2 Kings 7:4

4 Whether we will enter into the city, we shall die for hunger; whether we dwell here (or if we stay here), we shall (also) die. Therefore come ye, and flee we over to the tents of Syria; if they shall spare us, we shall live; soothly if they will slay us, nevertheless we shall (still just) 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 And one of the dukes, on whose hand the king leaned, answered to the man of God, and said, (Yea,) Though the Lord make also the gutters of heaven to be opened, whether that, that thou speakest, may be? And Elisha said, Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof. (And one of the leaders, on whose hand the king leaned, answered to the man of God, and said, Even if the Lord shall make the gutters of the heavens to open up, what thou sayest could not be true! And Elisha said, Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat any of it.)

3 Therefore four leprous men were beside the entering of the city's gate, which said together, What will we be here, till we die? (And so four lepers were beside the entrance to the city gate, and they said together, Why should we stay here, and just wait until we all die?)

4 Whether we will enter into the city, we shall die for hunger; whether we dwell here (or if we stay here), we shall (also) die. Therefore come ye, and flee we over to the tents of Syria; if they shall spare us, we shall live; soothly if they will slay us, nevertheless we shall (still just) die.

5 Then they rose up in the eventide, to come to the tents of Syria; and when they had come to the beginning of the tents of Syria, they found not any man there.

6 Forsooth the Lord had made a sound of chariots, and of horses, and of a full much host to be heard in the tents of Syria; and they said together, Lo! the king of Israel hath hired by meed against us the kings of Hittites, and of Egyptians; and they came suddenly upon us. (For the Lord had made the sound of chariots, and of horses, and of a very large army to be heard among the tents, or in the camp, of the Syrians; and they had said together, Lo! the king of Israel hath hired for money the kings of the Hittites, and of the Egyptians, to come against us; and they have suddenly come upon us!)