1. Elisha replied, ‘Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: about this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’
2. The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, ‘Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?’‘You will see it with your own eyes,’ answered Elisha, ‘but you will not eat any of it!’
3. Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, ‘Why stay here until we die?
4. If we say, “We’ll go into the city” – the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.’
5. At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there,
6. for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, ‘Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!’