2 Kings 7:4

4 "If we say, 'We will enter the city,' then the famine is in the city and we will die there; and if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us go over to ¹the camp of the Arameans. If they spare us, we will live; and if they kill us, we will but die."

2 Kings 7:4 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 7:4

If we say we will enter into the city
Contrary to the law which forbid them:

then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there;
not being able to obtain food to preserve life:

and if we sit here, we die also;
having nothing to eat to support nature:

now therefore let us come, and fall unto the host of the Syrians;
put ourselves into their hands, and lie at their mercy:

if they save us alive, we shall live;
if they do not put us to death, but give us bread to eat, our lives will be preserved:

and if they kill us, we shall but die;
which we must inevitably do, whether we stay here, or go into the city.

2 Kings 7:4 In-Context

2 The royal officer on whose hand the king was leaning answered the man of God and said, "Behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?" Then he said, "Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it."

3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, "Why do we sit here until we die?

4 "If we say, 'We will enter the city,' then the famine is in the city and we will die there; and if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they spare us, we will live; and if they kill us, we will but die."

5 They arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Arameans; when they came to the outskirts of the camp of the Arameans, behold, there was no one there.

6 For the Lord had caused the army of the Arameans to hear a sound of chariots and a sound of horses, even the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, "Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us."

Cross References

• 1. 2 Kings 6:24

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "fall"