2 Kings 7:1-6

7:1 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah ¹  of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’” 7:2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man ²  responded to the prophet, ³  “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ⁴  Elisha ⁵  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ⁶ 

7:3 Now four men with a skin disease ⁷  were sitting at the entrance of the city gate. They said to one another, “Why are we just sitting here waiting to die? ⁸  7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, ⁹  and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect ¹⁰  to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, ¹¹  we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” ¹²  7:5 So they started toward ¹³  the Syrian camp at dusk. When they reached the edge of the Syrian camp, there was no one there. 7:6 The Lord had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army. Then they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and Egypt to attack us!”

¹ sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.

² tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”

³ tn Heb “man of God.”

⁴ tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” Opening holes in the sky would allow the waters stored up there to pour to the earth and assure a good crop. But, the officer argues, even if this were to happen, it would take a long time to grow and harvest the crop.

⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”

⁷ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 5:1.

⁸ tn Heb “until we die.”

⁹ tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “fall.”

¹¹ tn Heb “keep us alive.”

¹² tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.

¹³ tn Heb “they arose to go to.”