2 Kings 6:24 - 6:33

Aram’s Siege of Samaria

24 Now it happened afterwards, that Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his military camp and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 Now there was a great famine in Samaria. And behold, they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. 26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Save, my lord, O king!” 27 He said, “If Yahweh does not save you, from where shall I save you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?” 28 And the king said to her, “What is the matter with you?” And she said, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.” 30 Now it happened that when the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body. 31 Then he said, “May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today.”

Flour and Barley in Samaria

32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man from his presence; but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold the door shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?” 33 While he was still speaking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him and he said, “Behold, this evil is from Yahweh; why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?”

« 2 Kings 5 | 2 Kings 6 | 2 Kings 7 »