24 Sometime after that, King Ben-Hadad of Aram assembled all of his warriors and attacked Shomron (Samaria), and besieged it. 25 Being surrounded like that caused a terrible famine inside the city, until a donkey’s head would be sold for eighty silver coins, and a cup of doves droppings was sold for five silver coins.

26 One day as the king of Israel was walking past past on the top of the city wall, a woman cried out to him, “Save me, my master, the king!”

27 “If Yahweh won’t save you, how could I possibly save you?” he snapped. “Some grain from the threshing floor or some wine from the winepress?” 28 Then he asked her, “Okay, what’s your problem?”

“This woman said to me, ‘Let’s have your son and we’ll eat him today, then we’ll eat my son tomorrow,’ ” she answered. 29 “So we boiled my son and ate him, and then the next day I said, ‘Hand over your son and we’ll eat him,’ but she’d hidden him.”

30 When he heard that, the king (standing up on the wall) tore his clothes, and the people could see to their astonishment that he was wearing sackcloth underneath, 31 and he said, “May God do that to me and more, if Shafat’s son Elisha still has his head on him by the end of the day.”

32 Meanwhile, Elisha was sitting at home, joined by the city elders. The king had sent a warrior ahead of him, and before he’d arrived at the house, Elisha had told the elders, “Well now, that son of a murderer has sent an assasin to separate me from my head. Listen, when that hitman arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master won’t be far behind him.” 33 He was still talking with them, when, wow, the warrior was coming towards the house soon followed by the king who said, “Listen, Yahweh caused this disaster so why should I trust him any longer?”

7 “Listen to what Yahweh says,” Elisha responded, “Yahweh says that at this time tomorrow, a drum of flour will be sold for a shekel, and two drums of barley will be sold for for a shekel at the city gate.”

2 “That’s impossible,” interjected the captain at the king’s side. “Yahweh would have to make windows in the sky.”

“Oh, it’ll happen,” the man of God answered, “and you’ll see it with your own eyes, but you won’t get to eat any of it.”

3 That day, four men who were isolated due to a skin disease were at the city gate, and they asked each other, “Why are we just sitting here until we starve? 4 If we go into the city, we’ll starve to death in there, but if we sit here, we’ll die anyway. Why don’t we go into the Aramean army camp—if they kill us then we’ll die, but if they let us live, then we’ll live.” 5 So as it was getting dark, they went to go into the camp, but as they came to the edge of it, to their surprise there wasn’t a person in sight. 6 It turned out that the master had caused the Aramean army to hear the sounds of chariots and horses and a large army, so they’d said to each other that the king of Israel must have hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to join together to fight them. 7 As a result, they taken off and fled in the twilight. They’d abandoned their tents and horses and donkeys—leaving the camp just as it was, and fled for their lives.

8 So those four men with leprosy approached the edge of the camp and went into the first tent, and ate and drank. Then they took some gold and silver and clothes out, and they went and hid it. Then they returned and went into another tent, and stole some stuff from that one, and went and hid that. 9 Then they said to each other, “We shouldn’t really be doing this today. It’s a day of good news, but we’ve been keeping it to ourselves. If we will wait until the light of the morning, we’ll get punished for it, so let’s go now and inform the king’s household.” 10 So they went and called out to one of the city gatekeepers, and they informed them, “We went to the Aramean camp, but listen, there wasn’t anyone there, or any voices. The horses and donkeys were still tethered, and the tents were left just as they were.”

11 The gatekeepers called out, and the news was reported to the palace. 12 Although it was already night-time, the king got up and warned his servants, “I’ll tell you what’s going on here: The Arameans know that we are hungry, so they left their camp to go and hide in the countryside, thinking that we’d go out from the city, and then they could capture us and take over the city.”

13 But one of his servants answered, “Sir, please, let us take five of the remaining horses. They’re pretty much finished anyway, like the remaining population of Israel, so there’s not much to lose. Let us go and investigate.” 14 So with the king’s permission, they took two chariot horses and went to check out the Aramean camp.” 15 They went as far as the Yordan river, and were amazed that the whole road was full of clothing and equipment that the Arameams had thrown off in their rush, and the messengers returned and informed the king. 16 So the people went out and plundered the camp. Then it happened:, a drum of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two drums of barley for the same amount, just a Yahweh had said would happen.

17 The king had appointed the captain who had argued with Elisha to be in charge at the city gate, but the people trampled him there and he died, just as the man of God had said when the king had gone to his place. 18 When the man of God had told the king that two drums of barley would be sold for a shekel, and a drum of flour also sold for a shekel the next morning at the city gate, 19 the captain was the one who’d answered the man of God and had said that Yahweh would have to make windows in the sky to do that, and Elisha had told him that he’d see it, but wouldn’t be able to eat any of it. 20 That’s exactly what happened, because he got trampled by the rush of people at the gate and died.