Bible Strands
2 Kings 7:5
So they arose at twilight and went to the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the outskirts of the camp, there was not a man to be found.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Four starving lepers, having decided to surrender to the Aramean camp rather than die in Samaria, rise and approach the enemy's perimeter at dusk.
The words — וַיָּקֻמוּ (va-yāqûmû) means "and they arose," and בַּנֶּשֶׁף (ba-nešeḇ) denotes the specific moment of "twilight" or evening.
The thread — The sudden abandonment of a military camp follows directly from the divine terror described in 2 Kings 7:6 and parallels the promised rout of hostile armies in Deuteronomy 28:7.
Why it lands — It demands recognition that desperate human action meets divine intervention, requiring the reader to trust that God's unseen work precedes visible relief.
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 they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 28:7 The LORD will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you in one direction but flee from you in seven.
- Leviticus 27:8 But if the one making the vow is too poor to pay the valuation, he is to present the person before the priest, who shall set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford.
- Leviticus 27:26 But no one may consecrate a firstborn of the livestock, because a firstborn belongs to the LORD. Whether it is an ox or a sheep, it is the LORD’s.
- Deuteronomy 32:25 Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man.
- Deuteronomy 32:30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- 1 Samuel 30:17 And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man escaped, except four hundred young men who fled, riding off on camels.
- Ezekiel 12:6 And as they watch, lift your bags to your shoulder and take them out at dusk; cover your face so that you cannot see the land. For I have made you a sign to the house of Israel.”
- Ezekiel 12:12 And at dusk the prince among them will lift his bags to his shoulder and go out. They will dig through the wall to bring him out. He will cover his face so he cannot see the land.