World English Bible · The divided kingdom
2 Kings 7
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
said, "Hear word. says, 'Tomorrow about this time a seah of will be sold for a , and two seahs of barley for a , in the of .'" Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the , and said, "Behold, if made windows in , could this thing be?" He said, "Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it." Now there were four men at the entrance of the . They said to one another, "Why do we sit here until we ? If we say, 'We will enter into the city,' then the is in the city, and we will there. If we sit still here, we also . Now therefore come, and let's surrender to the army of . If they us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only ." They rose up in the twilight to go to the camp of . When they had come to the outermost part of the camp of , behold, no man was there. For had made the army of to hear the sound of chariots and the sound of horses, even the noise of a great army; and they said to one another, "Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the and the kings of the to attack us." Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. When these came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drank, then silver, gold, and clothing and went and hid it. Then they came back, and entered into another tent and carried things from there also, and went and hid them. Then they said to one another, "We aren't doing right. Today is a day of , and we keep silent. If we wait until the morning , punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let's go and tell the king's household." So they came and called to the city gatekeepers; and they told them, "We came to the camp of , and, behold, there was no man there, not even a man's voice, but the horses tied, and the donkeys tied, and the tents as they were." 11Then the gatekeepers called out and told it to the king's household within. The king arose in the night, and said to his servants, "I will now show you what have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, 'When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city.'" One of his servants answered, "Please let some people take five of the horses that , which are left in the city. Behold, they are like all of Israel who are left in it. Behold, they are like all of Israel who are consumed. Let's send and see." 14Therefore they took two chariots with horses; and the king sent them out to the army, saying, "Go and see." They went after them to ; and behold, all was full of garments and equipment which had cast away in their haste. The returned and told the king. The people went out and plundered the camp of . So a seah of was sold for a , and two measures of barley for a , according to word. The king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to be in charge of the ; and the people trampled over him in the , and he as the had said, who spoke when the king came down to him. It happened as the had spoken to the king, saying, "Two seahs of barley for a , and a seah of for a , shall be tomorrow about this time in the of ;" and that captain answered the , and said, "Now, behold, if made windows in , might such a thing be?" and he said, "Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it." It happened like that to him, for the people trampled over him in the , and he .
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The divided kingdom, 931 BC to 745 BC ›
Israel in the north and Judah in the south, often at odds, with Aram of Damascus as the immediate threat and Assyria growing in the distance.
- Aram of Damascus
- The immediate enemy for most of two centuries, close enough to raid every campaigning season and strong enough to take territory. Most of the wars in Kings that read like national emergencies are border wars with Damascus.
- Assyria
- Growing steadily in the distance. Shalmaneser III fights a coalition at Qarqar in 853 BC and his own inscription lists King Ahab of Israel among his opponents with two thousand chariots, the earliest Assyrian mention of an Israelite king. A later monument shows Jehu bowing and paying tribute. Assyria is not yet the destroyer, but it is already taking notes.
- Egypt
- Divided and unreliable, capable of the occasional raid, such as Shishak stripping the temple in Rehoboam's fifth year, but no longer an empire that governs the Levant.
- Further afield
- The Greeks adopt the alphabet, hold the first Olympiad by tradition in 776 BC, and begin to compose the Homeric poems. Rome is founded by tradition in 753 BC, a village of huts at this point. This is the century in which the classical world begins.