2 Kings 7:4

4 If we say, 'Let us enter the city,' the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but 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 Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, "If the LORD himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?" But he said, "You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it."

3 Now there were four men who were lepersat the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die?

4 If we say, 'Let us enter the city,' the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die."

5 So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there.

6 For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, "Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us."