22. Elisha answered, “No, don’t kill them. They are not soldiers you captured in battle. Give them some bread and water. Let them eat and drink. Then let them go home to their leader.”
23. So the king prepared a big meal for the Aramean army. After they ate and drank, he sent them back home to their leader. The Arameans did not send any more soldiers into the land of Israel to make raids.
24. After this happened, King Ben-Hadad of Aram gathered all his army and went to surround and attack the city of Samaria.
25. The soldiers would not let people bring food into the city, so there was a time of terrible hunger in Samaria. It was so bad in Samaria that a donkey’s head was sold for 80 pieces of silver and one pint of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver.
26. The king of Israel was walking on the wall around the city. A woman shouted out to him. She said, “My lord and king, please help me!”
27. The king of Israel said, “If the Lord does not help you, how can I help you? I cannot give you grain from the threshing floor or wine from the winepress.”
28. Then he said to her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give me your son so that we can eat him today. Then we will eat my son tomorrow.’
29. So we boiled my son and ate him. Then the next day, I said to this woman, ‘Give me your son so that we can eat him.’ But she has hidden her son!”
30. When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his clothes to show he was upset. As he passed by on the wall, the people saw the king was wearing the rough cloth under his clothes to show he was sad and upset.
31. The king said, “May God punish me if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat is still on his body at the end of this day!”
32. The king sent a messenger to Elisha. Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Look, that son of a murderer is sending men to cut off my head. When the messenger arrives, shut the door. Hold the door and don’t let him in. I hear the sound of his master’s feet coming behind him.”
33. While Elisha was still talking with the elders, the messenger came to him. This was the message: “This trouble has come from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”