2 Kings 6:25

6:25 Samaria’s food supply ran out. ¹  They laid siege to it so long that ²  a donkey’s head was selling for eighty shekels of silver ³  and a quarter of a kab ⁴  of dove’s droppings ⁵  for five shekels of silver. ⁶ 

2 Kings 6:31

6:31 Then he said, “May God judge me severely ⁷  if Elisha son of Shaphat still has his head by the end of the day!” ⁸ 

2 Kings 19:21

19:21 This is what the Lord says about him: ⁹ 

“The virgin daughter Zion ¹⁰ 

despises you, she makes fun of you;

Daughter Jerusalem

shakes her head after you. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Heb “and there was a great famine in Samaria.”

² tn Heb “and look, [they] were besieging it until.”

³ tn Heb “eighty, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

⁴ sn A kab was a unit of dry measure, equivalent to approximately one quart.

⁵ 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.

⁶ tn Heb “five, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

⁷ tn Heb “So may God do to me, and so may he add.”

⁸ tn Heb “if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on him today.”

¹³ tn Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”

¹⁴ sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.

¹⁵ sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.