2 Kings 7:3-20--The Syrians Flee

2 Kings 7:3-20
English Standard Version

The Syrians Flee
3 Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” 5 So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. 6 For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.” 7 So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. 8 And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them.

9 Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king's household.” 10 So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, “We came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied and the donkeys tied and the tents as they were.” 11 Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within the king's household. 12 And the king rose in the night and said to his servants, “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city.’” 13 And one of his servants said, “Let some men take five of the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole multitude of Israel who have already perished. Let us send and see.” 14 So they took two horsemen, and the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, “Go and see.” 15 So they went after them as far as the Jordan, and behold, all the way was littered with garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.

16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was 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 captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him. 18 For when the man of God had said to the king, “Two seahs of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria,” 19 the captain had answered the man of God, “If the LORD himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” 20 And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate and he died.

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The Syrians had surrounded the city of Samaria and cut off all supply lines so that the shortages added to the issues from the existing famine and the people started eating anything they could--including each other--to stay alive.  Normally lepers would have to live outside the city walls and wouldn't be allowed to come into the city, but some exception must have been made because of the attack by the invading army, and these four lepers lived by the city gate.  They decided that they might as well go over to the enemy camp and see if they would capture them and take care of them as prisoners of war.  At least that way they would be alive, but it seemed like death was inevitable whether they stayed at the gate, went into the city, or tried to run away.  Their only option they could figure that would lead to life was surrender.

They tried to sneak into the Syrian camp under cover of darkness (they left at twilight, which is just before sunset), but when they got there, there were no Syrians that they could see or even hear.  All of them had run away leaving their camp, equipment, and provisions.  Why?  Because the Lord (Adonai), that is one of the names of Jesus in the Old Testament, had caused them to hear the sound of many horses and chariots (maybe from the heavenly army that we just saw in Chapter 6?) so that they were afraid and ran for their lives.  So the lepers were able to eat and drink to their fill and they were able to take gold, silver, and expensive clothes and hide them--this is beginning to sound like Achan's sin in the book of Joshua.  However they quickly had a change of heart and decided that they could not keep all this for themselves and that they need to go tell the gatekeepers so that the news made its way all the way to the king's household and eventually to the ears of the king.

The king arose thinking that the Syrians had laid a trap for them hoping that the people would come out to get the food that had been left as bait (note that the king of Israel projects evil onto others that is within his own heart, though he is right to be suspicious of the pagan king of Syria who does not fear the LORD or obey His commandments).  The king sent out a scouting party to look for the Syrians to make sure they weren't hiding somewhere nearby, but after they had looked near and far and did not find them, they came back with the message to the king, "Go and see."  Then the king of Israel found everything just as the lepers had reported it.

So all of Samaria came out and plundered the camp of the Syrians and they trampled the captain on whose arm the king leaned as Elisha had foretold when the king of Israel came looking for him to kill him in 7:1-2.  Let me quote it again here for context, 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.”

This captain that did not believe the word of the LORD saw this prophecy fulfilled, but did not get to eat any of the provision the LORD provided because he said that this was something even the LORD couldn't do by giving them food from heaven (like He did during their time of wandering in the wilderness).  Everything happened exactly as the LORD said it would.