2 Kings 7

1 a measure of fine flour for a shekel, etc. That is, about a peck of fine flour for half-a-crown, and two pecks of barley for the same.

in the gate. Where the market was held.

2 if the Lord, etc. The language, it is plain, of incredulous scorn, with apparent allusion to the expression in Gen. vii. 11.

3 at the entering in of the gate. Lepers were excluded by law from walled cities and towns, as they had been from the camp during the journeys in the wilderness (Lev. xiii. 46).

6. Hittites. See note on 1 Kings x. 29.

Egyptians. This is now generally understood to be a mistranslation, the original word being Muzrim (a tribe in Cappadocia, and therefore neighbours of the Hittites in the North) and not Mizrim (Egyptian).

10 porter. Or, “guard,” which, as the next clause implies, was composed of more than one sentinel.

13 behold, they are, etc. The meaning is, “If the men sent out to reconnoitre be taken and slain by the Syrians, they meet with no worse fate than those who are still left in the city to encounter death by famine.” Some Hebrew manuscripts (and the Septuagint) omit the first clause in the parenthesis, “behold . . . in it.”

14 two chariot horses. Or, “two teams of horses” (yoked to two chariots): see R.V. Moffatt has “two men on horseback.”

17 charge of the gate. Holding this post, he seemed less likely than others to lose the benefit of the promised plenty.

the people trode upon him. In their eagerness to reach the Syrian camp and share in its spoils.