H7993H2648H4397H7725H5046H442816Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that five quarts of choice flour were sold that day for one piece of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain were sold for one piece of silver, just as the LORD had promised.H5971H3318H962H4264H758H5429H5560H8255H5429H8184H8255H1697H306817The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out. So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house.H4428H6485H7991H3027H8172H8179H5971H7429H8179H4191H376H430H1696H1696H4428H338118The man of God had said to the king, "By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of choice flour will cost one piece of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain will cost one piece of silver."H376H430H1696H4428H559H5429H8184H8255H5429H5560H8255H4279H6256H8179H811119The king's officer had replied, "That couldn't happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!" And the man of God had said, "You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won't be able to eat any of it!"H7991H6030H376H430H559H3068H6213H699H8064H1697H559H7200H5869H39820And so it was, for the people trampled him to death at the gate!H5971H7429H8179H4191