2 Kings 6

KJV · Chapter 6/25

¹And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.

²Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye.

³And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go.

⁴So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.

⁵But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed.

⁶And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.

⁷Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.

⁸Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.

⁹And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down.

¹⁰And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice.

¹¹Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?

¹²And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.

¹³And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.

¹⁴Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.

¹⁵And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

¹⁶And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

¹⁷And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

¹⁸And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

¹⁹And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.

²⁰And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

²¹And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them?

²²And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.

²³And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.

²⁴And it came to pass after this, that Ben–hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

²⁵And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.

²⁶And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

²⁷And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?

²⁸And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow.

²⁹So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.

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

³¹Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.

³²But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?

³³And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Elisha makes a lost iron axe head float on the Jordan River. Afterward, he repeatedly reveals the secret plans of the Syrian army to the king of Israel, and when the Syrians try to capture him, he temporarily blinds them and leads them to Samaria, where they are fed and released in peace. The chapter ends with Syria besieging Samaria, causing extreme famine.

Explanation

This chapter demonstrates the prophetic reach of Elisha, able to know distant military secrets — an ability the Syrians initially attribute mistakenly to espionage. The scene in which Elisha prays for his servant to see the heavenly armies protecting them ('those who are with us are more than those who are with them') is one of the most comforting images in the Bible about God's invisible protection in moments of fear. The decision to feed the captured enemies, instead of killing them, shows a principle of mercy over vengeance that avoids future conflicts.

Fun facts

Elisha's phrase 'fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them' has become one of the most widely used quotes in contexts of spiritual encouragement to this day, associated with the idea of invisible angelic armies.
The extreme famine in Samaria described at the end of the chapter (including the absurd price of a donkey's head) directly sets the stage for the miracle of deliverance that happens in the next chapter.

Verse-by-verse explanation

2 Kings 6:1Iron was expensive and the axe head was probably borrowed, hence the young man's despair over losing it in the water. Elisha throws a piece of wood into the river and the iron floats to the surface, a small, homely miracle, quite different from the great scenes of war in the next chapter.
2 Kings 6:2The sons of the prophets propose going to the Jordan to get logs to enlarge the place where they live, already too cramped; Elisha agrees to the idea.
2 Kings 6:3One of them asks Elisha to come along with them, and he agrees to go with them to the Jordan.
2 Kings 6:4The group reaches the Jordan and starts cutting wood for the construction.
2 Kings 6:5The iron head of one man's axe falls into the water, and he becomes desperate because the tool was borrowed.
2 Kings 6:6Elisha asks where the iron fell, cuts off a piece of wood, throws it into the river, and the iron floats up to the surface.
2 Kings 6:7Elisha tells the young man to take the iron back, and he simply reaches out his hand and picks it up.
2 Kings 6:8The king of Syria plans in secret with his advisors where to set up his military camp to attack Israel.
2 Kings 6:9Elisha warns the king of Israel (north) to avoid the very place where the Syrians are hiding, revealing the enemy's plan ahead of time.
2 Kings 6:10The king of Israel follows Elisha's warning repeatedly, escaping ambushes several times in a row.
2 Kings 6:11The king of Syria becomes troubled, thinking there is a spy among his own men leaking information to the king of Israel.
2 Kings 6:12A servant reveals that it isn't treason: it's Elisha who knows even what the king of Syria says in secret in his own bedroom.
2 Kings 6:13The king of Syria orders his men to find out where Elisha is so he can be captured, and he learns that he is at Dothan.
2 Kings 6:14The king of Syria sends horses, chariots, and a great army by night to surround the city of Dothan and capture Elisha.
2 Kings 6:15The spiritual army had been there the whole time, surrounding the Syrians. The miracle isn't summoning new protection, it's opening the frightened young man's eyes to see what was already present around them.
2 Kings 6:16Elisha reassures the frightened servant: those who are on their side are more numerous than those with the enemy army.
2 Kings 6:17Elisha prays for the servant's eyes to be opened, and the young man sees the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire protecting Elisha.
2 Kings 6:18As the Syrians approach, Elisha prays for them to be struck blind, and the blindness happens exactly as he asked.
2 Kings 6:19Elisha deceives the blinded Syrians by telling them this isn't the way or the right city, and leads them straight into Samaria, the enemy capital.
2 Kings 6:20Once inside Samaria, Elisha asks God to open the Syrians' eyes, and they realize, terrified, that they are in the middle of the enemy city.
2 Kings 6:21The king of Israel, seeing the Syrians helpless and at his mercy, asks Elisha whether he should kill them.
2 Kings 6:22Elisha forbids the killing: since one doesn't kill a prisoner captured in ordinary battle, the order is to give them food and water and send them away in peace.
2 Kings 6:23The king prepares a feast for the captured Syrians and sends them back home; the result is that Syrian raids into Israel stop for a while.
2 Kings 6:24After this episode, Ben-hadad, king of Syria, changes tactics: he gathers his whole army and sets out to besiege Samaria in a real war.
2 Kings 6:25The siege causes such extreme famine that a donkey's head ends up costing eighty pieces of silver, an absurd price even for such unfit food.
2 Kings 6:26The siege drives food prices to absurd levels, a donkey's head for eighty pieces of silver, and to the point of two women agreeing to eat their own sons in turn. It's one of the most shocking accounts in the Bible about the consequences of a prolonged siege, recorded without moralizing comment.
2 Kings 6:27The king answers the woman crying out for help with a hopeless question: “If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?”
2 Kings 6:28The king asks what happened, and the woman reveals the horrible agreement she made with another mother: to eat her son one day and the other woman's son the next.
2 Kings 6:29They really did cook and eat her son; but the next day the other woman hid her own son and did not keep her end of the agreement.
2 Kings 6:30Hearing this, the king tears his clothes in shock, and the people see that underneath he was already wearing sackcloth — a sign he had been mourning in secret even before this report.
2 Kings 6:31Overcome with rage and despair, the king swears he will execute Elisha that very day, blaming the prophet for the disaster of the siege.
2 Kings 6:32Elisha, sitting with the elders, already knows by revelation that the king's messenger is coming to kill him, calls the king a son of a murderer, and orders the door bolted against the messenger.
2 Kings 6:33While Elisha is still speaking, the messenger arrives and asks why they should keep waiting on the Lord, since the disaster came from him in the first place.