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2 Kings 7:12

in 2 Kings 7

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 field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will take them alive and enter the city.’”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city.

KJV

And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city.

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This verse in 2 Kings 7

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

He knew no reason the Syrians had to fly, for it does not appear that he or any of this attendants heard the noise of the chariots which the Syrians were frightened at. Let not those who, like him, are unstable in all their ways, think to receive any thing from God; nay, a guilty conscience fears the worst and makes men suspicious.

This site's exposition

called unto the porter of the city

on 2 Kings 7:10-12

Word passes in three quick steps: the lepers call to the porter of the city, the porter calls the porters, and the king's house hears it from within. The king's first reaction is not faith but calculation, a trap set by starving Syrians hiding in the field to catch Israel outside the walls once hunger drives the people out. Matthew Henry reads the suspicion as the mark of a mind unstable in all its ways, expecting to receive nothing good from God even when the report is true. The same king who tore his robes and blamed Elisha for the famine one chapter earlier still cannot trust deliverance when it is standing at the gate.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And the king arose in the night,....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

the king . . . said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians have done--Similar stratagems have been so often resorted to in the ancient and modern wars of the East that there is no wonder Jehoram's suspicions were awakened.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

The king arose in the night - This king had made a noble defense; he seems to have shared in all the sufferings of the besieged, and to have been ever at his post. Even in vile Ahab there were some good things!
His servants - i. e., “high officers of the household,” not mere domestics. I will shew you what the Syrians have done - Jehoram sees in the deserted camp a stratagem like that connected with the taking of Ai Josh. 8:3-19. The suspicion was a very natural one, since the Israelites knew of no reason why the Syrians should have raised the siege.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

We are starving. And long to go out to the loot and to the food. 4 Their enemy figured that the Bnei Yisroel are desperately starving and will therefore leave the city without first investigating whether the enemy is waiting in ambush.—Metzudas Dovid
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on II Kings 7:12:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
That are left in it [the city]. Within the city, that did not die of hunger.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on II Kings 7:13:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

33 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיָּ֨קָםand he arose

    vaiyakomH6965 →628 times

  • הַמֶּ֜לֶךְthe king

    hamelekhH4428 →2525 times

  • לַ֗יְלָהnight

    laylahH3915 →233 times

  • וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙and he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • עֲבָדָ֔יוservants his

    ʾavadavH5650 →799 times

  • אַגִּֽידָה־let me tell

    ʾagidah-H5046 →370 times

  • נָּ֣אplease

    na'H4994 →404 times

  • לָכֶ֔םto you

    lakhem

  • אֵ֛ת<obj.>

    ʾetH853 →10935 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־[that] which

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • עָ֥שׂוּthey have done

    ʾasuH6213 →2628 times

  • לָ֖נוּto us

    lanu

  • אֲרָ֑םAram

    ʾaramH758 →143 times

  • יָדְע֞וּthey know

    yadeuH3045 →945 times

  • כִּי־that

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • רְעֵבִ֣ים[are] hungry

    reevimH7457 →

  • אֲנַ֗חְנוּwe

    ʾanachnuH587 →120 times

  • וַיֵּצְא֤וּand they have gone out

    vaiyetzeuH3318 →1067 times

  • מִן־from

    min-H4480 →1188 times

  • הַֽמַּחֲנֶה֙the camp

    hamachanehH4264 →215 times

  • לְהֵחָבֵ֤הto hide themselves

    lehechavehH2247 →

  • בַשָּׂדֶה֙in open country

    vehasadehH7704 →334 times

  • לֵאמֹ֔ר<to> saying

    lemorH559 →5305 times

  • כִּֽי־that

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • יֵצְא֤וּthey will come out

    yetzeuH3318 →1067 times

  • מִן־from

    min-H4480 →1188 times

  • הָעִיר֙the city

    hairH5892 →1090 times

  • וְנִתְפְּשֵׂ֣םand we will seize them

    venitpesemH8610 →65 times

  • חַיִּ֔יםalive

    chaiyimH2416 →498 times

  • וְאֶל־and into

    veel-H413 →5510 times

  • הָעִ֖ירthe city

    hairH5892 →1090 times

  • נָבֹֽא׃we will go

    navo'H935 →2568 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

2 in all, six open

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Joshua 8:4

    with these orders: “Pay attention. You are to lie in ambush behind the city, not too far from it. All of you must be ready.

    it leads to

    • Judges 20:29

      So Israel set up an ambush around Gibeah.

    • 1 Samuel 15:2

      This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they ambushed them on their way up from Egypt.

    • Acts 23:21

      Do not let them persuade you, because more than forty men are waiting to ambush him. They have bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him; they…

    • Ecclesiastes 7:19

      Wisdom makes the wise man stronger than ten rulers in a city.

    • Judges 9:25

      The leaders of Shechem set up an ambush against Abimelech on the hilltops, and they robbed all who passed by them on the road. So this was reported to Abimelech.

About 2 Kings

Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
2 Kings: the study guide →Read 2 Kings 7 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

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