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2 Kings 7 · a question people ask

Why did the captain die?

In the text

The chapter tells what happened and sets it beside what was said. The captain asked, "if the LORD made windows in heaven, could this thing be?", and Elisha answered, "you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it" (7:2). The king put him "in charge of the gate" (7:17), where the flour was to be sold (7:1), and the people trampled him there and he died (7:17, 7:20), "as the man of God had said" (7:17). Then the chapter tells the captain's question and Elisha's answer again (7:18-19), and ends, "It happened like that to him" (7:20). It puts his words and his end side by side and gives no other reason. These notes don't add one.

The verses

“Elisha said, “Hear the LORD’s word. The LORD says, ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’” Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, “Behold, if the LORD made windows in heaven, could this thing be?” He said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.””
2 Kings 7:1-2 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Kings 7

2 Kings 7: A day of good news

The captain called the LORD's word "this thing" (7:2): in Hebrew, the same noun, davar. The four men and the fleeing Syrians both rose in the twilight (7:5, 7:7). And besorah, the four men's "good news" (7:9), comes only six times in the Hebrew Bible; the other five are all in 2 Samuel, all news for King David (2 Samuel 4:10, 18:20-27).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions