when he saw
them, "My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them?"

And 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."

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

_How the City of Samaria Was Sorely Besieged, and How
It Was Wonderfully Delivered_.

And it came to pass that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host,
and went up, and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in
Samaria: and after they had besieged it for a long time, so that the
city was in desperate straits, Elisha said, "Hear ye the word of the
Lord: thus saith the Lord, 'To-morrow about this time shall a{153}
measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley
for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.'"

Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God,
and said, "Behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might this
thing be?"

And he said, "Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not
eat thereof."

Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate: and they
said one to another, "Why sit we here until we die? 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 go over to the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we
shall live; but if they kill us, we shall but die."

And they rose up in the twilight, to go to the camp of the Syrians: and
when they were come to the outermost part of the camp of the Syrians,
behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the
Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the
noise of a great host: and they said one to another, "Lo, the king of
Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of
the Egyptians, to come upon us."

Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and
their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for
their life. And when these lepers came to the outermost part of the
camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence
silver, and gold, and raiment, and w