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said, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: ‘About this time tomorrow, a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel at the gate of Samaria’.”
2 Then an officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could such a thing really happen?”
Elisha said to him, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!”
3 Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the gate. They said to each other, “Why should we sit here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We will go into the city’, the famine is in the city, and we will die there, but if we just sit here, we will also die. So come now, let’s go to the camp of the Arameans and surrender, and if they spare our lives, we will live; and if they kill us, we will die.”
5 So they set out at twilight to go to the camp of the Arameans; but when they reached the edge of the camp, there was no one there. 6 For the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the not noise of chariots and horses, and the din of a great army, so that they said to one another, “The king of Israel must of hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.” 7 So they got up and fled headlong in the twilight, abandoning their tents, their horses, and their donkeys. Leaving the camp just as it was, they ran for their lives.
8 When the leprous men came to the edge of the camp, they went into one of the tents, and they ate and drank there. Then they carried off silver, gold, and clothing, and went off and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent, and took things from there also, and went and hid them.
9 Then they said to each other, “We are not doing what is right. Today is a day of good news, and yet we remain silent! If we wait until the light of morning, we will be punished. Come on then, let’s go and report this to the king’s household.”
10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, “We have been to the Aramean camp, but there was no one there, not even a single voice was to be heard. There was nothing but tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” 11 So the gatekeepers passed on the news to the king’s household.
12 The king got up in the night and said to his servants, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving, so they have gone out of the camp to hide out in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, then we will take them alive and get into the city’.”
13 But one of his servants answered, “Please, have some men take five of the remaining horses left in the city. Their plight will in any case be like that of the whole multitude of Israel who are left here, for the whole multitude of Israelites are doomed anyway. So let’s send them to find out what has happened.”
14 So they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, “Go and find out.” 15 And they followed after them as far as the Jordan, and found the whole road strewn with clothes and equipment that the Arameans had thrown off in their haste. So the messengers returned and told the king. 16 Then the people went out and plundered the Aramean camp. So a seah of fine flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
17 Now the king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to be in charge of the gate. But the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to him. 18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king, “About this time tomorrow two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel and a seah of fine flour for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
19 The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could such a thing really happen?” Elisha had answered, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it.” 20 And so it happened to him; for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.