Four Lepers at the Gate
1 Elisha said, “Hear Yahweh’s word. Yahweh says, ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’” 2 Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, “Behold, if Yahweh made windows in heaven, could this thing be?” He said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.” 3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. They said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We will enter into the city,’ then the famine is in the city, and we will die there. If we sit still here, we also die. Now therefore come, and let’s surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die.” 5 They rose up in the twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. When they had come to the outermost part of the camp of the Syrians, behold, no man was there. 6 For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots and the sound of horses, even the noise of a great army; and they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.” 7 Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. 8 When these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drank, then carried away silver, gold, and clothing and went and hid it. Then they came back, and entered into another tent and carried things from there also, and went and hid them. 9 Then they said to one another, “We aren’t doing right. Today is a day of good news, and we keep silent. If we wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let’s go and tell the king’s household.” 10 So they came and called to the city gatekeepers; and they told them, “We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, not even a man’s voice, but the horses tied, and the donkeys tied, and the tents as they were.” 11 Then the gatekeepers called out and told it to the king’s household within. 12 The king arose in the night, and said to his servants, “I will now show 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 field, saying, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city.’” 13 One of his servants answered, “Please let some people take five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel who are left in it. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel who are consumed. Let’s send and see.” 14 Therefore they took two chariots with horses; and the king sent them out to the Syrian army, saying, “Go and see.” 15 They went after them to the Jordan; and behold, all the path was full of garments and equipment which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. The messengers returned and told the king. 16 The people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to Yahweh’s word. 17 The king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to be in charge of the gate; and the people trampled over him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him. 18 It happened as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “Two seahs of barley for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, shall be tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria;” 19 and that captain answered the man of God, and said, “Now, behold, if Yahweh made windows in heaven, might such a thing be?” and he said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.” 20 It happened like that to him, for the people trampled over him in the gate, and he died.
Four outcasts reason their way into an empty camp, eat their fill, and then remember there is a starving city behind them.
Elisha said, “Hear Yahweh’s word. Yahweh says, ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’”
The promise is absurdly specific — a market price, at a named place, within a day — in a city where a donkey's skull costs eighty shekels. And the officer at the king's elbow says what everyone is thinking: if Yahweh made windows in heaven, could this thing be? 2 Kings 7:2. His sarcasm is the reasonable position, and the sentence attached to it is exact: you will see it and not eat of it.
Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. They said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die?
The deliverance comes through four men with a skin disease camped outside the gate because the law kept them outside it Leviticus 13:46, and their reasoning is a masterpiece of desperation logic: the city is starving, staying here is death, surrendering to the Syrians is at worst the same death and at best not. They go because they have nothing left to lose, which is the only kind of courage available to them.
For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots and the sound of horses, even the noise of a great army; and they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.”
The narrator explains what the lepers walk into and the Syrians never learn. An army heard something and concluded Israel had hired Hittite and Egyptian mercenaries, and ran in the twilight leaving tents, horses and donkeys standing. The deliverance cost nothing, killed nobody, and was accomplished by a noise — and the chariots and horses of fire on the hill at Dothan are one chapter behind us 2 Kings 6:17.
When these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drank, then carried away silver, gold, and clothing and went and hid it. Then they came back, and entered into another tent and carried things from there also, and went and hid them.
The first response of four starving outcasts is to eat and then to loot, and the account does not moralize about it. They have been hungry and excluded for a long time.
Then they said to one another, “We aren’t doing right. Today is a day of good news, and we keep silent. If we wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let’s go and tell the king’s household.”
Then the conscience turns, and their sentence is one of the finest in the Old Testament. They are not obliged to the city that put them outside the wall, and they know that hoarding a rescue is wrong anyway. The reasoning is partly fear of punishment and partly plain decency, and the mixture is honest. Four men nobody wanted are the first to understand that news like this cannot be kept.
The king arose in the night, and said to his servants, “I will now show 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 field, saying, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city.’”
The king's suspicion is shrewd and completely wrong — a trap to draw the city out — and it takes a servant's proposal of a scouting party with five spare horses to settle it. Even after the promise, even after the report, the palace has to be argued into believing.
The people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to Yahweh’s word.
The market price is met to the shekel within the day. And the officer who sneered is posted to control the gate, where the crowd tramples him — you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it 2 Kings 7:19, the narrator repeating the whole exchange in full so that nobody can miss the correspondence. He is not struck down; he is killed by the very abundance he said could not happen, in a stampede toward the food he refused to believe in.
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