What Does 2 Kings 7:1 Mean?
Then Elisha said, Hear and respond to the word of the LORD. Thus says the LORD, About this time tomorrow a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.THE KEY
The word Elisha announces is already concrete enough to count: tomorrow’s change has a grain measure, a price, and a public gate.
THE MEANING
When shortage seems to have fixed what comes next, this verse opens a future named before it is visible. The change is concrete, measured grain at a stated price in a public place, so provision takes a form people can see and share.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that present scarcity has already decided what tomorrow can hold.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; a spoken word, matter, or thing.
This root can name both speech and a matter or thing. Here, “the word” points toward a market condition with actual grain, measure, price, and place: the promise already has material shape.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke or declared.
דִּבֵּר
The spoken declaration names the conditions that will be visible at the gate.
devarim: The plural of davar, used for words, matters, or things.
דְּבָרִים
The same word-family can carry speech and concrete matters, joining the announcement to the coming market change.
שִׁמְעוּ
shimʿū
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, heed, or respond.
“Hear and respond” in this verse is shimʿū. The Hebrew root can mean hearing with heed, while שְׁמוּעָה (shemuʿah, “report; news”) is a report from the same root. Elisha’s opening frames the prophecy as consequential news: it concerns what the grain market will actually show.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: To hear or give heed.
שָׁמַע
The imperative calls for more than sound to reach the ear; it calls for the announcement to be received.
shemuʿah: A report or piece of news.
שְׁמוּעָה
The promised change arrives first as news, before it appears in the public market.
THE PATTERN
A spoken promise names provision before visible conditions change, and that provision becomes public and measurable.
I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, At evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread, and you shall perceive that I am the LORD your God.For he sates the thirsting living soul, and fills the hungry living soul with goodness.He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.THE THREAD
And the people went out, and plundered the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.The same Hebrew noun דָּבָר (dābār, “word; matter”) appears in both verses: first it is what the city is told to hear, then the market changes “according to the word of the LORD.” The root links the announcement to the material reality of the flour, barley, and price spoken in advance.
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