2 Kings 7:4

4 If we say, `We will enter into the city,' then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, 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 a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, "Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?" And he said, "Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof."

3 And there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. And they said one to another, "Why sit we here until we die?

4 If we say, `We will enter into the city,' then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die."

5 And they rose up in the twilight to go unto the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.

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; and they said one to another, "Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us."