And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, "My father, [if] the prophet had told you [to do] something great, would you not have done [it?] How much more then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?"

"If we say, 'We will enter the city,' the famine [is] in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die."

And while he was still talking with them, there was the messenger, coming down to him; and then [the king] said, "Surely this calamity [is] from the LORD; why should I wait for the LORD any longer?"

If I go out to the field, Then behold, those slain with the sword! And if I enter the city, Then behold, those sick from famine! Yes, both prophet and priest go about in a land they do not know.' "

[Those] slain by the sword are better off Than [those] who die of hunger; For these pine away, Stricken [for lack] of the fruits of the field.