27. “Let the Lord help you!” the king said. “Do you think I have grain or wine to give you?”
28. Then he asked, “What's the matter anyway?”The woman answered, “Another woman and I were so hungry that we agreed to eat our sons. She said if we ate my son one day, we could eat hers the next day.
29. So yesterday we cooked my son and ate him. But today when I went to her house to eat her son, she had hidden him.”
30. The king tore off his clothes in sorrow, and since he was on top of the city wall, the people saw that he was wearing sackcloth underneath.
31. He said, “I pray that God will punish me terribly, if Elisha's head is still on his shoulders by this time tomorrow.”
32. Then he sent a messenger to Elisha.Elisha was at home at the time, and the important leaders of Israel were meeting with him. Even before the king's messenger arrived, Elisha told the leaders, “That murderer is sending someone to cut off my head. When you see him coming, shut the door and don't let him in. I'm sure the king himself will be just behind him.”
33. Before Elisha finished talking, the messenger came up and said, “The Lord has made all these terrible things happen to us. Why should I think he will help us now?”