2 Kings 7:3-5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

There were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate Namely, of the city, out of which they were shut by virtue of God's law. They had either had their dwelling-place near the gate, or had come near it for fear of the Syrian army. They said one to another, Why sit we here till we die? None passed through the gate to relieve them, and they were ready to perish with hunger. Should they go into the city, there was nothing to be had there, they must die in the streets; should they sit still, they must pine to death in their cottage: they therefore determine to go over to the enemy, and throw themselves upon their mercy; for death seemed unavoidable every other way. They rose up, therefore, in the twilight In the evening twilight, as appears from 2 Kings 7:9; 2 Kings 7:12. To go to the camp of the Syrians Which, to their great surprise and joy, they found wholly deserted, not a man being to be seen or heard in it.

2 Kings 7:3-5

3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in 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 were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.