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To-morrow about this time - This was in reply to the desponding language of the king, and to vindicate himself from the charge of being author of this calamity. See the end of the preceding chapter, 2 Kings 6:33; (note).

A measure of fine flour - for a shekel - A seah of fine flour: the seah was about two gallons and a half; the shekel, two shillings and four-pence at the lowest computation. A wide difference between this and the price of the ass's head mentioned above.

The division between the chapters is most awkward here. Elisha, in this verse, replies to the king‘s challenge in 2 Kings 6:33 - that his God, Yahweh, will give deliverance in the space of a day. On the morrow, by the same time in the day, the famine will have ceased, and food will be even cheaper than usual.

A measure of fine flour - literally, “a seah of fine flour;” about a peck and a half.

For a shekel - About 2 shillings 8 12 d.

Two measures of burley - Or, “two seahs of barley;” about three pecks.

In the gate - The “gates,” or “gateways,” of Eastern towns are favorite places for the despatch of various kinds of business. It would seem that at Samaria one of the gates was used for the grain market.

For a time after this, Israel was free from the attacks of the Syrians. But later, under the energetic direction of a determined king, Hazael, the Syrian hosts surrounded Samaria and besieged it. Never had Israel been brought into so great a strait as during this siege. The sins of the fathers were indeed being visited upon the children and the children's children. The horrors of prolonged famine were driving the king of Israel to desperate measures, when Elisha predicted deliverance the following day. PK 258.1

As the next morning was about to dawn, the Lord “made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host;” and they, seized with fear, “arose and fled in the twilight,” leaving “their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was,” with rich stores of food. They “fled for their life,” not tarrying until after the Jordan had been crossed. PK 258.2

During the night of the flight, four leprous men at the gate of the city, made desperate by hunger, had proposed to visit the Syrian camp and throw themselves upon the mercy of the besiegers, hoping thereby to arouse sympathy and obtain food. What was their astonishment when, entering the camp, they found “no man there.” With none to molest or forbid, “they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace.” Quickly they returned to the city with the glad news. PK 258.3