2nd Kings — 7

1 Alysha replied, “Listen to this message from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH! This is what  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH Dabar: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost only one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver.”

2 The officer assisting the king said to the servant of 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH, “That could not happen even if 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH opened the windows of Shamaym!” But Alysha replied, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not be able to eat any of it!”

Lepers Visit the Enemy Camp

3 Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other. 

4 “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramaan army. If they let us live, it will be much better. But if they kill us, we would still have died if we stay here.”

5 So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Aramaans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there! 

6 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH had caused the Aramaan army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. “The king of Yashar'AL has hired the Hittites and Mitzraym to attack us!” they cried to one another. 

7 So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives.

8 When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it. 

9 Finally, they said to each other, “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we are not sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let us go back and tell the people at the palace.”

10 So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened. “We went out to the Aramaan camp,” they said, “and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there was not a single person around!” 

11 Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.

Yashar'AL Plunders the Camp

12 The king got out of bed in the middle of the night and told his officers, “I know what has happened. The Aramaans know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields. They are expecting us to leave the city, and then they will take us alive and capture the city.”

13 One of his officers replied, “We had better send out scouts to check into this. Let them take five of the remaining horses. If something happens to them, it will be no worse than if they stay here and die with the rest of us.”

14 So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramaan army. 

15 They went all the way to the Yurdan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the Aramaans had thrown away in their mad rush to escape. The scouts returned and told the king about it. 

16 Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramaan camp. So it was true that six quarts of choice flour were sold that day for one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain were sold for one piece of silver, just as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH had promised. 

17 The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out. So everything happened exactly as the servant of 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH had predicted when the king came to his house. 

18 The servant of 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH had said to the king, “By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost one piece of silver.”

19 The king’s officer had replied, “That could not happen even if 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH opened the windows of Shamaym!” And the servant of 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH had said, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not be able to eat any of it!” 

20 And so it was, for the people trampled him to death at the gate!