1Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of Yahweh! Thus says Yahweh: ‘About this time tomorrow a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’”
2Then the officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, even if Yahweh should make windows in the heavens, could this thing be?” And he said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it.”
3Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance of the gate, and they said to one another, “Why should we sit here until we die?”
4If we say, “Let us go into the city,” the famine is in the city and we will die there; and if we sit here, we will die. So now, come, let us go over to the camp of Aram. If they let us live, we live; and if they put us to death, we die.”
5So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of Aram, and they came to the edge of the camp of Aram, and behold, there was no one there.
6For the Lord had made the camp of Aram hear the sound of chariotry, the sound of horses, the sound of a great army; and they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us!”
7So they arose and fled at twilight, and they abandoned their tents and their horses and their donkeys — the camp just as it was — and they fled for their lives.
8When these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and they carried off from there silver and gold and garments and went and hid them; then they returned and entered another tent and carried off from there and went and hid it.
9Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we are keeping silent. If we wait until the light of morning, punishment will overtake us. So now, come, let us go and tell the king’s household.”
10So they came and called out to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, saying, “We came to the camp of Aram, and behold, there was no one there, no human voice — only the horses tied and the donkeys tied, and the tents just as they were.”
11Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was reported inside the king’s household.
12So the king arose in the night and said to his servants, “Let me tell you what Aram has done to us. They know that we are famished, so they have gone out from the camp to hide in the field, saying, ‘When they come out from the city, we will take them alive and get into the city.’”
13Then one of his servants answered and said, “Let them take five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city — behold, they are like the whole multitude of Israel that remains in it; behold, they are like the whole multitude of Israel that has come to an end — and let us send and see.”
14So they took two chariot-teams of horses, and the king sent them after the camp of Aram, saying, “Go and see.”
15So they went after them as far as the Jordan, and behold, all the way was full of garments and equipment that Aram had thrown away in their haste. Then the messengers returned and reported to the king.
16Then the people went out and plundered the camp of Aram, and a seah of fine flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of Yahweh.
17Now the king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to be in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gate, and he died — just as the man of God had spoken, which he said when the king came down to him.
18And it happened just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “Two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, about this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria” —
19and the officer had answered the man of God and said, “Look, even if Yahweh should make windows in the heavens, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it” —
20and so it happened to him: the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.
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