1. Elisha said, "Hear the Lord’s word! This is what the Lord says: At this time tomorrow a seah of wheat flour will sell for a shekel at Samaria’s gate, and two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel."
2. Then the officer, the one the king leaned on for support, spoke to the man of God: "Come on! Even if the Lord should make windows in the sky, how could that happen?"Elisha said, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat from it."
3. Now there were four men with skin disease at the entrance to the city. They said to each other, "What are we doing sitting here until we die?
4. If we decide, ‘Let’s go into the city,’ the famine is there, and we’ll die in the city. But if we stay here, we’ll die just the same. So let’s go and surrender to the Aramean camp. If they let us live, we’ll live. If they kill us, we’ll die."
5. So they set out in the evening to the Aramean camp, and they came to the edge of the camp. But there was no one there because
6. the Lord had made the Aramean camp hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a strong army. They had said to each other, "Listen! Israel’s king has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to come against us!"
7. So they had got up and fled in the evening, leaving their tents, horses, and donkeys. They left the camp exactly as it was and ran for their lives.
8. So these men with skin disease came to the edge of the camp. They entered a tent where they ate and drank. They carried off some silver, gold, and garments, and they hid them. Then they returned and went into another tent. They took more things from there, went away, and hid them.
9. But then they said to each other, "What we’re doing isn’t right. Today is a day of good news, but we’re keeping quiet about it. If we wait until dawn, something bad will happen to us. Come on! Let’s go and tell the palace."
10. So they went and called out to the gatekeepers, telling them, "We went to the Aramean camp, and listen to this: No one was there, not even the sound of anyone! The only things there were tied-up horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were."
11. The gatekeepers shouted out the news, and it was reported within the palace.