2 Kings 6:24-33 ▼

24 And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his camp, and he went up and laid siege against Samaria.

25 And there was a great famine in Samaria. And behold, they lay siege against it until the head of a donkey was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a forth of a cab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.

26 And it came to pass that the king of Israel passing by on the wall, and a woman cried out to him, saying, “Save me, my lord the king.”

27 And he said, “YHWH does not save you—from where do I save you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?”

28 And the king said to her, “What is troubling you?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him today, and my son we will eat tomorrow.’

29 And we boiled my son and ate him, and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ And she has hidden her son.”

30 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes; and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked, and behold, sackcloth was on his flesh within.

31 And he said, “Thus may God do to me, and thus He does add, if remains the head of Elisha son of Shaphat on him today.”

32 And Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And he sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you? see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to take away my head? Look, at the coming in of the messenger, shut the door and hold him fast at the door. Is there not the sound of the feet of his master behind him?”

33 And while he was speaking with them, behold, the messenger was coming down to him, and he said, “Behold, this evil is from YHWH. Why should I wait for YHWH any longer?”