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2 Kings 7:12
King James Version (KJV)
And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city.
Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary
Bible Commentary
The king arose in the night - This king had made a noble defense; he seems to have shared in all the sufferings of the besieged, and to have been ever at his post. Even in vile Ahab there were some good things!
They know that we be hungry - This was a very natural conclusion; the Syrians by the closest blockade could not induce them to give up the city, but knowing that they were in a starving condition, they might make use of such a stratagem as that imagined by the king, in order to get possession of the city.
Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible
Notes on the Whole Bible
His servants - i. e., “high officers of the household,” not mere domestics.
I will shew you what the Syrians have done - Jehoram sees in the deserted camp a stratagem like that connected with the taking of Ai Joshua 8:3-19. The suspicion was a very natural one, since the Israelites knew of no reason why the Syrians should have raised the siege.
Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
Concise Bible Commentary
Here see the wants of Israel supplied in a way they little thought of, which should encourage us to depend upon the power and goodness of God in our greatest straits. God's promise may be safely relied on, for no word of his shall fall to the ground. The nobleman that questioned the truth of Elisha's word, saw the plenty, to silence and shame his unbelief, and therein saw his own folly; but he did not eat of the plenty he saw. Justly do those find the world's promises fail them, who think that the promises of God will disappoint them. Learn how deeply God resents distrust of his power, providence, and promise: how uncertain life is, and the enjoyments of it: how certain God's threatenings are, and how sure to come on the guilty. May God help us to inquire whether we are exposed to his threatenings, or interested in his promises.
Ellen G. White
Prophets and Kings, 258-9
Prophets and Kings, 258-9
For a time after this, Israel was free from the attacks of the Syrians. But later, under the energetic direction of a determined king, Hazael, the Syrian hosts surrounded Samaria and besieged it. Never had Israel been brought into so great a strait as during this siege. The sins of the fathers were indeed being visited upon the children and the children's children. The horrors of prolonged famine were driving the king of Israel to desperate measures, when Elisha predicted deliverance the following day. PK 258.1
As the next morning was about to dawn, the Lord “made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host;” and they, seized with fear, “arose and fled in the twilight,” leaving “their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was,” with rich stores of food. They “fled for their life,” not tarrying until after the Jordan had been crossed. PK 258.2
During the night of the flight, four leprous men at the gate of the city, made desperate by hunger, had proposed to visit the Syrian camp and throw themselves upon the mercy of the besiegers, hoping thereby to arouse sympathy and obtain food. What was their astonishment when, entering the camp, they found “no man there.” With none to molest or forbid, “they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace.” Quickly they returned to the city with the glad news. PK 258.3
Read in context »
The Golden Ages of the 9th & 8th centuries BCE
Elijah and Elisha
