2 Kings 6:24-33·~1 min

The Siege and Famine of Samaria

Ben-hadad gathers his whole army and besieges Samaria until a great famine grips the city and even vile food sells at a crushing price.

S²⁴ome time later, Ben-hadad king of Aram assembled his entire army and marched up to besiege Samaria. ²⁵So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.

A woman cries to the king for help and tells him of an agreement to eat their sons, an agreement that has already consumed one child. The king tears his clothes in grief, but his anguish turns toward a vow against Elisha.

²⁶As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!” ²⁷He answered, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?” ²⁸Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” ²⁹And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’ So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.” ³⁰When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. And as he passed by on the wall, the people saw the sackcloth under his clothes next to his skin. ³¹He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!”

Elisha sits with the elders and knows the king has sent a messenger to kill him. Before the king arrives, the charge is spoken plainly: this calamity is from the LORD, and waiting for Him seems finished.

³²Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door to keep him out. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?” ³³While Elisha was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, “This calamity is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”

Section summaryLater Aram returns in force and shuts Samaria under a siege so severe that food becomes grotesquely scarce and a woman tells the king of a child consumed in hunger. The king tears his clothes, hides sackcloth beneath them, and then turns from grief to rage, blaming Elisha and finally accusing the LORD Himself.

Role in the chapterThis section darkens the chapter sharply after the earlier release of Aram’s soldiers. It brings the cost of siege inside the city walls and leaves the chapter at the point where royal despair hardens into accusation.