2 Kings 6:28-29

6:28 Then the king asked her, “What’s your problem?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Hand over your son; we’ll eat him today and then eat my son tomorrow.’ 6:29 So we boiled my son and ate him. Then I said to her the next day, ‘Hand over your son and we’ll eat him.’ But she hid her son!”

2 Kings 7:4

7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, ¹  and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect ²  to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, ³  we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” ⁴ 

2 Kings 25:3

25:3 By the ninth day of the fourth month ⁵  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ⁶  had no food.

2 Kings 25:1

25:1 So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside ⁷  it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. ⁸ 

2 Kings 18:2

18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. ⁹  His mother ¹⁰  was Abi, ¹¹  the daughter of Zechariah.

Jeremiah 14:13-15

14:13 Then I said, “Oh, Lord God, ¹²  look! ¹³  The prophets are telling them that you said, ¹⁴  ‘You will not experience war or suffer famine. ¹⁵  I will give you lasting peace and prosperity in this land.’” ¹⁶ 

14:14 Then the Lord said to me, “Those prophets are prophesying lies while claiming my authority! ¹⁷  I did not send them. I did not commission them. ¹⁸  I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to these people false visions, worthless predictions, ¹⁹  and the delusions of their own mind. 14:15 I did not send those prophets, though they claim to be prophesying in my name. They may be saying, ‘No war or famine will happen in this land.’ But I, the Lord, say this about ²⁰  them: ‘War and starvation will kill those prophets.’ ²¹ 

Jeremiah 14:18

14:18 If I go out into the countryside,

I see those who have been killed in battle.

If I go into the city,

I see those who are sick because of starvation. ²² 

For both prophet and priest go about their own business

in the land without having any real understanding.’” ²³ 

Jeremiah 32:24

32:24 Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ²⁴  in order to capture it. War, ²⁵  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ²⁶  who are attacking it. ²⁷  Lord, ²⁸  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ²⁹ 

Jeremiah 52:6

52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month ³⁰  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ³¹  had no food.

¹ tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

² tn Heb “fall.”

³ tn Heb “keep us alive.”

⁴ tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.

⁵ tn The MT has simply “of the month,” but the parallel passage in Jer 52:6 has “fourth month,” and this is followed by almost all English translations. The word “fourth,” however, is not actually present in the MT of 2 Kgs 25:3.

⁶ tn Heb “the people of the land.”

⁷ tn Or “against.”

⁸ sn This would have been Jan 15, 588 b.c. The reckoning is based on the calendar that begins the year in the spring (Nisan = March/April).

⁹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁰ tn Heb “the name of his mother.”

¹¹ tn The parallel passage in 2 Chr 29:1 has “Abijah.”

¹² tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.

¹³ tn Heb “Behold.” See the translator’s note on usage of this particle in 1:6.

¹⁴ tn The words “that you said” are not in the text but are implicit from the first person in the affirmation that follows. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Heb “You will not see sword and you will not have starvation [or hunger].”

¹⁶ tn Heb “I will give you unfailing peace in this place.” The translation opts for “peace and prosperity” here for the word שָׁלוֹם (shalom) because in the context it refers both to peace from war and security from famine and plague. The word translated “lasting” (אֱמֶת, ’emet) is a difficult to render here because it has broad uses: “truth, reliability, stability, steadfastness,” etc. “Guaranteed” or “lasting” seem to fit the context the best.

¹⁷ tn Heb “Falsehood those prophets are prophesying in my name.” In the OT, the “name” reflected the person’s character (cf. Gen 27:36; 1 Sam 25:25) or his reputation (Gen 11:4; 2 Sam 8:13). To speak in someone’s name was to act as his representative or carry his authority (1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8).

¹⁸ tn Heb “I did not command them.” Compare 1 Chr 22:12 for usage.

¹⁹ tn Heb “divination and worthlessness.” The noun “worthlessness” stands as a qualifying “of” phrase (= to an adjective; an attributive genitive in Hebrew) after a noun in Zech 11:17; Job 13:4. This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns are joined by “and” with one serving as the qualifier of the other.

²⁰ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord about.” The first person construction has been used in the translation for better English style.

²¹ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in my name and I did not send them [= whom I did not send] and they are saying [= who are saying], ‘Sword and famine…’, by sword and famine those prophets will be killed.” This sentence has been restructured to conform to contemporary English style.

²² tn The word “starvation” has been translated “famine” elsewhere in this passage. It is the word which refers to hunger. The “starvation” here may be war induced and not simply that which comes from famine per se. “Starvation” will cover both.

²³ tn The meaning of these last two lines is somewhat uncertain. The meaning of these two lines is debated because of the uncertainty of the meaning of the verb rendered “go about their business” (סָחַר, sakhar) and the last phrase translated here “without any real understanding.” The verb in question most commonly occurs as a participle meaning “trader” or “merchant” (cf., e.g., Ezek 27:21, 36; Prov 31:14). It occurs as a finite verb elsewhere only in Gen 34:10, 21; 42:34 and there in a literal sense of “trading,” “doing business.” While the nuance is metaphorical here it need not extend to “journeying into” (cf., e.g., BDB 695 s.v. סָחַר Qal.1) and be seen as a reference to exile as is sometimes assumed. That seems at variance with the causal particle which introduces this clause, the tense of the verb, and the surrounding context. People are dying in the land (vv. 17-18a) not because prophet and priest have gone (the verb is the Hebrew perfect or past) into exile but because prophet and priest have no true knowledge of God or the situation. The clause translated here “without having any real understanding” (Heb “and they do not know”) is using the verb in the absolute sense indicated in BDB 394 s.v. יָדַע Qal.5 and illustrated in Isa 1:3; 56:10. For a more thorough discussion of the issues one may consult W. McKane, Jeremiah (ICC), 1:330-31.

²⁴ tn Heb “Siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it.”

²⁵ tn Heb “sword.”

²⁶ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

²⁷ tn Heb “And the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it because of the sword, starvation, and disease.” The verb “has been given” is one of those perfects that view the action as good as done (the perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect).

²⁸ tn The word “Lord” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation as a reminder that it is he who is being addressed.

²⁹ tn Heb “And what you said has happened and behold you see it.”

³⁰ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

³¹ tn Heb “the people of the land.”