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 

[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.