2 Kings 7:1

1 Then Elisha said, "Hear ye the word of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD: `Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.'"

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 Then Elisha said, "Hear ye the word of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD: `Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.'"

2 Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, "Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?" And he said, "Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof."

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

4 If we say, `We will enter into the city,' then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die."

5 And they rose up in the twilight to go unto the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.