²⁴Some time later, Ben-Hadad gathered his entire army together. Ben-Hadad was the king of Aram. His army marched up and surrounded Samaria. Then they attacked it.

²⁵There wasn’t enough food anywhere in the city. It was surrounded for so long that people had to weigh out two pounds of silver for a donkey’s head. They had to weigh out two ounces of silver for half a pint of seed pods.

²⁶One day the king of Israel was walking on top of the wall. A woman cried out to him, “You are my king and master. Please help me!”

²⁷The king replied, “If the Lord doesn’t help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?” ²⁸He continued, “What’s wrong?”

She answered, “A woman said to me, ‘Give up your son. Then we can eat him today. Tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’ ²⁹So we cooked my son. Then we ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son. Then we can eat him.’ But she had hidden him.”

³⁰When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his royal robes. As he walked along the wall, the people looked up at him. They saw that he was wearing black clothes under his robes. ³¹He said, “I’ll cut the head of Shaphat’s son Elisha off his shoulders today. If I don’t, may God punish me greatly!”

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