How does 2 Kings 6:28 illustrate the severity of Israel's famine situation? Setting the scene in Samaria • The Aramean army has surrounded Samaria, sealing every gate (2 Kings 6:24). • Prolonged siege means no crops, no trade, no incoming food. • Prices skyrocket: “a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver” (2 Kings 6:25)—roughly two pounds of silver for meat from an animal Israel normally counted unclean (Leviticus 11:3–4). • Even “a quarter of a cab of dove’s dung” (about two pints) brings five shekels—people are buying refuse for nourishment. The king’s dialogue that unmasks the horror 2 Kings 6:28: “Then the king asked her, ‘What is the matter?’ And she answered, ‘This woman said to me, “Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we will eat my son.”’ ” What verse 28 reveals about the famine’s severity • Cannibalism—absolute last resort in any society—has become negotiation material. • The conversation is casual, almost businesslike; moral instinct is numbed by hunger. • Motherhood, ordinarily protective, is inverted; a mother surrenders the child she bore. • The request is systematic (“today…tomorrow”), showing pre-planned, extended desperation. • The king himself, clothed in sackcloth beneath his royal robes (v. 30), cannot intervene; civil authority is powerless. • Living prophecy: Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53–57 had warned Israel that covenant disobedience would end in parents eating their own children under siege. Verse 28 displays those warnings fulfilled to the letter. • Social cohesion disintegrates—women bargain children, neighbors betray agreements; verse 29 shows the second mother reneging once her hunger is eased. Prophetic backdrop and parallel passages • Leviticus 26:29: “You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.” • Deuteronomy 28:53: “During the siege…you will eat the fruit of your womb.” • Lamentations 2:20; 4:10 echo the same horror when Babylon later besieges Jerusalem. • 2 Kings 6 shows the Aramean siege as a precursor to those later judgments, validating every prior word of warning. Spiritual and moral implications • Sin’s outworking: idolatry and unbelief (2 Kings 6:31; cf. 1 Kings 16:30–33) bring tangible, devastating consequences. • God’s Word proves exact; ignoring it courts literal fulfillment of its judgments. • Human desperation without repentance spirals into unthinkable acts; famine exposes the heart. • Yet even here, God is ready to intervene—Elisha soon announces miraculous deliverance and abundant food (2 Kings 7:1–2, 16). Key takeaway 2 Kings 6:28 is a snapshot of siege-induced starvation so intense that covenant curses unfold in real time. The verse lays bare the physical extremity, moral collapse, and prophetic certainty that accompany national rebellion, underscoring both the seriousness of sin and the absolute reliability of God’s Word. |
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