On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
Parallel Translations
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On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
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And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
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On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to 2 Kings 25:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Leviticus 26:26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight. You shall eat, and not be satisfied.
- Deuteronomy 28:52-53 They will besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which Yahweh your God has given you. You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.
- Jeremiah 38:2 “Yahweh says, ‘He who remains in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live, and he will escape with his life, and he will live.’
- Jeremiah 52:6 In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
- Lamentations 4:4-10 The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask bread, and no one breaks it for them. Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace dunghills. For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment. No hands were laid on her. Her nobles were purer than snow. They were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than rubies. Their polishing was like sapphire. Their appearance is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become like a stick. Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for lack of the fruits of the field. The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Ezekiel 5:12 A third part of you will die with the pestilence, and they will be consumed with famine within you. A third part will fall by the sword around you. A third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.
- Ezekiel 7:15 “ ‘The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. He who is in the field will die by the sword. He who is in the city will be devoured by famine and pestilence.
- Ezekiel 14:21 For the Lord Yahweh says: “How much more when I send my four severe judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, the famine, the evil animals, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and animal!
- Jeremiah 37:21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah into the court of the guard. They gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was gone. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
- Jeremiah 39:2 In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city.
- Ezekiel 4:9-17 “Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it. Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it. You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink. You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.” Yahweh said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!” Then he said to me, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.” Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay; that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
- Ezekiel 5:10 Therefore the fathers will eat the sons within you, and the sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you; and I will scatter the whole remnant of you to all the winds.
- Zechariah 8:19 Yahweh of Armies says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months shall be for the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Insomuch that the mothers did eat their children, Lam.…
Insomuch that the mothers did eat their children, Lam. 4:10.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ki 25:3 And on the ninth [day] of the…
2Ki 25:3 And on the ninth [day] of the [fourth] month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
Ver. 3. The famine prevailed in the city.] Insomuch as that the fathers did eat their sons, and the sons their fathers. {Eze 5:10 Lam 4:10} The pestilence also prevailed at the same time. {Jer 21:6-7; Jer 24:10}
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The fourth month; which word is easily understood, by…
The fourth month; which word is easily understood, by comparing this and the first verse, and Jer 39:2; 52:6, where it is expressed.
For the people of the land, i.e. for the common sort of people, who flocked thither from all parts, upon the approach of the Babylonian army; but only for the great men and soldiers. See of the grievousness of this famine, Lam 4:10; Eze 5:10,12.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The people - For the common people, but only…
The people - For the common people, but only for the great men. Now they eat their own children for want of food, Lam. iv, 3, &c. Jer. in this extremity, earnestly persuaded the king to surrender; but his heart was hardened to his destruction.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. 2Kg 25:2.
Verse 3. 2Kg 25:2.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Ki 25:3. The famine prevailed in the city —…
2Ki 25:3. The famine prevailed in the city — So that for a long time they ate their bread, as Ezekiel foretold they should do, (Eze 4:16,) by weight and with care, and drunk their water by measure and with astonishment, perceiving the quantity of it lessening fast every day, and having no hope of a fresh supply. Thus they were punished for their gluttony and excess, their fulness of bread, and feeding themselves without fear. At length there was no bread for the people of the land — For the common people, who, upon the approach of the Babylonian army, had flocked from all parts of the country, to secure themselves and their families, but only for the great men. Now they eat their own children for want of food, as had been foretold by one prophet, (Eze 5:10,) and is bewailed by another, Lam 4:3, &c. Jeremiah, in this extremity, earnestly persuaded the king to surrender, but his heart was hardened to his destruction.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Of the. Protestants supply, "fourth month," as it is…
Of the. Protestants supply, "fourth month," as it is in the parallel passage, Jeremias lii. 6., And in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month. In Jeremias xxxix. 2., we read, in the fourth month, the fifth day of the month, the city was broken up, or a breach was made in the outer wall. In the course of a few days, the princes of Babylon seized the middle gate; and the famine became so intolerable, that, on the 9th, it was judged expedient to abandon the city. (Haydock) --- During this siege it is thought, (Calmet) that mothers eat their children, (Lamentations iv. 10., and Baruch ii. 3.) and children their parents, Ezechiel v. 10. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain on the ninth day of the fourth month the…
on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed--In consequence of the close and protracted blockade, the inhabitants were reduced to dreadful extremities; and under the maddening influence of hunger, the most inhuman atrocities were perpetrated (Lam 2:20, Lam 2:22; Lam 4:9-10; Eze 5:10). This was a fulfilment of the prophetic denunciations threatened on the apostasy of the chosen people (Lev 26:29; Deu 28:53-57; Jer 15:2; Jer 27:13; Eze 4:16).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. The fourth month — The word fourth has…
3. The fourth month — The word fourth has here been properly supplied by our translators from the parallel in Jer_52:6. It must have anciently fallen out of this text by the oversight of a copyist.
Famine prevailed — And its horrors are evidenced in Eze_5:10, and especially Lam_2:11-12; Lam_2:19; Lam_4:3-10. Not only in the city was there suffering from hunger, but the people of the land — that is, of the surrounding country, which was overrun by the Chaldean army — were destitute of bread.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. And on the ninth day of the fourth…
3. And on the ninth day of the fourth month] The words in italic omitted here by the scribe, can be filled up from Jer_39:2; Jer_52:6.
the famine prevailed] R.V. was sore. The verb is that which is found used of famine in Gen_41:56-57, though we have a different word for a sore famine in Gen_43:1. The rendering of R.V. is from A.V. in Jer_39:6.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) And on the ninth day of the fourth…
(3) And on the ninth day of the fourth month.—The text is supplemented from Jer_39:2; Jer_52:6. The Syriac, however, has, “And in the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, in the fifth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine prevailed,” &c.; which may be original. (Comp. 2Ki_25:1.)
The famine prevailed.—Not that the scarcity was first felt on that day, but that it then had reached a climax, so that defence was no longer possible. The horrors of the siege are referred to in Lam_2:11 seq., Lam_2:19 seq., Lam_4:3-10; Eze_5:10; Bar_2:3. As in the famine of Samaria and the last siege of Jerusalem, parents ate their own offspring. (Comp. the prophetic threats of Lev_26:29; Deu_28:53 seq.; Jer_15:2 seq., Jer_27:13; Eze_4:16 seq.)
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The people of the land.—The population of the city, especially the families which had crowded into it from the country. Thenius, as usual, insists that the militia are meant. But these are the “men of war” (2Ki_25:4).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And on the ninth day of the fourth month.…
And on the ninth day of the fourth month. The text of Kings is hero incomplete, and has to be restored from Jer_52:6. Ourtranslators have supplied the missing words. The famine prevailed in the city (see the comment on ver. 2). As I have elsewhere observed, "The intensity of the suffering endured may be gathered from Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Josephus. The complexions of the men grew black with famine; (Lam_4:8 Lam_5:10) their skin was shrunk and parched; (Lam_4:8) the rich and noble women searched the dunghills for setups of offal; (Lam_4:5) the children perished for want, or were even devoured by their parents (Lam_2:20 Lam_4:3, Lam_4:4, Lam_4:10; Eze_5:10) water was scarce, as well as food, and was sold at a; (Lam_5:4) third part of the inhabitants died of the famine, and the plague which grew out of it" (Eze_5:12) (see the "Speaker"s Commentary," vol. it. p. 147). And there was no bread for the people of the land. Bread commonly fails comparatively early in a siege. It was some time before the fall of the city that Ebed-Meleeh expressed his fear that Jeremiah would starve, since there was no more bread in the place. (see Jer_38:9)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain fourth month
fourth month
i.e. July.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.