2 Kings 7:5

7:5 So they started toward ¹  the Syrian camp at dusk. When they reached the edge of the Syrian camp, there was no one there.

2 Kings 7:14

7:14 So they picked two horsemen and the king sent them out to track the Syrian army. ²  He ordered them, “Go and find out what’s going on.” ³ 

2 Kings 3:24

3:24 When they approached the Israelite camp, the Israelites rose up and struck down the Moabites, who then ran from them. The Israelites ⁴  thoroughly defeated ⁵  Moab.

2 Kings 7:16

7:16 Then the people went out and looted the Syrian camp. A seah ⁶  of finely milled flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, just as the Lord had said they would. ⁷ 

2 Kings 7:4

7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, ⁸  and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect ⁹  to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, ¹⁰  we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” ¹¹ 

2 Kings 7:6

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!”

2 Kings 7:10

7:10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers ¹²  of the city. They told them, “We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice. ¹³  But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.” ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “they arose to go to.”

² tn Heb “and the king sent [them] after the Syrian camp.”

³ tn Heb “Go and see.”

³ tn Heb “they.”

⁴ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) suggests, “and they went, striking down,” but the marginal reading (Qere) is “they struck down, striking down.” For a discussion of the textual problem, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 46.

⁴ sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.

⁵ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord.”

⁵ tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

⁶ tn Heb “fall.”

⁷ tn Heb “keep us alive.”

⁸ tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.

⁶ tn The MT has a singular form (“gatekeeper”), but the context suggests a plural. The pronoun that follows (“them”) is plural and a plural noun appears in v. 11. The Syriac Peshitta and the Targum have the plural here.

⁷ tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”

⁸ tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”