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2 Kings 7

The Lord ends Samaria’s famine through an army’s flight, fulfilling both Elisha’s promise of food and his warning to the captain.

Samaria is starving under a Syrian siege when Elisha announces that grain will be affordable at the city gate the next day. A royal captain challenges the promise, and Elisha tells him he will see the food without eating it. Four men with leprosy then find the Syrian camp deserted: the Lord has made the army hear an approaching force and flee. Their report brings food to the city, while the captain dies at the gate.

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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.”
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.”
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.
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Key verses
2 Kings 7:1Elisha names the time, place, and grain prices, making the promised relief concrete enough for the city to verify.
2 Kings 7:6The narrator reveals that the Lord caused the army’s flight before anyone in Samaria knew relief had come.
2 Kings 7:2The captain’s challenge receives a warning whose fulfillment closes the chapter alongside the fulfillment of the promised food.
Where this chapter reaches

Exodus and Joshua share accounts of God throwing opposing forces into fear or confusion, bringing deliverance through his rule over battle. Malachi shares the image of heavenly windows in connection with abundance, an image the captain uses here to question whether food could come.

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After reading the whole chapter

What do the four men’s words reveal about their decision to share the news?

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How does the captain’s death shape your reading of the city’s relief?

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Questions people ask about 2 Kings 7

Why were the four men with leprosy outside Samaria?

The text places them at the entrance of the gate without explaining their living arrangements. Their location fits the exclusion associated with leprosy, though the chapter gives no medical details. Facing starvation whether they stay or enter the city, they decide to seek mercy from the Syrian army.

Why did the Syrian army flee in 2 Kings 7?

The Lord made the Syrians hear chariots, horses, and the noise of a great army. They concluded that Israel had hired Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack them. The narrator reports no arriving army; the sound and their fear drove them to abandon their camp and supplies.

Why did the captain die in 2 Kings 7?

The captain questioned whether the Lord could bring about Elisha’s promised abundance. Elisha said he would see it without eating it. When the king put him in charge of the gate, the crowd trampled him to death. The repeated closing account presents his death as fulfillment of that warning.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).