21. When the king of Israel saw them, he shouted to Elisha, “My father, should I kill them? Should I kill them?”
22. “Of course not!” Elisha replied. “Do we kill prisoners of war? Give them food and drink and send them home again to their master.”
23. So the king made a great feast for them and then sent them home to their master. After that, the Aramean raiders stayed away from the land of Israel.
24. Some time later, however, King Ben-hadad of Aram mustered his entire army and besieged Samaria.
25. As a result, there was a great famine in the city. The siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a cup of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver.
26. One day as the king of Israel was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him, “Please help me, my lord the king!”
27. He answered, “If the lord doesn’t help you, what can I do? I have neither food from the threshing floor nor wine from the press to give you.”
28. But then the king asked, “What is the matter?”She replied, “This woman said to me: ‘Come on, let’s eat your son today, then we will eat my son tomorrow.’
29. So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said to her, ‘Kill your son so we can eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.”