Haftorah M’tzora

2 Kings 7:3-20

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? 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.

And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, [there was] no man there. For the Lord had 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 said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it [was], and fled for their life.

And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, 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: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.

So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, [there was] no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they [were]. And he called the porters; and they told [it] to the king’s house within. And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we [be] hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city. And one of his servants answered and said, Let [some] take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they [are] as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, [I say], they [are] even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and see. They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.

And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way [was] full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king. And the people went out, and spoiled 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. And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him. And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria: And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, [if] the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.

Y’all know that I’m fascinated by storytelling. My whole philosophy places storytelling, and story hearing, absolutely central to who humans are and how we survive. I have just picked up a book called The Story Is True, in which a fellow named Bruce Jackson mentions a couple of applicable things right at the beginning (which is as far as I’ve read). First, there’s the title, which alludes to the important point that whether the story is telling the truth, when a story is told, there’s an important truth that the story is being told; our repetition of this story of lepers and miracles and the death of a king is what is true, and it says something about us.

The second thing follows from that, and from the nature of storytelling, the teller and the told: there is more than one story that can be told from any sequence of events. Probably an infinite number of stories, in fact. Even within the Scripture, I think there’s a very different feel for this bit than if they had decided to include the first two verses of the chapter:

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. Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, [if] the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see [it] with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

Or begin the reading at 6:24, where the city is besieged in the first place, and include the horrible stories of hunger, cannibalism and despair from chapter six. If you start at 7:1, it’s a story about Elisha and how the claims he makes in the name of the Lord come true. If you start at 6:24, it’s a story of how the Lord rescues the people from danger, with miracles and signs. If you start at 7:3, and we do, it’s a story about how some lepers saved the city, almost by accident.

Furthermore, there’s the great decision (imao) to tell about the miracle in the past perfect, if that is what I think it is. We begin with the lepers, who in their despair fill us in on the siege, and move to the empty tents of the Syrians, where we find out that a miracle has already taken place, to empty that encampment. We get filled in on the Syrian reaction, the story they tell themselves (in error) about the sounds they heard. The lepers tell their story in the city, and it is interpreted different ways, well and badly. It’s bracketed by the paired images of the empty tents and the king-trampling crowd at the gate, which is lovely and horrible, like the rest of the story.

What is this story about? Is it about the weakness of kings? The power of prophets? The value of the outcast? What does it tell us about the relationship of the Divine to the inhabitants of the city, many of whom are killed before the miracle occurs? What does it tell us about our own ability to interpret signs and wonders, stories and Scripture?

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.