Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate, and they said to one another, “Why just sit here until we die?
Parallel translations
- WEB Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. They said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die?
- KJV And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?
- NKJV Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die?
- NASB Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die?
- NLT Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Four lepers at the gate reason that staying means certain death. Their desperation drives them toward an unlikely deliverance.
Overview
Excluded from the city by their disease, the lepers face starvation either way. Their plain reckoning, 'Why do we sit here until we die?', moves them to act. God will use these outcasts, the lowest in society, as the first to discover salvation. It shows the Lord working deliverance through the marginal and despised.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Lev 13:45–46A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’
- Num 5:2–4“Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
- 2 Kgs 7:4If we say, ‘Let us go into the city,’ we will die there from the famine in the city; but if we sit here, we will also die. So come now, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they let us live, we will live; if they kill us, we will die.”
- Num 12:14But the LORD answered Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.”
- 2 Kgs 5:1Now Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly regarded, for through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. And he was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
- 2 Kgs 8:4Now the king had been speaking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Please relate to me all the great things Elisha has done.”
- Jer 8:14Why are we just sitting here? Gather together, let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
- Jer 27:13Why should you and your people die by sword and famine and plague, as the LORD has decreed against any nation that does not serve the king of Babylon?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Amid the long decline toward exile, the promise to David's house refuses to die; the flickering lamp kept burning anticipates the coming King who will not fail or be cut off.
How 2 Kings 7:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.