A reading from the book of Second Kings.

But Elisha said,

Hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord.

Tomorrow about this time a silla of fine flower shall be sold for a shekel,

and two sias of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.

Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God,

If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be? But he said,

You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Now there were four men who were

lepers at the entrance to the gate, and they said to one another, why are we sitting here until we

die? If we say, let us enter the city,

the famine is in the city and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come,

let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives, we shall live, and if they

kill us, we shall but die. So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians, but when they came to the

edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the

Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one

another, behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt

to come against us. So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses,

and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. And when these lepers

came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver

and gold and clothing and went and hid them.

Then they came back and entered another tent, and carried off things from it, and went and hit them.

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