2 Kings 7:6

6 For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. “The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!” they cried to one another.

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 “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”

5 So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there!

6 For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. “The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!” they cried to one another.

7 So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives.

8 When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it.

Footnotes

• [a]. Possibly and the people of Muzur, a district near Cilicia.