But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD: thus says the LORD,
Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a
shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of
Samaria.” Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to
the man of God, “If the LORD himself should make windows in heaven,
could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own
eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”

  Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the
gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until
we die? If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the
city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So
now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare
our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” So
they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when
they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was
no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear
the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so
that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has
hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt
to come against us.” So they fled away in the twilight and
abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the
camp as it was, and fled for their lives. And when these lepers
came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and
drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went
and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and
carried off things from it and went and hid them.

  Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day
is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning
light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go
and tell the king's household.” So they came and called to the
gatekeepers of the city and told them, “We came to the camp of the
Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there,
nothing but the horses tied and the donkeys tied and the tents as
they were.” Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within
the king's household. And the king rose in the night and said to
his servants, “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us.
They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of the
camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, ‘When they
come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the
city.’” And one of his servants said, “Let some men take five of
the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare
like the whole multitude of Israel who have already perished. Let
us send and see.” So they took two horsemen, and the king sent them
after the army of the Syrians, saying, “Go and see.” So they went
after them as far as the Jordan, and behold, all the way was
littered with garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown
away in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.

  Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians.
So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of
barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD. Now the
king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have
charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so
that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to
him. For when the man of God had said to the king, “Two seahs of
barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a
shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria,” the
captain had answered the man of God, “If the LORD himself should
make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said,
“You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”
And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate
and he died.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001
by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.