Famine Strikes Samaria

2 Kings 6:24–7:2

Bible Stories

2 Kings 6:24 Now it happened that, after these things, Benhadad, the king of Syria, gathered together his entire army, and he ascended and was besieging Samaria. 

2 Kings 6:25 And a great famine occurred in Samaria. And it was blockaded for a long time, until the head of a donkey was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and one fourth part of a pint of pigeons’ dung sold for five silver coins. 

2 Kings 6:26 And as the king of Israel was passing by the wall, a certain woman cried out to him, saying, “Save me, my lord the king!” 

2 Kings 6:27 And he said: “If the Lord does not save you, how am I able to save you? From the grain floor, or from the wine press?” And the king said to her, “What is the matter with you?” And she responded: 

2 Kings 6:28 “This woman said to me: ‘Give your son, so that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 

2 Kings 6:29 Therefore, we cooked my son, and we ate him. And I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, so that we may eat him.’ But she concealed her son.” 

2 Kings 6:30 When the king had heard this, he tore his garments, and he passed along the wall. And all the people saw the haircloth that he had worn underneath, beside his flesh. 

2 Kings 6:31 And the king said, “May God do these things to me, and may he add these other things, if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, will remain on him this day!” 

2 Kings 6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And so he sent a man ahead. And before that messenger arrived, he said to the elders: “Do you not know that this son of a murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Therefore, watch, and when the messenger arrives, close the door. And you shall not permit him to enter. For behold, the sound of his lord’s feet is behind him.” 

2 Kings 6:33 While he was still speaking to them, the messenger appeared who was sent to him. And he said: “Behold, such a great evil is from the Lord! What more should I expect from the Lord?” 

2 Kings 7:1 Then Elisha said: “Listen to the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: Tomorrow, at this time, one measure of fine wheat flour will be one silver coin, and two measures of barley will be one silver coin, at the gate of Samaria.” 

2 Kings 7:2 And one of the leaders, upon whose hand the king leaned, responding to the man of God, said, “Even if the Lord will open the floodgates of heaven, how can what you say possibly be?” And he said, “You will see it with your own eyes, and you will not eat from it.”