10. The diseased men went and called to the city’s gatekeepers and told them, “We went to the Aramean camp and no one was there — no human sounds. There was nothing but tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents were intact.”
11. The gatekeepers called out, and the news was reported to the king’s household.
12. So the king got up in the night and said to his servants, “Let me tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving, so they have left the camp to hide in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will take them alive and go into the city.’ ”
13. But one of his servants responded, “Please, let messengers take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their fate is like the entire Israelite community who will die, so let’s send them and see.”
14. The messengers took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, “Go and see.”
15. So they followed them as far as the Jordan. They saw that the whole way was littered with clothes and equipment the Arameans had thrown off in their haste. The messengers returned and told the king.
16. Then the people went out and plundered the Aramean camp. It was then that six quarts of fine meal sold for a shekel and 12 quarts of barley sold for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
17. The king had appointed the captain, his right-hand man, to be in charge of the gate, but the people trampled him in the gateway. He died, just as the man of God had predicted when the king came to him.
18. When the man of God had said to the king, “About this time tomorrow 12 quarts of barley will sell for a shekel and six quarts of fine meal will sell for a shekel at the gate of Samaria,”
19. this captain had answered the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen? ” Elisha had said, “You will in fact see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it.”
20. This is what happened to him: the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.