One time when the king of Syria surrounded the castle in Samaria to take the city for himself, the people inside the castle were out of food. There was nothing left for them to eat.

The king of Israel passed by walking on the wall and a woman called to him and told him terrible things were happening in the city, saying, We have no food to eat.

The king blamed Elisha. But it was the peoples fault and the kings because they bowed to the bad ones and forgot the Lord their Maker.

 

 

But God still loved them and Elisha said, Tomorrow at this time there will be lots and lots of food.

 

 

 

There was a man beside the king. The king trusted him. He didn’t believe what God said by Elisha.

 

 

 

 

He said, If the Lord would makes windows in heaven, would this even be possible?

Elisha said to this man who was trying to cancel God’s word, You will see what God does, but you won’t eat any of the food.

 

Four men who had a sickness so that they couldn’t be around people were outside the city gate.

They went to the enemy camp hoping the enemy would not kill them, but would give them some food to eat.

When they got to the camp, all the tents were still there and the horses and their donkeys, but the men were gone.

The Lord God had caused the Syrian enemies to hear the sound of a big army coming toward them, lots of horses and chariots.

 

 

So they just left everything and ran away as fast as they could.

 

 

 

 

The men went into a tent and gobbled up some food. They loaded up their arms with clothes and silver and gold.

 

 

 

They went and hid the stuff they took and came back for more. Then they went into another tent and took more stuff.

Then they stopped and said, This is a good day. The enemy isn’t going to kill us. They are gone and they left all this stuff. There is food for the hungry people in the city.

 

We are doing the wrong thing. We need to tell the king and get food to the city so the people can eat.

 

 

If we wait until morning and do not tell the king, something bad will happen to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the four men went to the city gate and told the man who guarded the gate about it.

 

 

The gatekeeper told the king. The king sent men in two chariots with horses to see if this was true.

 

 

 

 

These men came back and told the king that the enemies had run far away and left all their stuff behind.

So they opened the gates and the people went out and got food to eat and the whole city had lots and lots of food for a long time.

 

 

 

 

 

The king put the man he trusted in charge of giving out the food that was brought in from the enemy’s camp.

The man saw all the food that was brought into the city, but he didn’t get to eat any of it because the people were so hungry they rushed at him to get to the food and accidentally trampled on him, and he died.