Bible Strands
2 Kings 7:12
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.’”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The king rises at night to address his servants after the gatekeepers report the news of the abandoned Aramean camp. He proposes a specific interpretation of their departure to explain the sudden famine relief.
The words — וַיָּקָם (va/yāqôm) means "and he arose," and אַגִּידָה (ʾaggîdâh) translates literally to "let me tell." These terms frame the king’s sudden nocturnal initiative and his attempt to explain the situation.
The thread — The king’s suspicion of an ambush mirrors the tactical deception in Joshua 8:4, while his acknowledgment of starvation directly echoes the siege conditions recorded in 2 Kings 6:25.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to recognize how fear and desperation can distort perception of divine intervention. It demands a sober assessment of whether human strategy or God’s provision dictates the outcome.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 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.
- 2 Kings 6:25 So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.