aid to Elisha, "My father, shall I cut them down?"
Elisha answered, "You shall not cut them down; would you cut down those
whom you have not taken captive with your sword nor with your bow? Set
bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their
master." So he prepared a great feast for them; and when they had had
food and drink, he sent them back to their master. So the robber bands
of Arameans no longer invaded the land of Israel.

Later, Benhadad, king of Aram, gathered all his army and besieged
Samaria. The famine was so severe in Samaria while they were besieging
it, that an ass's head was sold for eighty pieces of silver.

Once as the ruler of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried
out to him, "Help, my lord." He answered, "If Jehovah does not help you,
from where can I bring help to you? From the threshing-floor or from the
wine-press?" However, the ruler of Israel said to her, "What is the
trouble with you?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son,
that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow!' So we
cooked my son and ate him, and I said to her on the next day, 'Give your
son that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her son."

When the ruler of Israel heard the words of the woman, he tore his
clothes; and as he was passing by on the wall, the people looked and saw
that he wore sackcloth next to his skin.

Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the elders beside him; and
while he was still talking with them, the ruler of Israel came down to
him and said, "See, this is the evil that comes from Jehovah! Why should
I put my hope in Jehovah any longer?" But Elisha said, "Hear the word of
Jehovah, for he says, 'To-morrow about this time a peck of fine meal
shall be sold for a piece of silver and two pecks of barley for a piece
of silver in the gate of Samaria.'" Then the charioteer on whose arm the
ruler of Israel leaned answered the man of God, "If Jehovah himself
should make windows in heaven, could this be possible?" He said, "You
shall see it with your own eyes."

Now there were four lepers just outside the gate; and they said one to
another, "Why do we sit here until we die? If we say, 'We will enter the
city,' then, since there is famine in the city, we shall die there; but
if we sit here, we shall die too. Now, come, let us go over to the army
of the Arameans. If they spare our lives, we shall live; and if they
kill us, we shall but die."

So t