²⁷ “And if in spite of this you do not obey me but act with hostility toward me, ²⁸ I will act with furious hostility toward you; I will also discipline you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ You will eat the flesh of your sons; you will eat the flesh of your daughters.^(A)

⁵³ “You will eat your offspring,^[a] the flesh of your sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you^(A) during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you. ⁵⁴ The most sensitive and refined man among you will look grudgingly at his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children, ⁵⁵ refusing to share with any of them his children’s flesh that he will eat because he has nothing left during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you in all your towns. ⁵⁶ The most sensitive and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her refinement and sensitivity, will begrudge the husband she embraces, her son, and her daughter, ⁵⁷ the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you within your city gates.

The Siege of Samaria

²⁴ Some time later, King Ben-hadad^(A) of Aram brought all his military units together and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. ²⁵ So there was a severe famine^(B) in Samaria, and they continued the siege against it until a donkey’s head sold for thirty-four ounces^[a] of silver, and a cup^[b] of dove’s dung^[c] sold for two ounces^[d] of silver.^(C)

²⁶ As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “My lord the king, help!”

²⁷ He answered, “If the Lord doesn’t help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?” ^{(D) 28} Then the king asked her, “What’s the matter?” ^(E)

She said, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him today. Then we will eat my son tomorrow.’ ²⁹ So we boiled my son and ate him, and I said to her the next day, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him,’^(F) but she has hidden her son.”

³⁰ When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his clothes.^(G) Then, as he was passing by on the wall, the people saw that there was sackcloth^(H) under his clothes next to his skin. ³¹ He announced, “May God punish me and do so severely^(I) if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today.”

⁹ I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they will eat each other’s flesh in the distressing siege inflicted on them by their enemies who intend to take their life.’^(A)

י Yod