2 Kings 7:6

6 Now the Lord had caused the camp of [the] Arameans to hear the sound of chariots, the sound of horses, and the sound of a great army. So they said {to one another}, "Look, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us!"

2 Kings 7:6 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 7:6

For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise
of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host,
&c.] Or of many armies, as the Targum; either in the air by the ministry of angels; or the Lord so wrought upon their imagination, that they fancied they heard such noises; or he caused such noises in their ears:

and they said one to another, lo, the king of Israel hath hired against
us the kings of the Hittites;
one of the nations of the Canaanites, and may be here put for the whole of those that remained, and who lived upon the borders of the land of Israel; though Josephus ^F25 has it, the kings of the isles; that is, of Chittim, see ( Jeremiah 2:10 )

and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us;
Egypt being now divided into petty kingdoms; or else the governors of the several nomes or districts of it are here meant: for the king of Israel to hire these kings was very unlikely in his present circumstances; but those unreasonable things, in their panic, their imaginations suggested to them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4.) sect. 5.

2 Kings 7:6 In-Context

4 If we say, 'Let us go [into] the city,' the famine [is] in the city, and we shall die there; but if we sit here, we shall die. So then, come, let us fall into the camp of [the] Arameans. If they let us live, we shall live; but if they kill us, then we shall die."

5 So they got up at dusk to go to the camp of [the] Arameans. They went up to the edge of the camp of [the] Arameans, and look, there was no man there!

6 Now the Lord had caused the camp of [the] Arameans to hear the sound of chariots, the sound of horses, and the sound of a great army. So they said {to one another}, "Look, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us!"

7 So they got up and fled at dusk and left their tents, their horses, their donkeys, and the camp as it was, and they fled for their lives.

8 When these who had the skin disease came to the edge of the camp, they went into a certain tent and they ate, drank, and took from there silver and gold and clothes. Then they went and hid [them], then returned and came to another tent, and they took from there and went and hid [them].

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "each to his brother"