2 Kings 7:1

1 Elisha said, "Hear the LORD's word! This is what the LORD says: At this time tomorrow a seah of wheat flour will sell for a shekel at Samaria's gate, and two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel."

2 Kings 7:1 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 7:1

Then Elisha said, hear the word of the Lord
This he said to the king and those that were with him:

thus saith the Lord, tomorrow, about this time;
which very probably was the forenoon:

shall a measure of fine flour [be sold] for a shekel;
"a seah", the measure here spoken of, or "saturn", according to some ^F18, was a gallon and an half; but Bishop Cumberland ^F19 makes it two wine gallons and an half; and a shekel, according to his accurate computation, was two shillings and four pence farthing, and near the eighth part of one {t}:

and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria;
where the market was kept; the same sort of measure and of money is here used as before; and we learn from hence that a measure of wheat was equal to two of barley.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 Godwin, ut supra. (Moses & Aaron, B. 6. c. 9.)
F19 Of Scripture Weights and Measures, c. 3. p. 86.
F20 lb. c. 4. p. 104, 105.

2 Kings 7:1 In-Context

1 Elisha said, "Hear the LORD's word! This is what the LORD says: At this time tomorrow a seah of wheat flour will sell for a shekel at Samaria's gate, and two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel."

2 Then the officer, the one the king leaned on for support, spoke to the man of God: "Come on! Even if the LORD should make windows in the sky, how could that happen?" Elisha said, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you won't eat from it."

3 Now there were four men with skin disease at the entrance to the city. They said to each other, "What are we doing sitting here until we die?

4 If we decide, ‘Let's go into the city,' the famine is there, and we'll die in the city. But if we stay here, we'll die just the same. So let's go and surrender to the Aramean camp. If they let us live, we'll live. If they kill us, we'll die."

5 So they set out in the evening to the Aramean camp, and they came to the edge of the camp. But there was no one there because

Footnotes

• [a]. One seah is approximately seven and a half quarts.