Book of Kings

The passage of 2 Kings 7 is a continuation of the previous chapter, which ended with the King of Israel stating to Elisha the prophet of God, that the famine they are experiencing is from the Lord, therefore, he ask Elisha, “why should I hope in the Lord any longer?”(2 Kings 6:33 NIV). The king is basically asking Elisha why should he not kill him since Elisha and Yahweh are the ones who have brought this disaster on them. God intervenes and gives Elisha a prediction—the people will not perish from starvation for about the same time tomorrow there will be food available, enough food to cause a tremendous price drop (v.1-2). “Elisha begins the prophecy with “hear the word of the Lord,” which is commonly used by the prophets of Yahweh to signal that what they are about to say is coming from the God of Israel. Gray states, “What follows will be direct inspiration, revelation straight from the mouth of Yahweh.” So it is to say, that this is God’s response to the king’s question. Yahweh will save the people by providing them with the necessary provisions.

Furthermore, the Lord will fulfill His promise within the short span of one day. There may be relevance to the prophet stating a specific time frame in which fulfillment of the prophecy will occur. First, the low food supply may not sustain the people beyond that time. Second, once the prophecy is fulfilled at the time stated, the people will know with certainty that it was Yahweh who saved his people and not the other gods, who Israel had started turning. In 2 Kings 3:13, Elisha tells Jehoram to go seek the prophets of his mother and father. It is obvious that the king must have held out some since of hope in Yahweh because previously, he had resolved to kill Elisha, ye...

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...re that the readers would not see them as the heroes of the narrative, but instead focus on the true hero, Yahweh.

The four leprous men scene begins and ends at the city gates, where they are relegated to because of their condition. A person with leprosy was considered to be ceremonially unclean. As long as a person had the symptoms of a skin disorder, that person was an outcast, not able to live among the people. Leviticus 13:46 reads, “He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” This is most likely the reason the four men were together—they are a group of outcast who does not have anyone to depend on, and are shunned by the community. Therefore, they would have been the last to receive any provisions during a famine since they were considered the lowest in social standing.