Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 6
These incidents happened a short time after God cured Naaman, the leader of Aram’s army (2 Kings chapter 5). The war between Aram and Israel had continued after Naaman returned to Aram.
In that war, Aram’s army was still using the same methods as previously to attack Israel (compare 2 Kings 5:2 and 6:23). However, these methods started to fail.
For those attacks, the king of Aram would send a group of soldiers to establish a camp inside Israel. Those were of course his soldiers, so he called the camp ‘my camp’ (6:8). He did not himself join the men at that camp.
The purpose of that camp was to demand taxes from the people who lived in that part of Israel. So really, Aram’s soldiers were robbing Israel’s people. They would take people away as prisoners from any families that could not pay (5:2).
Although most of Israel’s people were not loyal to God, God still cared about them. So, God told Elisha what the king of Aram’s plans were. Elisha then told Joram, the king of Israel, where the king of Aram intended to establish these camps.
So Joram sent his army to those places at the time when Elisha had told him to expect an attack. When the soldiers from Aram arrived, the army of Israel was already there. The soldiers from Aram were not ready to fight a battle, so they returned to Aram as quickly as possible.
Next part: Even abroad, people know about God's work in Elisha's life (2 Kings 6:11-12)
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