2 Kings 7:1

1 Elisha replied, “Listen to this message from the LORD ! This is what the LORD says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost only one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver. ”

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 replied, “Listen to this message from the LORD ! This is what the LORD says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost only one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver. ”

2 The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, “That couldn’t happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!” But Elisha replied, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!”

3 Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other.

4 “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”

5 So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there!

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew 1 seah [7.3 liters] of choice flour will cost 1 shekel [0.4 ounces or 11 grams]; also in 7:16, 18 .
• [b]. Hebrew 2 seahs [14.6 liters] of barley grain will cost 1 shekel [0.4 ounces or 11 grams]; also in 7:16, 18 .