2 Kings 6–7

The Recovery of the Axe-head

6One day the group of prophets that Elisha was in charge of complained to him, “The place where we live is too small! ²Give us permission to go to the Jordan and cut down some trees, so that we can build a place to live.”

“All right,” Elisha answered.

³One of them urged him to go with them; he agreed, ⁴and they set out together. When they arrived at the Jordan, they began to work. ⁵As one of them was cutting down a tree, suddenly his iron axe head fell in the water. “What shall I do, sir?” he exclaimed to Elisha. “It was a borrowed axe!”

⁶“Where did it fall?” Elisha asked.

The man showed him the place, and Elisha cut off a stick, threw it in the water, and made the axe head float. ⁷“Take it out,” he ordered, and the man bent down and picked it up.

The Syrian Army is Defeated

⁸The king of Syria was at war with Israel. He consulted his officers and chose a place to set up his camp. ⁹But Elisha sent word to the king of Israel, warning him not to go near that place, because the Syrians were waiting in ambush there. ¹⁰So the king of Israel warned the people who lived in that place, and they were on guard. This happened several times.

¹¹The Syrian king became greatly upset over this; he called in his officers and asked them, “Which one of you is on the side of the king of Israel?”

¹²One of them answered, “No one is, Your Majesty. The prophet Elisha tells the king of Israel what you say even in the privacy of your own room.”

¹³“Find out where he is,” the king ordered, “and I will capture him.”

When he was told that Elisha was in Dothan, ¹⁴he sent a large force there with horses and chariots. They reached the town at night and surrounded it. ¹⁵Early the next morning Elisha’s servant got up, went out of the house, and saw the Syrian troops with their horses and chariots surrounding the town. He went back to Elisha and exclaimed, “We are doomed, sir! What shall we do?”

¹⁶“Don’t be afraid,” Elisha answered. “We have more on our side than they have on theirs.” ¹⁷Then he prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord answered his prayer, and Elisha’s servant looked up and saw the hillside covered with horses and chariots of fire all round Elisha.

¹⁸When the Syrians attacked, Elisha prayed, “O Lord, strike these men blind!” The Lord answered his prayer and struck them blind. ¹⁹Then Elisha went to them and said, “You are on the wrong road; this is not the town you are looking for. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are after.” And he led them to Samaria.

²⁰As soon as they had entered the city, Elisha prayed, “Open their eyes, Lord, and let them see.” The Lord answered his prayer; he restored their sight, and they saw that they were inside Samaria. ²¹When the king of Israel saw the Syrians, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, sir? Shall I kill them?”

²²“No,” he answered. “Not even soldiers you had captured in combat would you put to death. Give them something to eat and drink, and let them return to their king.” ²³So the king of Israel provided a great feast for them; and after they had eaten and drunk, he sent them back to the king of Syria. From then on the Syrians stopped raiding the land of Israel.

The Siege of Samaria

²⁴Some time later King Benhadad of Syria led his entire army against Israel and laid siege to the city of Samaria. ²⁵As a result of the siege the food shortage in the city was so severe that a donkey’s head cost 80 pieces of silver, and 200 grammes of dove’s dung^m cost five pieces of silver.

²⁶The king of Israel was walking by on the city wall when a woman cried out, “Help me, Your Majesty!”

²⁷He replied, “If the Lord won’t help you, what help can I provide? Have I got any wheat or wine? ²⁸What’s your trouble?”

She answered, “The other day this woman here suggested that we eat my child, and then eat her child the next day. ^29*So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I told her that we would eat her son, but she had hidden him!”

³⁰Hearing this, the king tore his clothes in dismay, and the people who were close to the wall could see that he was wearing sackcloth under his clothes. ³¹He exclaimed, “May God strike me dead if Elisha is not beheaded before the day is over!” ³²And he sent a messenger to get Elisha.

Meanwhile, Elisha was at home with some elders who were visiting him. Before the king’s messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “That murderer is sending someone to kill me! Now, when he gets here, shut the door and don’t let him come in. The king himself will be just behind him.” ³³He had hardly finished saying this, when the kingⁿ arrived and said, “It’s the Lord who has brought this trouble on us! Why should I wait any longer for him to do something?”

7Elisha answered, “Listen to what the Lord says! By this time tomorrow you will be able to buy in Samaria three kilogrammes of the best wheat or six kilogrammes of barley for one piece of silver.”

²The personal attendant of the king said to Elisha, “That can’t happen—not even if the Lord himself were to send grain^o at once!”

“You will see it happen, but you will never eat any of the food,” Elisha replied.

The Syrian Army Leaves

³Four men who were suffering from a dreaded skin disease were outside the gates of Samaria, and they said to one another, “Why should we wait here until we die? ⁴It’s no use going into the city, because we would starve to death in there; but if we stay here, we’ll die also. So let’s go to the Syrian camp; the worst they can do is kill us, but maybe they will spare our lives.” ⁵So, as it began to get dark, they went to the Syrian camp, but when they reached it, no one was there. ⁶The Lord had made the Syrians hear what sounded like the advance of a large army, with horses and chariots, and the Syrians thought that the king of Israel had hired Hittite and Egyptian kings and their armies to attack them. ⁷So that evening the Syrians had fled for their lives, abandoning their tents, horses, and donkeys, and leaving the camp just as it was.

⁸When the four men reached the edge of the camp, they went into a tent, ate and drank what was there, grabbed the silver, gold, and clothing they found, and went off and hid them; then they returned, entered another tent, and did the same thing. ⁹But then they said to each other, “We shouldn’t be doing this! We have good news and we shouldn’t keep it to ourselves. If we wait until morning to tell it, we are sure to be punished. Let’s go at once and tell the king’s officers!” ¹⁰So they left the Syrian camp, went back to Samaria and called out to the guards at the gates: “We went to the Syrian camp and didn’t see or hear anybody; the horses and donkeys have not been untied, and the tents are just as the Syrians left them.”

¹¹The guards announced the news, and it was reported in the palace. ¹²It was still night, but the king got out of bed and said to his officials, “I’ll tell you what the Syrians are planning! They know about the famine here, so they have left their camp to go and hide in the countryside. They think that we will leave the city to find food, and then they will take us alive and capture the city.”

¹³One of his officials said, “The people here in the city are doomed anyway, like those that have already died. So let’s send some men with five of the horses that are left, so that we can find out what has happened.”^{p 14}They chose some men, and the king sent them in two chariots with instructions to go and find out what had happened to the Syrian army. ¹⁵The men went as far as the Jordan, and all along the road they saw the clothes and equipment that the Syrians had abandoned as they fled. Then they returned and reported to the king. ¹⁶The people of Samaria rushed out and looted the Syrian camp. And, as the Lord had said, 3 kilogrammes of the best wheat or 6 kilogrammes of barley were sold for one piece of silver.

¹⁷It so happened that the king of Israel had put the city gate under the command of the officer who was his personal attendant. The officer was trampled to death there by the people and died, as Elisha had predicted when the king went to see him. ¹⁸Elisha had told the king that by that time the following day 3 kilogrammes of the best wheat or 6 kilogrammes of barley would be sold in Samaria for one piece of silver, ¹⁹to which the officer had answered, “That can’t happen—not even if the Lord himself were to send grain^q at once!” And Elisha had replied “You will see it happen, but you will never eat any of the food.” ²⁰And that is just what happened to him—he died, trampled to death by the people at the city gate.