2 Kings 7

2 Kings 7:1

Origen of Alexandria: You will also find similar things in the times of Elisha, when the son of Jader, king of Syria, came up against Samaria and besieged it. “And there was a great famine in Samaria for so long,” Scripture says, “that a donkey’s head became worth fifty shekels of silver and a quarter of pigeon dung five pieces of silver.” But suddenly an amazing change occurs through the word of the prophet, who says, “Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: ‘Tomorrow, at this hour a measure of the finest wheat flour shall be one shekel and two measure of barley shall be one shekel, in the gates of Samaria.’ ”Notice, therefore, what is inferred from all these texts: when famine prevails over a land, not only does it not prevail over the just, but rather through them, a remedy is brought to the threatened destruction. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 16.3

Richard Challoner: A stater: It is the same as a sicle or shekel.

2 Kings 7:2

Ephrem the Syrian: Elisha said, “Tomorrow there will be relief from the siege and the famine in the city of Samaria.” But an officer of the house of king Jehoram mocked these words and derided the word [of the prophet]. Elisha answered him what the Scripture relates here. Some say that this man was the one whose story is reported by the biblical text above. He had sent to Elisha a messenger or a captain of the guard [of the king] to arrest him or to kill him but later had repented of his evil scheme and had run after him, preventing him from executing his command. This poor man, therefore, had seen the delivery of the town and the consequent abundance of which he had not profited, because on that same day the inhabitants of the city, who were coming out to plunder, had trampled him, and he had died. In his miserable fate he prefigures the fall of the people of Abraham, those who could see “the bread” of life “descended from heaven” to them but in large number were not worthy of enjoying that vivifying abundance, even though, at the same time, it was abundantly given to all those who asked for it through the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ. — ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 7:1

2 Kings 7:3

Ephrem the Syrian: Even though the four lepers are loathsome, if we symbolically recognize in them the fact that they announced goods for the inhabitants of their city, they do no wrong to the symbol but correctly represent the four holy Evangelists. Indeed, we must bear in mind that through their books the grace of our Savior and source of life Jesus Christ was known, and freedom was given to all people according to his divine plan. And so those whose flesh was leprous shone in their interior look with the splendor of their righteousness. In addition, they symbolically represent the first attitude of the apostles in the fact that leprosy had corrupted their skin. But they also represent them in the fact that their interior was adorned with righteous behavior because the old man has been transformed by the coming of the Holy Spirit and renewed. Therefore they have clothed themselves with the garment shining with the colors of heaven and have been sent to show the work of the hands of God. — ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 7:3

2 Kings 7:16

Basil of Caesarea: “The Lord brings to nothing the counsels of nations, and he rejects the devices of people.” … If you will read the things in each history that God did to the faithless nations, you will find that the statement has much force even according to our corporal intelligence. When Joram, son of Ahab, was king in Israel, then his son Ader, king of Syria, carrying on a war with a great force and a heavy hand, besieged Samaria, so that even the necessaries of life were wanting to them, and the head of a donkey was sold for fifty shekels of silver and the fourth part of a cabe of pigeon dung for five shekels of silver. At that time, therefore, in order that the promise of Elisha might be fulfilled, the counsels of Syria were brought to nothing, and abandoning their tents and all their supplies, they fled, leaving such a great abundance in Samaria that a measure of fine flour and two measures of barley were sold for one shekel. Thus, then, the Lord knew how to bring to nothing the counsels of the nations. — HOMILIES ON THE Psalms 15.(Psalms 32)