Antiquities of the Jews — Book 9, Chapter 4

1. Jehoshapat had a good number of children; but he appointed his eldest
son Jehoram to be his successor, who had the same name with his mother's
brother, that was king of Israel, and the son of Ahab. Now when the king
of Israel was come out of the land of Moab to Samaria, he had with him
Elisha the prophet, whose acts I have a mind to go over particularly,
for they were illustrious, and worthy to be related, as we have them set
down in the sacred books.

2. For they say that the widow of Obadiah 7 Ahab's steward, came to him,
and said, that he was not ignorant how her husband had preserved the
prophets that were to be slain by Jezebel, the wife of Ahab; for she
said that he hid a hundred of them, and had borrowed money for their
maintenance, and that, after her husband's death, she and her children
were carried away to be made slaves by the creditors; and she desired of
him to have mercy upon her on account of what her husband did, and
afford her some assistance. And when he asked her what she had in the
house, she said, "Nothing but a very small quantity of oil in a cruse."
So the prophet bid her go away, and borrow a great many empty vessels of
her neighbors, and when she had shut her chamber door, to pour the oil
into them all; for that God would fill them full. And when the woman had
done what she was commanded to do, and bade her children bring every one
of the vessels, and all were filled, and not one left empty, she came to
the prophet, and told him that they were all full; upon which he advised
her to go away, and sell the oil, and pay the creditors what was owing
them, for that there would be some surplus of the price of the oil,
which she might make use of for the maintenance of her children. And
thus did Elisha discharge the woman's debts, and free her from the
vexation of her creditors.

3. Elisha also sent a hasty message to Joram, 8 and exhorted him to take
care of that place, for that therein were some Syrians lying in ambush
to kill him. So the king did as the prophet exhorted him, and avoided
his going a hunting. And when Benhadad missed of the success of his
lying in ambush, he was wroth with his own servants, as if they had
betrayed his ambushment to Joram; and he sent for them, and said they
were the betrayers of his secret counsels; and he threatened that he
would put them to death, since such their practice was evident, because
he had intrusted this secret to none but them, and yet it was made known
to his enemy. And one that was present said that he should not mistake
himself, nor suspect that they had discovered to his enemy his sending
men to kill him, but that he ought to know that it was Elisha the
prophet who discovered all to him, and laid open all his counsels. So he
gave order that they should send some to learn in what city Elisha
dwelt. Accordingly those that were sent brought word that he was in
Dothan; wherefore Benhadad sent to that city a great army, with horses
and chariots, to take Elisha: so they encompassed the city round about
by night, and kept him therein confined; but when the prophet's servant
in the morning perceived this, and that his enemies sought to take
Elisha, he came running, and crying out after a disordered manner to
him, and told him of it; but he encouraged him, and bid him not be
afraid, and to despise the enemy, and trust in the assistance of God,
and was himself without fear; and he besought God to make manifest to
his servant his power and presence, so far as was possible, in order to
the inspiring him with hope and courage. Accordingly God heard the
prayer of the prophet, and made the servant see a multitude of chariots
and horses encompassing Elisha, till he laid aside his fear, and his
courage revived at the sight of what he supposed was come to their
assistance. After this Elisha did further entreat God, that he would dim
the eyes of their enemies, and cast a mist before them, whereby they
might not discern him. When this was done, he went into the midst of his
enemies, and asked them who it was that they came to seek; and when they
replied, "The prophet Elisha," he promised he would deliver him to them,
if they would follow him to the city where he was. So these men were so
darkened by God in their sight and in their mind, that they followed him
very diligently; and when Elisha had brought them to Samaria, he ordered
Joram the king to shut the gates, and to place his own army round about
them; and prayed to God to clear the eyes of these their enemies, and
take the mist from before them. Accordingly, when they were freed from
the obscurity they had been in, they saw themselves in the midst of
their enemies; and as the Syrians were strangely amazed and distressed,
as was but reasonable, at an action so Divine and surprising, and as
king Joram asked the prophet if he would give him leave to shoot at
them, Elisha forbade him so to do; and said, that "it is just to kill
those that are taken in battle, but that these men had done the country
no harm, but, without knowing it, were come thither by the Divine
Power:"—so that his counsel was to treat them in a hospitable manner at
his table, and then send them away without hurting them. 9 Wherefore
Joram obeyed the prophet; and when he had feasted the Syrians in a
splendid and magnificent manner, he let them go to Benhadad their king.

4. Now when these men were come back, and had showed Benhadad how
strange an accident had befallen them, and what an appearance and power
they had experienced of the God of Israel, he wondered at it, as also at
that prophet with whom God was so evidently present; so he determined to
make no more secret attempts upon the king of Israel, out of fear of
Elisha, but resolved to make open war with them, as supposing he could
be too hard for his enemies by the multitude of his army and power. So
he made an expedition with a great army against Joram, who, not thinking
himself a match for him, shut himself up in Samaria, and depended on the
strength of its walls; but Benhadad supposed he should take the city, if
not by his engines of war, yet that he should overcome the Samaritans by
famine, and the want of necessaries, and brought his army upon them, and
besieged the city; and the plenty of necessaries was brought so low with
Joram, that from the extremity of want an ass's head was sold in Samaria
for fourscore pieces of silver, and the Hebrews bought a sextary of
dore's dung, instead of salt, for five pieces of silver. Now Joram was
in fear lest somebody should betray the city to the enemy, by reason of
the famine, and went every day round the walls and the guards to see
whether any such were concealed among them; and by being thus seen, and
taking such care, he deprived them of the opportunity of contriving any
such thing; and if they had a mind to do it, he, by this means,
prevented them: but upon a certain woman's crying out, "Have pity on me,
my lord," while he thought that she was about to ask for somewhat to
eat, he imprecated God's curse upon her, and said he had neither
thrashing-floor nor wine-press, whence he might give her any thing at
her petition. Upon which she said she did not desire his aid in any such
thing, nor trouble him about food, but desired that he would do her
justice as to another woman. And when he bade her say on, and let him
know what she desired, she said she had made an agreement with the other
woman who was her neighbor and her friend, that because the famine and
want was intolerable, they should kill their children, each of them
having a son of their own, "and we will live upon them ourselves for two
days, the one day upon one son, and the other day upon the other; and,"
said she, "I have killed my son the first day, and we lived upon my son
yesterday; but this other woman will not do the same thing, but hath
broken her agreement, and hath hid her son." This story mightily grieved
Joram when he heard it; so he rent his garment, and cried out with a
loud voice, and conceived great wrath against Elisha the prophet, and
set himself eagerly to have him slain, because he did not pray to God to
provide them some exit and way of escape out of the miseries with which
they were surrounded; and sent one away immediately to cut off his head,
who made haste to kill the prophet. But Elisha was not unacquainted with
the wrath of the king against him; for as he sat in his house by
himself, with none but his disciples about him, he told them that Joram,
10 who was the son of a murderer, had sent one to take away his head;
"but," said he, "when he that is commanded to do this comes, take care
that you do not let him come in, but press the door against him, and
hold him fast there, for the king himself will follow him, and come to
me, having altered his mind." Accordingly, they did as they were bidden,
when he that was sent by the king to kill Elisha came. But Joram
repented of his wrath against the prophet; and for fear he that was
commanded to kill him should have done it before he came, he made haste
to hinder his slaughter, and to save the prophet: and when he came to
him, he accused him that he did not pray to God for their deliverance
from the miseries they now lay under, but saw them so sadly destroyed by
them. Hereupon Elisha promised, that the very next day, at the very same
hour in which the king came to him, they should have great plenty of
food, and that two seahs of barley should be sold in the market for a
shekel, and a seah of fine flour should be sold for a shekel. This
prediction made Joram, and those that were present, very joyful, for
they did not scruple believing what the prophet said, on account of the
experience they had of the truth of his former predictions; and the
expectation of plenty made the want they were in that day, with the
uneasiness that accompanied it, appear a light thing to them: but the
captain of the third band, who was a friend of the king, and on whose
hand the king leaned, said, "Thou talkest of incredible things, O
prophet! for as it is impossible for God to pour down torrents of
barley, or fine flour, out of heaven, so is it impossible that what thou
sayest should come to pass." To which the prophet made this reply," Thou
shalt see these things come to pass, but thou shalt not be in the least
a partaker of them."

5. Now what Elisha had thus foretold came to pass in the manner
following: There was a law at Samaria 11 that those that had the
leprosy, and whose bodies were not cleansed from it, should abide
without the city: and there were four men that on this account abode
before the gates, while nobody gave them any food, by reason of the
extremity of the famine; and as they were prohibited from entering into
the city by the law, and they considered that if they were permitted to
enter, they should miserably perish by the famine; as also, that if they
staid where they were, they should suffer in the same manner,—they
resolved to deliver themselves up to the enemy, that in case they should
spare them, they should live; but if they should be killed, that would
be an easy death. So when they had confirmed this their resolution, they
came by night to the enemy's camp. Now God had begun to affright and
disturb the Syrians, and to bring the noise of chariots and armor to
their ears, as though an army were coming upon them, and had made them
suspect that it was coming nearer and nearer to them In short, they were
in such a dread of this army, that they left their tents, and ran
together to Benhadad, and said that Joram the king of Israel had hired
for auxiliaries both the king of Egypt and the king of the Islands, and
led them against them for they heard the noise of them as they were
coming. And Benhadad believed what they said [for there came the same
noise to his ears as well as it did to theirs]; so they fell into a
mighty disorder and tumult, and left their horses and beasts in their
camp, with immense riches also, and betook themselves to flight. And
those lepers who had departed from Samaria, and were gone to the camp of
the Syrians, of whom we made mention a little before, when they were in
the camp, saw nothing but great quietness and silence: accordingly they
entered into it, and went hastily into one of their tents; and when they
saw nobody there, they eat and drank, and carried garments, and a great
quantity of gold, and hid it out of the camp; after which they went into
another tent, and carried off what was in it, as they did at the former,
and this did they for several times, without the least interruption from
any body. So they gathered thereby that the enemies were departed;
whereupon they reproached themselves that they did not inform Joram and
the citizens of it. So they came to the walls of Samaria, and called
aloud to the watchmen, and told them in what state the enemies were, as
did these tell the king's guards, by whose means Joram came to know of
it; who then sent for his friends, and the captains of his host, and
said to them, that he suspected that this departure of the king of Syria
was by way of ambush and treachery, and that, "out of despair of ruining
you by famine, when you imagine them to be fled away, you may come out
of the city to spoil their camp, and he may then fall upon you on a
sudden, and may both kill you, and take the city without fighting;
whence it is that I exhort you to guard the city carefully, and by no
means to go out of it, or proudly to despise your enemies, as though
they were really gone away." And when a certain person said that he did
very well and wisely to admit such a suspicion, but that he still
advised him to send a couple of horsemen to search all the country as
far as Jordan, that "if they were seized by an ambush of the enemy, they
might be a security to your army, that they may not go out as if they
suspected nothing, nor undergo the like misfortune; and," said he,
"those horsemen may be numbered among those that have died by the
famine, supposing they be caught and destroyed by the enemy." So the
king was pleased with this opinion, and sent such as might search out
the truth, who performed their journey over a road that was without any
enemies, but found it full of provisions, and of weapons, that they had
therefore thrown away, and left behind them, in order to their being
light and expeditious in their flight. When the king heard this, he sent
out the multitude to take the spoils of the camp; which gains of theirs
were not of things of small value, but they took a great quantity of
gold, and a great quantity of silver, and flocks of all kinds of cattle.
They also possessed themselves of [so many] ten thousand measures of
wheat and barley, as they never in the least dreamed of; and were not
only freed from their former miseries, but had such plenty, that two
seahs of barley were bought for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a
shekel, according to the prophecy of Elisha. Now a seah is equal to an
Italian modius and a half. The captain of the third band was the only
man that received no benefit by this plenty; for as he was appointed by
the king to oversee the gate, that he might prevent the too great crowd
of the multitude, and they might not endanger one another to perish, by
treading on one another in the press, he suffered himself in that very
way, and died in that very manner, as Elisha had foretold such his
death, when he alone of them all disbelieved what he said concerning
that plenty of provisions which they should soon have.

6. Hereupon, when Benhadad, the king of Syria, had escaped to Damascus,
and understood that it was God himself that cast all his army into this
fear and disorder, and that it did not arise from the invasion of
enemies, he was mightily cast down at his having God so greatly for his
enemy, and fell into a distemper. Now it happened that Elisha the
prophet, at that time, was gone out of his own country to Damascus, of
which Benhadad was informed: he sent Hazael, the most faithful of all
his servants, to meet him, and to carry him presents, and bade him
inquire of him about his distemper, and whether he should escape the
danger that it threatened. So Hazael came to Elisha with forty camels,
that carried the best and most precious fruits that the country of
Damascus afforded, as well as those which the king's palace supplied. He
saluted him kindly, and said that he was sent to him by king Benhadad,
and brought presents with him, in order to inquire concerning his
distemper, whether he should recover from it or not. Whereupon the
prophet bid him tell the king no melancholy news; but still he said he
would die. So the king's servant was troubled to hear it; and Elisha
wept also, and his tears ran down plenteously at his foresight of what
miseries his people would undergo after the death of Benhadad. And when
Hazael asked him what was the occasion of this confusion he was in, he
said that he wept out of his commiseration for the multitude of the
Israelites, and what terrible miseries they will suffer by thee; "for
thou wilt slay the strongest of them, and wilt burn their strongest
cities, and wilt destroy their children, and dash them against the
stones, and wilt rip up their women with child." And when Hazael said,
"How can it be that I should have power enough to do such things?" the
prophet replied, that God had informed him that he should be king of
Syria. So when Hazael was come to Benhadad, he told him good news
concerning his distemper 12 but on the next day he spread a wet cloth,
in the nature of a net, over him, and strangled him, and took his
dominion. He was an active man, and had the good-will of the Syrians,
and of the people of Damascus, to a great degree; by whom both Benhadad
himself, and Hazael, who ruled after him, are honored to this day as
gods, by reason of their benefactions, and their building them temples
by which they adorned the city of the Damascenes. They also every day do
with great pomp pay their worship to these kings, 13 and value
themselves upon their antiquity; nor do they know that these kings are
much later than they imagine, and that they are not yet eleven hundred
years old. Now when Joram, the king of Israel, heard that Benhadad was
dead, he recovered out of the terror and dread he had been in on his
account, and was very glad to live in peace.