2 Kings 7:4
If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.
The verse records the reasoning of four starving lepers shut outside besieged Samaria when famine had brought the city to the last extremity. They saw death as certain if they stayed where they were and certain if they went into the city, since the famine was in the city. They therefore resolved as a last resort to surrender to the Syrians, reckoning that if spared they would live and if killed they would only die as they otherwise must. Their venture ended in deliverance from starvation, for the Lord had driven the Syrians away in panic at a noise as of a mighty host, leaving food and supplies that relieved Samaria and fulfilled Elisha's foretold plenty. As men who found food and news of deliverance while others starved, those who have received salvation must urgently share it with those facing death without hope, for their leprosy pictures sin infecting the whole fallen race.
The Lepers' Desperate Choice
Four leprous, starving men sat outside Samaria at the entering in of the gate while the city was besieged by the Syrians and reduced by severe famine to the last extremity. They saw death as certain on both familiar courses, for if they entered the city they would die there because the famine was in the city, and if they sat still where they were they would die also. They therefore chose as a last resort to fall unto the host of the Syrians, reasoning that if the Syrians saved them alive they should live, and if they killed them they should but die, no worse than they otherwise would. Their choice was a desperate but rational attempt to live, hoping against hope that the Syrians might spare them and give them food from starvation.
Their leprosy was incurable by any medicinal art or skill, curable by divine power alone. The verse stands at the beginning of a history running from Joram king of Israel through Jehu, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea, when Israel ended by invasion under Shalmaneser of Assyria completed by Sargon with the tribes carried into captivity and scattered, covering nearly 300 years. That span includes in Judah the reigns of Ahaziah, Athaliah, Joash, Amaziah, Azariah or Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and Jehoahaz, including the about sixty-year ministry of Elisha ending with his death under Jehoash in 796 B.C., with Hosea, Jonah, and Amos prophesying in Israel and Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Nahum in Judah, where righteous faithful rule brought prosperity and turning to gross idolatry brought calamity upon rulers and people.
The four leprous men picture fallen humanity, with leprosy meaning sin lying deep within and infecting the entire race of man. Man is fallen and depraved, proved by the experience of every candid man, by criminal codes and courts and jails and prisons, and by a history that with comparatively few faithful exceptions shining as beacon lights is crime and rebellion against God the rightful sovereign. The tendency to evil has ruled ever since the first transgression brought death into the world with all its woe, and the tide of iniquity grows more powerful as history advances. Sin has caused every pang that ever wrung the human heart, desolating happy Eden-like homes and blasting the fair character of individuals and families into wreck and ruin.
Deliverance Found and Shared
Their venture ended in rescue from starvation, for when they cautiously approached the enemy camp they found it deserted and came upon the provisions God had made available for Samaria. The camp lay empty because the Lord had caused the Syrians to hear a sound as of a mighty host coming in battle array, so that they fled in haste and left food and supplies behind, and by those supplies Samaria's famine was relieved. Their going began the discovery that the Syrians had fled, and their report brought Samaria into the plenty Elisha had foretold, proving that God works for His people and that His word is fulfilled literally despite human unbelief.
As they found food and tidings of deliverance while others still starved, their story shows that those who discover good things must tell others rather than keep them to themselves. So those who have received the good news of salvation must not keep it to themselves but must urgently share it with those who face death without hope. The verse belongs to the reading portion of 2 Kings 4-11. Beyond that placement no further meaning or application is given.