2 Kings 6:25

6:25 Samaria’s food supply ran out. They laid siege to it so long that a donkey’s head was selling for eighty shekels of silver and a quarter of a kab of dove’s droppings for five shekels of silver.

Revelation 6:6

6:6 Then I heard something like a voice from among the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat will cost a day’s pay and three quarts of barley will cost a day’s pay. But 10  do not damage the olive oil and the wine!”


tn Heb “and there was a great famine in Samaria.”

tn Heb “and look, [they] were besieging it until.”

tn Heb “eighty, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

sn A kab was a unit of dry measure, equivalent to approximately one quart.

tn The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “dove dung” (חֲרֵייוֹנִים, khareyonim), while the marginal reading (Qere) has “discharge” (דִּבְיוֹנִים, divyonim). Based on evidence from Akkadian, M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 79) suggest that “dove’s dung” was a popular name for the inedible husks of seeds.

tn Heb “five, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

tn BDAG 1086 s.v. χοῖνιξ states, “a dry measure, oft. used for grain, approximately equivalent to one quart or one liter, quart. A χ.of grain was a daily ration for one pers.…Rv 6:6ab.”

tn Grk “a quart of wheat for a denarius.” A denarius was one day’s pay for an average worker. The words “will cost” are used to indicate the genitive of price or value; otherwise the English reader could understand the phrase to mean “a quart of wheat to be given as a day’s pay.”

10 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.