2 Kings 7-8

New English Translation

7 ¹Elisha replied, “Listen to the Lord’s message. This is what the Lord has said, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah^[a] of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’” ²An officer who was the king’s right-hand man^[b] responded to the prophet,^[c] “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?”^[d] Elisha^[e] said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”^[f]

³Now four men with a skin disease^[g] were sitting at the entrance of the city gate. They said to one another, “Why are we just sitting here waiting to die?^[h] ⁴If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation,^[i] and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect^[j] to the Syrian camp! If they spare us,^[k] we’ll live; if they kill us—well, we were going to die anyway.”^[l] ⁵So they started toward^[m] the Syrian camp at dusk. When they reached the edge of the Syrian camp, there was no one there. ⁶The Lord had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army. Then they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!” ⁷So they got up and fled at dusk, leaving behind their tents, horses, and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. ⁸When the men with a skin disease reached the edge of the camp, they entered a tent and had a meal.^[n] They also took some silver, gold, and clothes and went and hid it all.^[o] Then they went back and entered another tent. They looted it^[p] and went and hid what they had taken. ⁹Then they said to one another, “It’s not right what we’re doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven’t told anyone.^[q] If we wait until dawn,^[r] we’ll be punished.^[s] So come on, let’s go and inform the royal palace.” ¹⁰So they went and called out to the gatekeepers^[t] of the city. They told them, “We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice.^[u] But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.”^[v] ¹¹The gatekeepers relayed the news to the royal palace.^[w]

¹²The king got up in the night and said to his advisers,^[x] “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’” ¹³One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people—we’re all going to die!)^[y] Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.”^[z] ¹⁴So they picked two horsemen and the king sent them out to track the Syrian army.^[aa] He ordered them, “Go and find out what’s going on.”^[ab] ¹⁵So they tracked them^[ac] as far as the Jordan. The road was filled with clothes and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their haste.^[ad] The scouts^[ae] went back and told the king. ¹⁶Then the people went out and looted the Syrian camp. A seah^[af] of finely milled flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, just as in the Lord’s message.

¹⁷Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man^[ag] at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate.^[ah] This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him.^[ai] ¹⁸The prophet had told the king, “Two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of finely milled flour for a shekel; this will happen about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria.” ¹⁹But the officer had replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?”^[aj] Elisha^[ak] had said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”^[al] ²⁰This is exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him to death in the city gate.

Elisha Again Helps the Shunammite Woman

8 Now Elisha advised the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “You and your family should go and live somewhere else for a while,^[am] for the Lord has decreed that a famine will overtake the land for seven years.” ²So the woman did as the prophet said.^[an] She and her family went and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years. ³After seven years the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went to ask the king to give her back her house and field.^[ao] ⁴Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the prophet’s^[ap] servant, and said, “Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.” ⁵While Gehazi^[aq] was telling the king how Elisha^[ar] had brought the dead back to life, the woman whose son he had brought back to life came to ask the king for her house and field.^[as] Gehazi said, “My master, O king, this is the very woman, and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!” ⁶The king asked the woman about it, and she gave him the details.^[at] The king assigned a eunuch to take care of her request and ordered him,^[au] “Give her back everything she owns, as well as the amount of crops her field produced from the day she left the land until now.”

Elisha Meets with Hazael

⁷Elisha traveled to Damascus while King Ben Hadad of Syria was sick. The king^[av] was told, “The prophet^[aw] has come here.” ⁸So the king told Hazael, “Take a gift^[ax] and go visit the prophet. Request from him an oracle from the Lord. Ask him,^[ay] ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” ⁹So Hazael went to visit Elisha.^[az] He took along a gift,^[ba] as well as^[bb] forty camel-loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son,^[bc] King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question,^[bd] ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” ¹⁰Elisha said to him, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover,’^[be] but the Lord has revealed to me that he will surely die.” ¹¹Elisha^[bf] just stared at him until Hazael became uncomfortable.^[bg] Then the prophet started crying. ¹²Hazael asked, “Why are you crying, my master?” He replied, “Because I know the trouble you will cause the Israelites. You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, smash their children to bits, and rip open their pregnant women.” ¹³Hazael said, “How could your servant, who is as insignificant as a dog, accomplish this great military victory?”^[bh] Elisha answered, “The Lord has revealed to me that you will be the king of Syria.”^[bi] ¹⁴He left Elisha and went to his master. Ben Hadad^[bj] asked him, “What did Elisha tell you?” Hazael^[bk] replied, “He told me you would surely recover.” ¹⁵The next day Hazael^[bl] took a piece of cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over Ben Hadad’s^[bm] face until he died. Then Hazael replaced him as king.

Jehoram’s Reign over Judah

¹⁶In the fifth year of the reign of Israel’s King Joram, son of Ahab, Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram became king over Judah.^[bn] ¹⁷He was thirty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. ¹⁸He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he married Ahab’s daughter.^[bo] He did evil in the sight of^[bp] the Lord. ¹⁹But the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah. He preserved Judah for the sake of^[bq] his servant David to whom he had promised a perpetual dynasty.^[br]

²⁰During his reign Edom freed themselves from Judah’s control and set up their own king.^[bs] ²¹Jehoram^[bt] crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites, who had surrounded him, attacked at night and defeated him and his chariot officers.^[bu] The Israelite army retreated to their homeland.^[bv] ²²So Edom has remained free from Judah’s control to this very day.^[bw] At that same time Libnah also rebelled.

²³The rest of the events of Jehoram’s reign, including a record of his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.^[bx] ²⁴Jehoram passed away^[by] and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Ahaziah replaced him as king.

Ahaziah Takes the Throne of Judah

²⁵In the twelfth year of the reign of Israel’s King Joram, son of Ahab, Jehoram’s son Ahaziah became king over Judah. ²⁶Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother was Athaliah, the granddaughter^[bz] of King Omri of Israel. ²⁷He followed in the footsteps of Ahab’s dynasty and did evil in the sight of^[ca] the Lord, as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he was related to Ahab’s family.^[cb]

²⁸He joined Ahab’s son Joram in a battle against King Hazael of Syria at Ramoth Gilead in which the Syrians defeated Joram. ²⁹King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians^[cc] in Ramah when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. King Ahaziah son of Jehoram of Judah went down to visit^[cd] Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was ill.

Footnotes

2 Kings 7:1 sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 11 quarts (11 liters).
2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand the king leans.”
2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “man of God.”
2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” Opening holes in the sky would allow the waters stored up there to pour to the earth and assure a good crop. But, the officer argues, even if this were to happen, it would take a long time to grow and harvest the crop.
2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 7:2 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”
2 Kings 7:3 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 5:1.
2 Kings 7:3 tn Heb “until we die.”
2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”
2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “fall.”
2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “keep us alive.”
2 Kings 7:4 tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.
2 Kings 7:5 tn Heb “they arose to go to.”
2 Kings 7:8 tn Heb “they ate and drank.”
2 Kings 7:8 tn Heb “and they hid [it].”
2 Kings 7:8 tn Heb “and they took from there.”
2 Kings 7:9 tn Heb “this day is a day of good news and we are keeping silent.”
2 Kings 7:9 tn Heb “the light of the morning.”
2 Kings 7:9 tn Heb “punishment will find us.”
2 Kings 7:10 tn The MT has a singular form (“gatekeeper”), but the context suggests a plural. The pronoun that follows (“them”) is plural and a plural noun appears in v. 11. The Syriac Peshitta and the Targum have the plural here.
2 Kings 7:10 tn Heb “and, look, there was no man or voice of a man there.”
2 Kings 7:10 tn Heb “but the horses are tied up and the donkeys are tied up and the tents are as they were.”
2 Kings 7:11 tn Heb “and the gatekeepers called out and they told [it] within the house of the king.”
2 Kings 7:12 tn Heb “servants” (also in v. 13).
2 Kings 7:13 tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”
2 Kings 7:13 tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”
2 Kings 7:14 tn Heb “and the king sent [them] after the Syrian camp.”
2 Kings 7:14 tn Heb “Go and see.”
2 Kings 7:15 tn Heb “went after.”
2 Kings 7:15 tn Heb “and look, all the road was full of clothes and equipment that Syria had thrown away in their haste.”
2 Kings 7:15 tn Or “messengers.”
2 Kings 7:16 sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 11 quarts (11 liters).
2 Kings 7:17 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand he leans.”
2 Kings 7:17 tn Heb “and the people trampled him in the gate and he died.”
2 Kings 7:17 tn Heb “just as the man of God had spoken, [the word] which he spoke when the king came down to him.”
2 Kings 7:19 tn Heb “the Lord was making holes in the sky, could this thing be?” See the note at 7:2.
2 Kings 7:19 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 7:19 tn Heb “you will not eat from there.”tn In the Hebrew text vv. 18-19a are one lengthy sentence, “When the man of God spoke to the king…, the officer replied to the man of God, ‘Look…so soon?’” The translation divides this sentence up for stylistic reasons.
2 Kings 8:1 tn Heb “Get up and go, you and your house, and live temporarily where you can live temporarily.”
2 Kings 8:2 tn Heb “and the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God.”
2 Kings 8:3 tn Heb “and went out to cry out to the king for her house and her field.”
2 Kings 8:4 tn Heb “man of God’s.”
2 Kings 8:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 8:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 8:5 tn Heb “and look, the woman whose son he had brought back to life was crying out to the king for her house and her field.”sn The legal background of the situation is uncertain. For a discussion of possibilities, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 87-88.
2 Kings 8:6 tn Heb “and the king asked the woman and she told him.”
2 Kings 8:6 tn Heb “and he assigned to her an official, saying.”
2 Kings 8:7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 8:7 tn Heb “man of God” (also a second time in this verse and in v. 11).
2 Kings 8:8 tn The Hebrew text also has “in your hand.”
2 Kings 8:8 tn Heb “Inquire of the Lord through him, saying.”
2 Kings 8:9 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 8:9 tn The Hebrew text also has “in his hand.”
2 Kings 8:9 tn Heb “and.” It is possible that the conjunction is here explanatory, equivalent to English “that is.” In this case the forty camel-loads constitute the “gift” and one should translate, “He took along a gift, consisting of forty camel-loads of all the fine things of Damascus.”
2 Kings 8:9 sn The words “your son” emphasize the king’s respect for the prophet.
2 Kings 8:9 tn Heb “saying.”
2 Kings 8:10 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “Go, say, ‘Surely you will not (לֹא, loʾ) live.’” In this case the vav beginning the next clause could be translated “for” or “because.” The reading tradition (Qere) has, “Go, say to him (לוֹ, lo), ‘You will surely recover.’” In this case the vav (ו) beginning the next clause would be translated “although” or “but.” The Qere has the support of some medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, and is consistent with v. 14, where Hazael tells the king, “You will surely recover.” It also fits the immediate context. The sentence “you will live,” to be told to Ben Hadad and meaning to recover from the sickness contrasts telling Hazael that Ben Hadad will die. The missing component is the means of Ban Hadad’s death. So Elisha looks at Hazael until he is embarrassed, because as a prophet he knows that Hazael will kill Ben Hadad (not the sickness). It is possible that a scribe has changed לוֹ, “to him,” to לֹא, “not,” because he felt that Elisha would not lie to the king. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 90. But it is possible that Hazael, once he found out he would become the next king, decided to lie to the king to facilitate his assassination plot by making the king feel secure.
2 Kings 8:11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 8:11 tn Heb “and he made his face stand [i.e., be motionless] and set [his face?] until embarrassment.”
2 Kings 8:13 tn Heb “Indeed, what is your servant, a dog, that he could do this great thing?” With his reference to a dog, Hazael is not denying that he is a “dog” and protesting that he would never commit such a dastardly “dog-like” deed. Rather, as Elisha’s response indicates, Hazael is suggesting that he, like a dog, is too insignificant to ever be in a position to lead such conquests.
2 Kings 8:13 tn Heb “The Lord has shown me you [as] king over Syria.”
2 Kings 8:14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 8:14 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hazael) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 8:15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hazael) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 8:15 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 8:16 tc The Hebrew text reads, “and in the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, and [or, ‘while’?] Jehoshaphat [was?] king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king.” The first reference to “Jehoshaphat king of Judah” is probably due to a scribe accidentally copying the phrase from later in the verse. If the Hebrew text is retained, the verse probably refers to the beginning of a coregency between Jehoshaphat and Jehoram.
2 Kings 8:18 tn Heb “he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab did, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife.”
2 Kings 8:18 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
2 Kings 8:19 tn The Hebrew has only one sentence, “and the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah for the sake of.” The translation divides it for the sake of clarity.
2 Kings 8:19 tn Heb “just as he had said to him, to give to him a lamp for his sons all the days.” The metaphorical “lamp” symbolizes the Davidic dynasty; this is reflected in the translation.
2 Kings 8:20 tn Heb “in his days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and enthroned a king over them.”
2 Kings 8:21 tn Heb “Joram,” which is a short form of the name Jehoram (also in vv. 23, 24).
2 Kings 8:21 tc Heb “and he arose at night and defeated Edom, who had surrounded him, and the chariot officers.” The Hebrew text as it stands gives the impression that Jehoram was surrounded and launched a victorious night counterattack. It would then be quite natural to understand the last statement in the verse to refer to an Edomite retreat. Yet v. 22 goes on to state that the Edomite revolt was successful. Therefore, if the MT is retained, it may be better to understand the final statement in v. 21 as a reference to an Israelite retreat (made in spite of the success described in the preceding sentence). Instead the translation assumes an emendation of the Hebrew text, adding a vav (ו) to the accusative sign before Edom, reading אֹתוֹ (ʾoto, “him,”) instead of just אֶת (ʾet). In this reading, Edom is the subject of the verb rather than the direct object, “Edom struck him.” This is more consistent with the context but there is no manuscript evidence in favor of this.
2 Kings 8:21 tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”
2 Kings 8:22 tn Heb “and Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah until this day.”
2 Kings 8:23 tn Heb “As for the rest of the acts of Joram and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
2 Kings 8:24 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
2 Kings 8:26 tn Hebrew בַּת (bat), “daughter,” can refer, as here to a granddaughter. See HALOT 166 s.v. בַּת.
2 Kings 8:27 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
2 Kings 8:27 tn Heb “and he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord like the house of Ahab, for he was a relative by marriage of the house of Ahab.” For this use of חֲתַן (khatan), normally “son-in-law,” see HALOT 365 s.v. חָתָן. Ahab was Ahaziah’s grandfather on his mother’s side.
2 Kings 8:29 tn Heb “which the Syrians inflicted [on] him.”
2 Kings 8:29 tn Heb “to see.”