2 Kings 7:8

2Ki 7:8 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].

Ver. 8. And carried thence also, and went and hid it.] Covetousness is unsatisfiable in hiding and hoarding; it is, as one saith, a dry drunkenness, never saying, Satis est. it is enough.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7:8-9 The men realized that they needed to share their good fortune with the people in Samaria.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

these lepers . . . did eat and drink--After they had appeased their hunger and secreted as many valuables as they could carry, their consciences smote them for concealing the discovery and they hastened to publish it in the city.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(8) And when . . . tent.—Literally, And (so) those lepers came to the edge of the camp, and they went into one tent, taking up the thread of the narrative again at 2Ki_7:5, where it was broken by the parenthesis about the panic flight of the Syrians.

Went and hid it.—A common practice of Orientals, with whom holes in the ground or in the house wall supply the place of banks.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. they went into one tent, and did eat and drink] Hunger asserted the first claim; that satisfied, they began to think how they might make most gain for themselves, by hiding a store of the deserted wealth; and this they did till their consciences smote them for their selfishness.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent,.... The first they came to:

and did eat and drink; which was the first thing they did, being hungry, and almost starved:

and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; in a place without the camp, where they thought it would be safe, and where they could come at it again:

and came again and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it; this, Josephus says (z), they did four times.

(z) Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4.) sect. 5.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the comp. The narrative, begun in ver. 3, is here taken up from the point where it was broken off in ver. 5, and the phrase there used is repeated, to mark the connection. They went into one tent, and did eat and drink. The first necessity was to satisfy the cravings of their appetite, as they were well-nigh starving. Then their covetousness was excited by the riches exposed to view in the tent. And carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment. Oriental armies carried with them vast quantities of the precious metals, in the shape of gold and silver vases, goblets, dishes, as well as in collars, chains, furniture, and trappings. Herodotus says (ix. 80) that, when the camp of Mardonius at Plataea fell into the hands of the Greeks, there were found in it "many tents richly adorned with furniture of gold and silver, many couches covered with plates of the same, and many golden bowls, goblets, and other drinking-vessels. On the carriages were bags containing gold and silver kettles; and the bodies of the slain furnished bracelets and chains, and scimitars with golden ornaments not to mention era-broidered apparel, of which no one made any account." The camp of the Syrians would scarcely have been so richly provided; but still it contained, no doubt, a large amount of very valuable plunder. And went and hid it. The lepers had no right to the pick of the spoil. It belonged to the nation, and it was probably the king"s right to apportion it. The lepers had to conceal what they appropriated, lest it should he taken from them.

And came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Plundering thus probably, not two tents only, but several. At last, either covetousness was satiated or conscience awoke.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When these lepers (these, pointing back to Kg2 7:3.) came into the camp which the Syrians had left, they first of all satisfied their own hunger with the provisions which they found in the tents, and then took different valuables and concealed them. But their consciences were soon aroused, so that they said: We are not doing right; this day is a day of joyful tidings: if we are silent and wait till the morning light, guilt will overtake us; "for it is the duty of citizens to make known things relating to public safety" (Grotius). They then resolved to announce the joyful event in the king's palace, and reported it to the watchman at the city gate. העיר שׁער stands as a generic term in a collective sense for the persons who watched at the gate; hence the following plural להם, and in Kg2 7:11 השּׁערים. "And the gate-keepers cried out (what they had heard) and reported it in the king's palace."

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)