Was the famine in II Kings 8:1 the same famine as in Samaria in II Kings 6:24-31? Did the famine in II Kings 8:1 include all the land of Israel?<\/p>\n\t
The first few chapters of II Kings are a bit difficult to place into a timeline because often the name of the current king is not mentioned. For example, while we know that it was Ben-Hadad who besieged Samaria in II Kings 6-7, the name of the king of Israel is not mentioned. Most likely it was Joram, son of Ahab. The wound that leads to his death is mentioned in II Kings 8:28-29 and he is killed by an arrow shot by Jehu in II Kings 9:24.<\/p>\n
The event, related at the beginning of chapter 8, explains how the Shunammite woman ended up bringing a petition to the king of Israel. She was warned that there would be a seven-year famine in the land, so she left with her family to dwell in the land of the Philistines. At the end of the seven years, she returned, but during the time she lost control over her land. She just happened to come before the king while Elisha’s servant was telling the king about how Elisha had restored to life a child of a Shunammite woman. It is implied that this is more than just mere coincidence. The king restored her lands and all back payments.<\/p>\n
Thus her leaving Israel had happened seven years prior, so it is likely the severe famine mentioned in II Kings 6 is the same famine. There isn’t enough time in Joram and Ben-Hadad’s reigns to allow for two sequential famines when one lasted seven years.<\/p>\n
Most of these events are taking place around the valley of Jezreel. This valley was Israel’s primary farmland, so drought here would affect all of Israel. The fact that the Shunammite woman went all the way into the land of the Philistines from the valley of Jezreel does indicate that it was an extensive famine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Was the famine in II Kings 8:1 the same famine as in Samaria in II Kings 6:24-31? Did the famine in II Kings 8:1 include all the land of Israel? Answer: The first few chapters of II Kings are a bit difficult to place into a timeline because often the name of the current…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[279,1128],"class_list":["post-20226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-history","tag-ii-kings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2160,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-in-the-bible-did-a-jewish-woman-become-queen\/","url_meta":{"origin":20226,"position":0},"title":"Where in the Bible did a Jewish woman become queen?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What chapter in the Bible did a Jewish woman become queen? Answer: Actually, Jewish queens are mentioned in several places. Athaliah made herself queen of Judah after her son's death by killing all her grandsons (though she ended up missing one). See\u00a0II Kings 8:26;\u00a0II Kings 11:1-16;\u00a0II Chronicles 22:10-23:21. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27790,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-was-the-name-of-the-son-of-the-shunammite\/","url_meta":{"origin":20226,"position":1},"title":"What was the name of the son of the Shunammite?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What was the boy's name in II Kings who died and then sneezed seven times? Answer: The Shunammite woman is mentioned in II Kings 4:8-37 and II Kings 8:1-6 and she is never referred to by name, nor is the name of her husband or son given. It really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20313,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-ahaziah-begin-to-reign-in-the-eleventh-or-twelfth-year-of-jorams-reign\/","url_meta":{"origin":20226,"position":2},"title":"Did Ahaziah begin to reign in the eleventh or twelfth year of Joram’s reign?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have another question regarding a couple of passages in II Kings. II Kings 8:25 and II Kings 9:29 concerning when Ahaziah began to reign as king. One passage says in the twelfth year of Joram and the other passage says in the eleventh year of Joram. This was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1159,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-king-joash-give-us-an-example-of-good-financial-management\/","url_meta":{"origin":20226,"position":3},"title":"Does King Joash give us an example of good financial management?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 23, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have some questions about King Joash's prudent management. When instructions are given, does this story establish that they should be followed up regularly? Could you explain the renewed financial policies of King Joash? What do you think caused the people to respond as they did in\u00a0II Chronicles 24:10?\u00a0II\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61537,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/notes-on-kings-during-the-divided-kingdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":20226,"position":4},"title":"Notes on Kings During the Divided Kingdom","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Kings During the Divided Kingdom From I Kings Judah Israel Prophets Solomon (Mostly Good) 40 years I Kings 1-11 Nathan I Kings 1 Ahijah I Kings 11 Iddo Rehoboam (Evil) 17 years I Kings 12:1-24; 14:21-31; 15:6 Jeroboam (Evil) 22 years I Kings 11:26-40; 12:1-14:20 Ahijah I Kings 14 Shemaiah\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28938,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/kings-during-the-divided-kingdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":20226,"position":5},"title":"Kings During the Divided Kingdom","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"From I Kings Judah Israel Prophets Solomon (Mostly Good) 40 years I Kings 1-11 Nathan I Kings 1 Ahijah I Kings 11 Iddo Rehoboam (Evil) 17 years I Kings 12:1-24; 14:21-31; 15:6 Jeroboam (Evil) 22 years I Kings 11:26-40; 12:1-14:20 Ahijah I Kings 14 Shemaiah Iddo Abijam (Abijah) (Evil )\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}