Ben-hadad's Siege of Samaria
24 Afterward
1Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria.
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And there was a great famine in Samaria, as they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five shekels of silver.
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Now as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!"
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And he said, "If the LORD will not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?"
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And the king asked her, "What is your trouble?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.'
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2So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, 'Give your son, that we may eat him.' But she has hidden her son."
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When the king heard the words of the woman,
3he tore his clothes--now he was passing by on the wall--and the people looked, and behold,
4he had sackcloth beneath on his body--
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and he said,
5"May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today."
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Elisha was sitting in his house,
6and the elders were sitting with him. Now the king had dispatched a man from his presence, but before the messenger arrived Elisha said to the elders, "Do you see how this
7murderer has sent to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?"
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And while he was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him and said, "This trouble is from the LORD!
8Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?"