What is happening in this passage about Samaria and the Syrians?

This passage describes what happened after God caused the Syrian army to flee from their camp in panic. Messengers follow their trail as far as the Jordan River and see the road covered with clothes and equipment the Syrians dropped in their rush to escape. They report back to the king, and then the starving people of Samaria pour out of the city and plunder the empty camp. Because of this, food suddenly becomes cheap, just as God had said through his prophet. The story also shows what happens to the officer who had mocked that promise.

What does it mean that the road was full of garments and vessels?

The messengers found the road to the Jordan River strewn with garments and vessels from the fleeing Syrian army. This picture shows how fast and frightened the Syrians were. They threw off anything that slowed them down, whether clothing, armor, or containers, to run more quickly. It confirms that they did not leave in an organized retreat but in panic. This helped convince the king that the army was really gone, and that the camp, with all its food and goods, was truly empty and safe to enter.

How was Elisha’s word about cheap food fulfilled here?

Elisha had said that by the next day, a measure of fine flour and two measures of barley would be sold for a small price at the gate of Samaria. When the people discovered the abandoned Syrian camp, they took the stored food and goods. There was so much supply that the prices dropped right away. The text states that flour and barley were sold exactly at the prices mentioned earlier. This shows that God’s promise about ending the famine and providing plenty was carried out in detail, not just generally, and it happened in the very place Elisha had named.

Who is the officer on whose hand the king leaned, and what happens to him?

The officer is a high-ranking aide to the king, someone the king trusted and leaned on, both literally and as a supporter. Earlier, when he heard the promise of sudden plenty, he mocked it and said that even if God opened windows in heaven, such a thing could not happen. Elisha replied that he would see it with his eyes but not eat of it. In this passage, the king puts him in charge of the city gate as the people rush out. In the crush of the crowd, the people trample him to death, so he sees the fulfillment but does not share in it.

Why did the people trample the officer in the gate?

The people of Samaria had been suffering terribly from hunger during the siege. When they heard that the Syrian camp was empty and full of food, they rushed out in a crowd to get supplies. The king had put the officer at the gate, probably to keep order or control the flow. But the pressure of a desperate, starving crowd overcame any control. They pushed through, and he was trodden underfoot and died. The passage points out that this was not just an accident, but the exact outcome spoken earlier: he would see the promised plenty, but he would not eat of it.

What does this passage teach about unbelief and God’s promises?

This passage shows that God’s promises and warnings both come true. On one side, there is mercy: God ends a terrible famine in a way no one expected, by turning the enemy’s siege into a source of food and riches. On the other side, there is judgment on open unbelief. The officer did not just struggle to believe; he mocked the idea that God could act so powerfully. He ends up seeing the blessing with his eyes but missing it for himself. It is a sober reminder that distrusting God’s word is not a small matter.

What does “you shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat thereof” mean?

That sentence is a word of judgment to the officer who doubted. It means he would live long enough to witness the sudden change from famine to plenty. He would see the cheap grain sold at the gate, just as was promised. But he would not taste or enjoy any of it. The passage shows this fulfilled when he dies in the crowd at the very gate where the food is being sold. The line shows that it is possible to witness God’s work and yet not share in its benefits if a person hardens himself against God’s word.

What does this passage show about God’s power to provide?

The passage shows that God can provide in ways people do not expect. Israel was trapped in a city, starving, with a strong enemy army outside. No one could see a natural way out. Yet God caused such fear in the enemy camp that the Syrians fled suddenly, leaving all their supplies behind. Not only was the siege lifted, but the very army that tried to starve them became the source of their food and goods. This encourages people to see that God is not limited to the solutions we can imagine, and that he keeps his word even in desperate situations.

2Kgs.7.15

2 Kings 7:15

KJV

And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.

The Syrians Flee

Four Lepers Relate Arameans’ Flight

¶ And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.

For the Lord had 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 said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.

Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, 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: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.

So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were.

And he called the porters; and they told it to the king’s house within.

¶ 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.

And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and see.

They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.

The Promise Fulfilled

15 And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.

And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.

¶ And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him.

And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria:

And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.

Cross References

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