2 Kings 7:13

13 But one of his servants replied, “Please, have scouts take five of the horses that remain in the city. Their plight will be no worse than all the Israelites who are left here. You can see that all the Israelites here are doomed. So let us send them and find out.”

2 Kings 7:13 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 7:13

And one of his servants answered and said, let some take, I
pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city,
&c.] Not having died through the famine as the rest:

behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it;
behold, I say, they are even as the multitude of Israel that are
consumed;
signifying, there was a like consumption among the horses as among the people, and they that remained were starving as they were; so that should those horses, and the men, fall into the hands of the Syrians, and perish, it would be no great matter; the loss would not be much, since they must perish if they continue in the city: according to the Vulgate Latin version, these five horses were all that were left:

and let us send and see;
whether the report of the lepers is true or not.

2 Kings 7:13 In-Context

11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported to the king’s household.

12 So the king got up in the night and said to his servants, “Let me tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving, so they have left the camp to hide in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will take them alive and enter the city.’”

13 But one of his servants replied, “Please, have scouts take five of the horses that remain in the city. Their plight will be no worse than all the Israelites who are left here. You can see that all the Israelites here are doomed. So let us send them and find out.”

14 Then the scouts took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, “Go and see.”

15 And they tracked them as far as the Jordan, and indeed, the whole way was littered with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown off in haste. So the scouts returned and told the king.