Elisha’s Prophecy of Plenty
And Elisha said: “Hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the LORD: About this time tomorrow, a seah of fine flour for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.”
And the officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look — even if the LORD were making windows in the heavens, could this thing be?” And he said, “Look — you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat from it.”
The Arameans Flee
Now four men with tzaraath were at the entrance of the gate; and they said each to his fellow, “Why are we sitting here until we die?
If we say, ‘Let us go into the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we will die there; and if we sit here, we will die. So now, come, and let us fall away to the camp of Aram. If they keep us alive, we will live; and if they put us to death, then we will die.”
And they rose at twilight to come to the camp of Aram; and they came to the edge of the camp of Aram — and look, no one was there.
For the Lord had made the camp of Aram hear a sound of chariots, a sound of horses, the sound of a great force; and they said each to his brother, “Look — the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt, to come against us.”
And they rose and fled at twilight, and abandoned their tents, and their horses, and their donkeys — the camp just as it was — and fled for their lives.
And these men with tzaraath came to the edge of the camp, and went into one tent, and ate and drank; and they carried off from there silver, and gold, and garments, and went and hid them. And they returned and went into another tent, and carried off from there, and went and hid it.
Then they said each to his fellow: “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we are keeping silent. If we wait until the light of morning, punishment will find us. So now, come, let us go and tell the house of the king.”
And they came and called to the gatekeeper of the city, and told them, saying: “We came to the camp of Aram — and look, no one was there, no sound of a man; only the horses tied, and the donkeys tied, and the tents just as they were.”
And he called the gatekeepers, and they told it inside the house of the king.
And the king rose in the night and said to his servants: “Let me tell you, please, what Aram has done to us. They know that we are starving, and they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, ‘When they come out of the city, we will seize them alive, and go into the city.’”
And one of his servants answered and said: “Let them take, please, five of the horses that remain, which are left in it — look, they are like all the multitude of Israel that is left in it; look, they are like all the multitude of Israel that has come to an end — and let us send and see.”
And they took two chariots with horses; and the king sent them after the camp of Aram, saying, “Go and see.”
And they went after them as far as the Jordan — and look, the whole way was full of garments and gear that Aram had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.
Elisha’s Prophecy Fulfilled
And the people went out and plundered the camp of Aram. And a seah of fine flour went for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.
And the king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to be over the gate; and the people trampled him in the gate, and he died — as the man of God had spoken, which he spoke when the king came down to him.
For it was, when the man of God spoke to the king, saying, “Two seahs of barley for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, will be at this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria,”
that the officer had answered the man of God and said, “Look — even if the LORD were making windows in the heavens, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “Look — you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat from it.”
And so it happened to him: the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.