2 Kings 7:3-11

7:3 Now four men with a skin disease ¹  were sitting at the entrance of the city gate. They said to one another, “Why are we just sitting here waiting to die? ²  7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, ³  and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect ⁴  to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, ⁵  we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” ⁶  7:5 So they started toward ⁷  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!” 7:7 So they got up and fled at dusk, leaving behind their tents, horses, and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. 7:8 When the men with a skin disease reached the edge of the camp, they entered a tent and had a meal. ⁸  They also took some silver, gold, and clothes and went and hid it all. ⁹  Then they went back and entered another tent. They looted it ¹⁰  and went and hid what they had taken. 7:9 Then they said to one another, “It’s not right what we’re doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven’t told anyone. ¹¹  If we wait until dawn, ¹²  we’ll be punished. ¹³  So come on, let’s go and inform the royal palace.” 7:10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵  But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.” ¹⁶  7:11 The gatekeepers relayed the news to the royal palace. ¹⁷ 

[7:3]  ¹ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 5:1.

[7:3]  ² tn Heb “until we die.”

[7:4]  ³ tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

[7:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “fall.”

[7:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “keep us alive.”

[7:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.

[7:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “they arose to go to.”

[7:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “they ate and drank.”

[7:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they hid [it].”

[7:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they took from there.”

[7:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “this day is a day of good news and we are keeping silent.”

[7:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the light of the morning.”

[7:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “punishment will find us.”

[7:10]  ¹¹ 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.

[7:10]  ¹² tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”

[7:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”

[7:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the gatekeepers called out and they told [it] to the house of the king.”