Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

6:25 donkey's head . . . dove's dung. Donkeys were commonly found among the domestic animals in Syria-Palestine, and various OT laws identify them as significant possessions (e.g., Ex. 13:13; 20:17; 22:4). So severe was the siege that the inhabitants of Samaria were reduced not only to slaughtering and eating valuable animals, but also to consuming body parts that would not normally be consumed, and purchasing them for exorbitant prices (the cost of a live horse in 1 Kings 10:29 is only 150 shekels of silver, and here a donkey's head costs eighty). During this crisis even half a liter (the fourth part of a kab) of dove's dung cost what the average worker could make in six months (five shekels of silver).

6:26-27 Help, my lord, O king. The plea is directed to the king as the ultimate court of human justice, as in 1 Kings 3:16-28, but Israel has strayed a long way from that glorious era when a wise king could ensure justice. The normal food supply is exhausted; nothing comes from the threshing floor (see note on 1 Kings 22:10-12) or winepress (a flat, hard surface on which grapes could be trodden, with the juice running off into a reservoir and then being poured into large jars for fermentation).

6:28-29 Give your son. The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal also reports that, during his two-year siege of Babylon (which ended in 648 b.c.), "famine seized them; for their hunger they ate the flesh of their sons and daughters"; the Bible itself reports other instances of cannibalism arising from a long siege (e.g., Lam. 2:20; 4:10; Ezek. 5:10).

6:30-31 he tore his clothes. See notes on 2:11-13; 5:5-7; sackcloth is also symbolic of mourning and distress. Jehoram appears to believe that removing Elisha will remove the problems he is facing.

6:32 the elders were sitting with him. As the "sons of the prophets" seem to have gathered to listen to the prophet (ch. 4), so here the elders of Samaria are gathered together in Elisha's house (cf. the similar scenario in Ezek. 8:1; 20:1).

7:1 a seah of fine flour . . . two seahs of barley. A seah is about 7 quarts (7.7 liters). The king will have to wait no longer: salvation is imminent, and normal business at the gate of Samaria will be resumed on the following day (the prices are much lower here than in 6:25). The open area inside city gates served various important social purposes in ancient times. Among other things, agricultural activities took place and business was transacted there (e.g., Gen. 23:10; 34:20).

7:2 windows in heaven. It is impossible for this officer to imagine how such an economic recovery could happen overnight, in the aftermath of such a terrible siege. Will God hand out unexpected material blessings through the windows of his heavenly storehouse (cf. Ps. 78:23; Mal. 3:10)? To mock the prophetic word is to mock the Lord himself, however, so he shall see it . . . but . . . not eat.

7:3-4 four men who were lepers. A leper had first brought the Syrians to Samaria during Jehoram's reign (5:1-7), and four men with a similar ailment now drive them away. Faced with certain death if they enter the city or sit where they are, they instead choose possible death in the camp of the Syrians.

7:6 kings of Egypt. Perhaps the four lepers (Hb. metsora‘im), seen in the twilight (v. 5), are mistaken for a mercenary army drawn from northern Syria and from Egypt (Hb. Mitsrayim); otherwise, the delusion came from another source.

7:13-14 five of the remaining horses. Only two horsemen are sent. Perhaps they take with them three spare horses, or one spare horse (if the horsemen took two chariots, each having two horses).

7:20 the people trampled him. The skeptical officer of v. 2, ironically stationed at the very gate at which he had anticipated seeing no trade, is trampled in the scramble to acquire goods, fulfilling Elisha's prophecy.