2 Kings 6:24-7:2--Ben-hadad's Siege of Samaria

2 Kings 6:24-33
English Standard Version

Ben-hadad's Siege of Samaria
24 Afterward Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria, as they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five shekels of silver. 26 Now as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” 27 And he said, “If the LORD will not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?” 28 And the king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “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 on the next day I said to her, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.” 30 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 and he said, “May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today.”

​32 Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Now the king had dispatched a man from his presence, but before the messenger arrived Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?” 33 And while he was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him and said, “This trouble is from the LORD! Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”


2 Kings 7:1-2
English Standard Version
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Elisha Promises Food
7 But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD: thus says the LORD, Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” 2 Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “If the LORD himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”

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Ben-hadad, king of Syria, quit having skirmishes with Israel and instead started planning an all-out invasion to take the capital city of Samaria (and the whole nation of Israel which was known by the name of its capital city much like when we talk about foreign countries today).  The LORD had already sent famine upon the nation of Israel, specifically its capital city of Samaria, so that when Ben-hadad besieged the city, the people had no reserves to rely upon.  They had to resort to eating things that most people would find inedible like the head of a donkey and dove's dung.

It was so bad that we see that women were having their babies stolen from them so that other could cook them and eat them for dinner (cannibalism).  This is exactly what the LORD said would eventually come if Israel continued to rebel against His Law when He warned them in Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28 (I think that passage speaks specifically of the invasion of Babylon, so they are not quite to that point yet, but the end is near), and Isaiah prophecies that the LORD would use Syria to bring about this exact situation again--Isaiah's prophecy happens sometime around 2 Kings 15 during the reign of King Uzziah.  Since we haven't gotten there yet, this event cannot be a fulfillment of that prophecy.  The point here is that the Israelites turning to cannibalism is something that the LORD has given to them as a sign that they are off the reservation and need to come back to Him and His Law.

In this particular case, a woman and her neighbor had made an agreement between each other that they would eat they complainant's child for dinner one evening and then the neighbor's child for dinner the next evening, but when it came time for the neighbor to serve up her child for dinner, she hid him (good for her, though she never should have agreed to serve him for dinner in the first place), and now this woman wants the king to intervene and make the neighbor serve up her child in accordance with the agreement.

The king tears his clothes, but instead of blaming the people for their wickedness, he blames Elisha and says that he's going to kill him.  First, he probably blames Elisha for the drought.  Second, he probably blames Elisha for not telling him that the Syrian army was invading, and third he probably blames Elisha for not asking the LORD to intervene on Israel's behalf.

Elisha knows as soon as he sees the party the king has sent that they are coming to kill him.  He told the people with him to get inside the house and close the door tightly and barricade the door so that the king's men could not make entry into the house.  The king blames the LORD for what is going on, but he can't take it out on the LORD, so he will do the next-best thing in his mind and take it out on the LORD's prophet (not a very wise move to make if the LORD is already upset with you).

Elisha then prophecies to the man coming to kill him to tell the king that by that same time the next day the people would be buying flour in regular quantities for below what they would normally pay.  The king's messenger assumes Elisha is lying because he says that there's no way that enough food could be provided that quickly to drive the prices down even if the windows of heaven were opened.  This man has small view of God.  The LORD is going to do something amazing and he's going to use a small group of lepers to make the discovery and bring news back to the people of Samaria.