2 Kings 6:24-25

The Lord Saves Samaria

6:24 Later King Ben Hadad of Syria assembled his entire army and attacked ¹  and besieged Samaria. ²  6:25 Samaria’s food supply ran out. ³  They laid siege to it so long that ⁴  a donkey’s head was selling for eighty shekels of silver ⁵  and a quarter of a kab ⁶  of dove’s droppings ⁷  for five shekels of silver. ⁸ 

2 Kings 16:5

16:5 At that time King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel attacked Jerusalem. ⁹  They besieged Ahaz, ¹⁰  but were unable to conquer him. ¹¹ 

[6:24]  ¹ tn Heb “went up.”

[6:24]  ² map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[6:25]  ³ tn Heb “and there was a great famine in Samaria.”

[6:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “and look, [they] were besieging it until.”

[6:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “eighty, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

[6:25]  ⁶ sn A kab was a unit of dry measure, equivalent to approximately one quart.

[6:25]  ⁷ 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.

[6:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “five, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

[16:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “went up to Jerusalem for battle.”

[16:5]  ⁶ tn That is, Jerusalem, Ahaz’s capital city.

[16:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “they were unable to fight.” The object must be supplied from the preceding sentence. Elsewhere when the Niphal infinitive of לָחָם (lakham) follows the verb יָכֹל (yakhol), the infinitive appears to have the force of “prevail against.” See Num 22:11; 1 Sam 17:9; and the parallel passage in Isa 7:1.