Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 7

Cheap prices at the market, as God had said

2 Kings 7:16

When at last the guards opened the city’s gate, the people rushed out. They were so desperate to obtain food that nobody could control them. It was a dangerous situation – as we shall see in verse 17, one man died in the rush.

When the people reached the camp of Aram’s soldiers, they found plenty of food. Everyone took as much as he could carry. They also took the clothes, animals and money that they found. Aram’s soldiers had left the camp, and they would not be returning. So, the people from Samaria considered that they could take these things. This was what soldiers did to their enemy’s camp after a success in battle. In the same way, Samaria’s people saw that they had won the battle for their city. Now they were collecting what they considered to be their reward.

There was much more food in the camp than the people needed. In fact, there seemed to be even more food than they could store. The people set up a market by the city’s gate in order to sell the extra grain and flour. However, now everyone had plenty of these things, so the prices soon became very cheap.

Those prices were the same prices that God told to Elisha on the previous day (7:1). At that time, it was completely impossible to buy grain or flour in Samaria at any price. People had to spend everything that they owned in order to obtain any food whatever. The food that they could buy at that time was awful; the people hated it (6:25).

Next part: The death of the official who laughed at God's message (2 Kings 7:17)

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