19
Next, Elisha told them, "You've lost your way, and this isn't even the right city. Follow me, and I'll take you to the man you're looking for." Then he led them to Shomron.
20
On their arrival in Shomron, Elisha said, "ADONAI, open the eyes of these men, so that they can see." ADONAI opened their eyes, and they saw: there they were, in the middle of Shomron.
21
When the king of Isra'el saw them, he asked Elisha, "My father, should I attack them? Should I attack them?"
22
He answered, "Don't attack them! You wouldn't even attack prisoners you had captured with your own sword and bow, would you? So give them food to eat and water to drink, and let them return to their master."
23
So he provided well for them; and after they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away; and they returned to their master. After that, no more raiding parties entered the land of Isra'el from Aram.
24
But some time afterwards, Ben-Hadad king of Aram gathered all his army, went up and laid siege to Shomron.
25
At the time, there was a severe famine in Shomron; and they maintained their siege until a donkey's head sold for eighty pieces of silver and half a pint of doves' dung for five pieces of silver.
26
As the king of Isra'el was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, "Help, my lord, king!"
27
He said, "If ADONAI isn't helping you, how do you expect me to help you? There isn't any grain, and there isn't any wine."
28
Then the king asked her, "What's troubling you?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give me your son, so that we can eat him today; and we'll eat my son tomorrow.'
29
So we boiled my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Give your son, so that we can eat him,' but she has hidden her son."