2 Kings 7:12-20 | The Way of Scripture

2 Kings 7:12-20

How is the report checked, and how is Elisha’s word fulfilled?

Berean Standard Bible

12 So the king got up in the night and said to his servants, “Let me tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving, so they have left the camp to hide in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will take them alive and enter the city.’” 13 But one of his servants replied, “Please, have scouts take five of the horses that remain in the city. Their plight will be no worse than all the Israelites who are left here. You can see that all the Israelites here are doomed. So let us send them and find out.” 14 Then the scouts took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, “Go and see.” 15 And they tracked them as far as the Jordan, and indeed, the whole way was littered with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown off in haste. So the scouts returned and told the king. 16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. It was then that a seah of fine flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD. 17 Now the king had appointed the officer on whose arm he leaned to be in charge of the gate, but the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king had come to him. 18 It happened just as the man of God had told the king: “About this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria, two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel.” 19 And the officer had answered the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?” So Elisha had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!” 20 And that is just what happened to him. The people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.

What is the context?

The king initially suspects an ambush designed to draw starving people out of the city. At a servant’s proposal, scouts follow the retreat as far as the Jordan and see the clothing and equipment discarded along the way.

After the scouts return, the people plunder the camp. Flour and barley sell at the prices Elisha announced. The narrative connects the changed market directly with the fulfilled word of the Lord.

The officer who had doubted is placed in charge of the gate, where the crowd tramples him to death. The account repeats both the promise and his objection to show that he sees the relief but does not eat from it, as Elisha had said.

How is this passage commonly understood?

Wesley reads the outcome as a warning against distrust of the Lord’s power and promise. The text also distinguishes a mistaken suspicion from the officer’s earlier defiant objection: sending scouts establishes what happened. It does not teach that checking a report is itself sinful unbelief.

What is our position?

We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.

Where can I study this further?

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