Daily Tanach Tuesday 13th Shevat, Sefer Melachim 2 Chapter 7 Part 2: The four lepers find the camp of Aram empty in their search for food

1. The four lepers find the camp of Aram empty in their search for food:

• The desperate state of starvation of the four lepers: There were four men [i.e. Geichazi and his three sons^[1]] who were stricken with leprosy who sat at the entrance gate of the city [as those stricken with leprosy had to be in seclusion and were not allowed to enter the camp^[2]]. They said to each other, “Why should we sit here until we die [from starvation]. Whether we enter the city we will die of starvation being that even in the city there is a famine, and if we remain here, we will also die [from starvation], so what do we have to lose? Let us now go and defect to the Aramean camp. If they spare us, we will live, and if they kill us, we will anyways die.”
• The four lepers’ defect to the Aramean camp and find it empty: The four lepers arose in the evening to defect to the Aramean camp. They came to the edge of the Aramean camp, and behold, no one was there.
• Hashem miraculously caused the Aramean camp to flee in fear: Now, what had caused the Arameans to flee and desert their camp? Hashem made the sound of chariots, horses, and the sound of a great army be heard by the Arameans. When they heard this imagined sound, they said to each other that surely the king of Israel had hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack them. So, they picked themselves up and fled at dusk, leaving behind their tents, their horses, and their donkeys. The camp was left in the exact state as it was when they were still there, as they fled for their lives [in a panic without time to take anything with them, not even their horses^[3]].
• The lepers enter the camp and eat and drink and help themselves to the spoils: The four lepers walked up to the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents [which they found to be empty]. They helped themselves to the food and drink that was there and ate and drank to their full content. They also carried off from the tent silver, gold, and clothing that they found, and they went and hid them [somewhere outside the camp]. They then returned to the camp and entered another tent which was also empty, and looted it as well, and they went and hid the loot that they found.
• The lepers decide to tell the Jewish people of the deserted camp and the food and spoils: The lepers said to one another, “We are not doing a proper thing [by keeping this information to ourselves and not informing the king]. This is very good news that we must bring to the king’s attention, and if we wait until the morning we will be liable for capital punishment. So, let us go and inform the king’s palace as to what we have discovered.”
• The lepers informed the gatekeepers who inform the king: The lepers returned to the Jewish camp called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them what had happened and that they had arrived to the Aramean camp, and behold it was empty without any man there. “It contained no sound of a human. The horses and donkeys were left about still tied to their stalls, and the tents were left as if the people are still living there [without having anything packed up].” The gatekeepers related all of this to the king’s palace.
• The king of Israel suspects that the Arameans created a trap to ambush them: The king arose at night and was informed of the above information. He responded to his servants cautiously, paranoid that this was a trick on the part of the Arameans to ambush them. He claimed that the Arameans were well aware that they were starving, so they left their camp to hide in the field, in wait for the Jewish people to leave the city to enter their camp in search of food and then seize them alive and enter the city to take it over. In response to the king’s claim, one of his servants suggested to him as follows, “Let us take five of the remaining horses that have survived the famine, and send them with riders to the camp and see for ourselves what has happened. Worse comes to worse, they will be killed by the Arameans and meet the same fate as everyone else in the city who is dying of starvation.”
• Riders are sent to survey the Aramean camp: The king accepted the advice of his servant, and sent two riders of horses, to survey the Aramean camp.
• The riders report that the Arameans have indeed fled in panic: The horse riders rode up until the Jordan, and throughout their ride they saw garments and vessels of the Arameans thrown onto the ground due to their fleeing in a panic [and their desire to lessen their weight so they can flee faster^[4]]. The messengers returned and related all this to the king [and the king became assured that in truth they had fled, and the food in their camp was available for the Jewish people to eat].

[1] Rashi 7:3; Sotah 47a

[2] Rashi 7:3

[3] Radak 7:6

[4] Metzudos Dovid 7:15