2 Kings 7

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2 Kings 7 is the end of the siege of Samaria. With the city starving, Elisha announces that by the same time tomorrow flour and barley will sell cheaply at the gate; the king's officer scoffs that it could not happen even if the LORD opened windows in heaven, and is told he will see it but not eat it. Four lepers outside the gate walk to the Aramean camp and find it empty: the LORD had made the army hear chariots and it fled. The lepers eat and hide plunder, then stop themselves: this is a day of good news and we are keeping silent. They tell the city, the people plunder the camp, prices fall as Elisha said, and the scoffing officer is trampled to death in the gate.

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2 Kings 7 begins in a city where mothers have eaten their children, and the prophet Elisha says that by this time tomorrow a measure of fine flour will sell for a shekel at the gate. The king's right-hand man laughs; even if the LORD opened windows in the sky, he says, it could not happen. You will see it, Elisha answers, and you will not eat any of it. Then the story leaves the palace for the gate, where four lepers sit in the place lepers were allowed to sit, and they do the arithmetic of the desperate. If we go into the city we starve. If we sit here we starve. If we walk over to the Arameans they may kill us, or they may not. They walk. At dusk they reach the edge of the enemy camp and there is no one there, because in the night God had let the whole army hear the thunder of chariots and horses and they had run for their lives, leaving tents, horses, donkeys, food, and silver. The lepers eat, drink, and start hiding treasure, and then one of them says the sentence the chapter is remembered for: we are not doing right; this is a day of good news, and we are keeping it to ourselves. They go and shout it to the gatekeepers. The king suspects a trap, a servant points out that the men they would send are as good as dead anyway, the scouts follow a road strewn with thrown-away armor all the way to the Jordan, and by morning the people are pouring out of the gate to plunder the camp and flour is selling for a shekel, exactly as promised. The officer who laughed is in charge of that gate, and the crowd tramples him to death.

Ключевые места

2 Kings 7:1-2 2 Kings 7:3-9 2 Kings 7:10-16 2 Kings 7:17-20 2 Kings 6:24-33 Judges 7:19-22

Historical and literary context

The chapter belongs to the Elisha cycle in the ninth century BC, during the wars between Israel and Aram-Damascus under Ben-hadad. Chapter 6 describes the siege's horror: a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels and a mother had eaten her child. A seah was about seven liters, and the prices Elisha predicts are those of normal times, so the prophecy is that the famine will end overnight. Lepers were excluded from the city and lived at the gate, dependent on charity. The Hittites and Egyptians the Arameans feared were the great powers to the north and south, and a hired coalition was a plausible terror. The officer "on whose arm the king leaned" held a position of trust known from Egyptian and Assyrian courts.

How the chapter unfolds

Verses 1 and 2 give Elisha's prophecy and the officer's scoffing, with the sentence on him. Verses 3 to 5 follow the four lepers' reasoning and their discovery of the empty camp. Verses 6 and 7 explain the flight: the LORD's sound of an army in the night. Verses 8 and 9 show the lepers feasting and hiding loot, then their change of heart. Verses 10 to 15 carry the news into the city, the king's suspicion of a trap, a servant's proposal, and the scouts' confirmation as far as the Jordan. Verses 16 to 20 record the plunder, the fulfilled prices, and the officer's death in the gate, told twice to underline the word of the LORD.

Why this chapter matters

"This is a day of good news, and we are keeping silent" has been the text of countless sermons on the duty to share the gospel, with the four lepers as the unlikely evangelists who could not keep salvation to themselves. The officer who saw the miracle and did not eat of it is the Bible's picture of unbelief that witnesses the truth too late. The story also belongs with Gideon's three hundred and Jehoshaphat's singers among the accounts of victories won without a battle, by a sound God made, and it has been read as a lesson that deliverance often comes through the people nobody counted.

Interpretive tension to watch

The chapter presents the Aramean flight as God's direct act, a sound and nothing more, which sits alongside the more ordinary explanation of a panic in a besieging army; the text is content to attribute the panic to the LORD. The officer's fate, trampled for a sarcastic remark, strikes modern readers as harsh, and the narrator's double telling of it shows how seriously the story takes the prophetic word. The lepers' first instinct to hide silver and gold is reported without comment, and their repentance seems driven as much by fear of being found out as by conscience, which is part of the story's realism.

Вопросы к этой главе

The lepers had nothing to lose, and that freed them to walk toward the enemy. What does having nothing to lose make possible?
"This is a day of good news, and we are keeping silent." What good news are you sitting on, and why?
The officer saw the prophecy fulfilled and did not eat of it. What is the difference between seeing God's goodness and receiving it?

Study with context

Use this as a chapter guide, then press deeper into the text itself. The goal is to slow down observation, notice structure, and ask better questions before jumping to conclusions.

В заметки

1 And Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD: thus saith the LORD, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour 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, Behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. 3 Now there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. 5 And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the outermost part of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no man there. 6 For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. 7 Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. 8 And when these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and they came back, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. 9 Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, punishment will overtake us: now therefore come, let us go and tell the king’s household. 10 So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but the horses tied, and the asses tied, and the tents as they were. 11 And he called the porters; and they told it to the king’s household within. 12 And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they 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. 13 And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it; behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are consumed:) and let us send and see. 14 They took therefore two chariots with horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see. 15 And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king. 16 And the people went out, and spoiled the camp of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was [sold ]for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD. 17 And the king appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him. 18 And it came to pass, as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria; 19 and that captain answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? and he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof: 20 it came to pass even so unto him; for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.

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