1   But Elisha answered, ‘Hear this word of the Lord: By this time tomorrow a shekel will buy a measure ^note of flour or two measures of barley in the gateway of Samaria.’ 2   Then the lieutenant on whose arm the king leaned said to the man of God, ‘Even if the Lord were to open windows in the sky, such a thing could not happen!’ He answered, ‘You will see it with your own eyes, but none of it will you eat.’

3   At the city gate were four lepers. ^noteThey said to one another, ‘Why

Elisha and the end of the house of Ahab should we stay here and wait for death? 4   If we say we will go into the city, there is famine there, and we shall die; if we say we will stay here, we shall die just the same. Well then, let us go to the camp of the Aramaeans and give ourselves up: if they spare us, we shall live; if they put us to death, we can but die.’ 5   And so in the twilight they set out for the Aramaean camp; but when they reached the outskirts, they found no one there; 6   for the Lord had caused the Aramaean army to hear a sound like that of chariots and horses and of a great host, so that the word went round: ‘The king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to attack us.’ 7   They had fled at once in the twilight, abandoning their tents, their horses and asses, and leaving the camp as it stood, while they fled for their lives. 8   When the four men came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank and looted silver and gold and clothing, and made off and hid them. Then they came back, went into another tent and rifled it, and made off and hid the loot. 9   Then they said to one another, ‘What we are doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait till morning, we shall be held to blame. We must go now and give the news to the king's household.’ 10   So they came and called to the watch at the city gate and described how they had gone to the Aramaean camp and found not a single man in it and had heard no sound: nothing but horses and asses tethered, and the tents left as they were. 11   Then the watch called out and gave the news to the king's household in the palace. 12   The king rose in the night and said to his staff, ‘I will tell you what the Aramaeans have done. They know that we are starving, and they have left their camp to go and hide in the open country, expecting us to come out, and then they can take us alive and enter the city.’ 13   One of his staff said, ‘Send out a party of men with some of the horses that are left; if they live, they will be as well off as all the other Israelites who are still left; if they die, ^note they will be no worse off than all those who have already perished. Let them go and see what has happened.’ 14   So they picked two mounted men, ^note and the king dispatched them in the track of the Aramaean army with the order to go and find out what had happened. 15   They followed as far as the Jordan and found the whole road littered with clothing and equipment which the Aramaeans had flung aside in their haste. The messengers returned and reported this to the king. 16   Then the people went out and plundered the Aramaean camp, and a measure of flour was sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel, so that the word of the Lord came true. 17   Now the king had appointed the lieutenant on whose arm he leaned to take charge of the gate, and the people trampled him

Elisha and the end of the house of Ahab to death there, just as the man of God had foretold ^note when the king visited him. 18   For when the man of God said to the king, ‘By this time tomorrow a shekel will buy two measures of barley or one measure of flour in the gateway of Samaria’, 19   the lieutenant had answered, ‘Even if the Lord were to open windows in the sky, such a thing could not happen!’ And the man of God had said, ‘You will see it with your own eyes, but none of it will you eat.’ 20   And this is just what happened to him: the people trampled him to death at the gate.

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