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2 Kings 7

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2 Kings 7 Overview

With Samaria starving, Elisha announces that food will be abundant by the next day. A royal officer mocks the promise, and Elisha says he will see the abundance but not eat it. Four leprous men enter the Syrian camp and find it deserted because the LORD had caused the Syrians to hear the sound of a great army and flee. After initially hiding treasure, the lepers report the news. Samaria plunders the camp, prices collapse exactly as promised, and the scoffing officer is trampled in the gate.

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Before you read 2 Kings 7

Coming from

Chapter 6 ended with famine, cannibalism, royal anger, and Elisha under threat.

In this chapter

God reverses the crisis overnight without Israel winning a battle, and marginalized lepers become the first witnesses.

Leads into

Chapter 8 returns to the Shunammite woman, Hazael’s rise in Syria, and worsening corruption in Judah.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The deliverance exists before the city knows it. The LORD causes the Syrian flight, leaving provision outside the gates. The lepers move from self-preservation and private plunder to recognizing a duty to report good news. The officer’s death precisely fulfills Elisha’s warning.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

God can reverse impossible-looking circumstances rapidly.

Truth 2

Marginalized men become the first bearers of news that saves a city from starvation.

Truth 3

The lepers recognize that withholding good news is wrong.

Truth 4

The scoffing officer’s judgment confirms the prophetic word.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Second Kings 6 supplies the siege crisis.

Connection 2

First Kings 17-18 already showed God controlling famine and provision.

Connection 3

The repeated exact fulfillment strengthens Kings’ theme that God’s word governs history.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

‘A day of good tidings’ first refers to military deliverance; it may illustrate sharing good news but is not originally an evangelistic command.

Keep this clear 2

Do not universalize the officer’s death into immediate punishment for every skeptical question.

Keep this clear 3

Do not romanticize the lepers; the narrative records their initial greed as well as their later responsibility.

Read 2 Kings 7 watching for…

The timetable in Elisha’s promise.

Why the lepers enter the camp.

What the Syrians think they hear.

What the lepers do first.

The king’s cautious response.

How the officer’s mockery is answered.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-2Elisha promises that food will soon be plentiful in Samaria 3-8Four lepers find the Syrian camp abandoned 9-15The lepers report the news, and the king sends men to investigate 16-20The people spoil the Syrian camp, and Elisha’s prophecy is fulfilled

Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.

Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.

For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.

Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.

Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household.

So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were.

And he called the porters; and they told it to the king's house within.

And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city.

And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and see.

They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.

And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.

And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.

And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him.

And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria:

And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.

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2 Kings 7:8

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