2 Kings 7:4

If we say, ‘Let us go into the city,’ we will die there from the famine in the city; but if we sit here, we will also die. So come now, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they let us live, we will live; if they kill us, we will die.”

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — Four leprous men stationed at the city gate address one another during a siege while weighing their options. They propose abandoning their current position to approach the Aramean camp as their only remaining course of action.

The words — The Hebrew אִם (‘im) means “if,” structuring their conditional logic, while נָבוֹא (nāḇōʾ) translates to “we will enter,” marking their intended movement. וָמַתְנוּ (wā-māṯnû) means “and we will die,” establishing the certainty of death regardless of their choice.

The thread — This trapped dynamic appears in Jeremiah 14:18, where going out or entering the city yields only death. 2 Samuel 14:14 and Esther 4:16 similarly present scenarios where human agency meets the inevitability of mortality.

Why it lands — The verse records a moment of calculated desperation where all known paths lead to death. It requires the reader to recognize that intractable circumstances force action not because safety is assured, but because inaction guarantees the same 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

If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 14:18 If I go out to the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I enter the city, I see those ravaged by famine! For both prophet and priest travel to a land they do not know.’”
2 Samuel 14:14 For we will surely die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life, but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.
Esther 4:16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”
Jonah 3:9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”
Luke 15:17 Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food, but here I am, starving to death!
Jeremiah 8:14 Why are we just sitting here? Gather together, let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
Jeremiah 37:13 But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, seized him and said, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”
Hebrews 9:27 Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,
1 Chronicles 12:19 Some from Manasseh defected to David when he went with the Philistines to fight against Saul. (They did not help the Philistines because the Philistine rulers consulted and sent David away, saying, “It will cost us our heads if he defects to his master Saul.”)