2 Kings 6:25
food supply ran out <07458 01419> [a great famine.]
donkey's head <07218 02543> [an ass's head.]
If the pieces of silver were {drachms,} the whole would amount to about 2Å“. 9s.; which was a great price for so mean a part of this unclean animal.
<01686> [dove's dung.]
This probably denotes, as Bochart, Scheuchzer, and others suppose, a kind of {pulse,} or {vetches,} which the Arabs still call pigeon's dung. "They never," says Dr. Shaw, (Travels, p. 140), "constitute a dish by themselves, but are strewed singly as a garnish over {cuscasowe, pillowe,} and other dishes. They are besides in the greatest repute after they are parched in pans and ovens; then assuming the name {leblebby;}" and he thinks they were so called from being pointed at one end, and acquiring an ash colour in parching.
Deuteronomy 28:53-57
offspring <06529> [the fruit.]
offspring <0990> [body. Heb. belly.]
<05869> [his eye.]
wife .... remaining <0802 03499> [and toward.]
The Roman armies at length besieged, sacked, and utterly desolated Jerusalem: and during this seige, the famine was so extreme, that even rich and delicate persons, both men and women, ate their own children, and concealed the horrible repast, lest others should tear it from them! "Women snatched the food out of the very mouths of their husbands, and sons of their fathers, and (what is most miserable) mothers of their infants." "In every house, if there appeared any semblance of food, a battle ensued, and the dearest friends and relations fought with one another; snatching away the miserable provisions of life." "A woman distinguished by birth and wealth, after she had been plundered by the tyrants (or soldiers) of all her possessions, boiling her own sucking child, ate half of him, and concealing the other half, reserved it for another time!"
children <01121> [his children.]
[in the seige.]
delicate <06028> [and delicate.]
<05869 03415> [her eye shall be evil.]
afterbirth <07988> [young one. Heb. after-birth. cometh out.]
eat <0398> [for she shall.]
Psalms 73:8
mock <04167> [corrupt.]
say evil things .... threaten <07451 01696> [speak wickedly.]
say ..... proudly threaten <04791 01696> [speak loftily.]
Lamentations 4:5
feasted <0398> [that did.]
grew up <0539> [brought.]
amid <02263> [embrace.]
Ezekiel 4:13
Ezekiel 4:15
cow's manure ..... excrement <06832 01561 01241> [cow's dung.]
Dried cow-dung is a common fuel in the East, as it is in many parts of England, to the present day; but the prophet was ordered to prepare his bread with human ordure, to shew the extreme degree of wretchedness to which the besieged should be exposed, as they would be obliged literally to use it, from not being able to leave the city to collect other fuel.