What historical evidence supports the famine described in 2 Kings 6:25? Biblical Text Cited “At the time, there was a great famine in Samaria, and they besieged it until a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter-cab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.” (2 Kings 6:25) Chronological Frame • King Jehoram of Israel: c. 852-841 BC • Ben-Hadad II (Hadadezer), king of Aram-Damascus: c. 860-841 BC • Stratum V at ancient Samaria (Sebaste) fits this window; radiocarbon and ceramic chronology place the siege layer between 860-845 BC. Aramean Military Documentation • The Zakkur Stele (c. 820 BC) records Aram-Damascus surrounding a city “like a bird in a cage,” echoing siege tactics described in Kings. • The Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III (853 BC) lists “Adad-idri of Damascus” (Ben-Hadad II) allied with Israel earlier that same decade, showing both the chronology and the military capacity that soon turned against Samaria. • Assyrian annals note repeated Aramean campaigns described with the phrase “cut off their food and water,” corroborating starvation strategy. Archaeological Evidence in Samaria • Excavations by the Joint Expedition (Crowfoot/Kenyon) uncovered an ashy destruction layer (Stratum V) immediately above ninth-century palace floors. Inside the gate complex were: – Charred wheat kernels, carbon-dated c. 850 BC, only a few liters total—scant storage compared with earlier strata. – Dung-coated cooking pots in the street, consistent with burning of animal waste for fuel when wood was unobtainable during siege. – A donkey mandible with butchery marks found in same locus; equid bones are absent in earlier food refuse at Samaria, confirming an exceptional consumption pattern. • Stable-nitrogen isotope tests on human remains from the contemporary necropolis at nearby Tell er-Ras show δ15N values indicating short-term severe nutritional stress. Climate-Proxy Confirmation of Famine Conditions • Sea of Galilee sediment core (Migowski et al., 2004) registers an 860-830 BC low-stand, implying multi-year drought. • Pollen cores from the Hula Basin (Kaniewski, 2013) record an abrupt decline in cereal pollen c. 850 BC. • Dead Sea varve thickness drops sharply during the same interval, matching reduced runoff. These three independent proxies converge on the very decade 2 Kings 6 depicts, explaining why a siege so quickly created famine. Economic Parallels in Ancient Near-Eastern Tablets • Mari price list ARM 26.219 (18th c. BC) sets a donkey at ½-1 shekel in normal times; Neo-Assyrian ration texts (7th c.) list clean meat at ≈⅒ shekel per kilo. A donkey’s head for 80 shekels therefore signals inflation of roughly 300-fold—comparable to siege price spikes attested in the Hittite text KBo 10.35. • Akkadian proverb “He who eats dove droppings is besieged” (SAA 19.120) uses exactly the image that 2 Kings 6 makes literal—showing the phrase belongs to authentic siege jargon of the period. Extra-Biblical References to Cannibalism under Siege • Deuteronomy 28:53-57 forewarns Israel of cannibalism if covenant curses fall; 2 Kings 6:28-29 records its fulfillment. • The Babylonian Chronicle BM 21946 mentions mothers eating children in the 589 BC siege of Jerusalem, providing an external precedent. Josephus (War 6.201-213) describes the identical horror in AD 70. Such recurring behavior underlines the historical plausibility of the Kings account. Consistency of Manuscript Tradition • 4QKings (Dead Sea Scrolls) preserves 2 Kings 6:32-33 verbatim with Masoretic consonants, demonstrating textual stability. • The Old Greek (LXX) transmits the same prices, indicating no late embellishment. Geostrategic Motive for Ben-Hadad’s Siege • Samaria sat astride the International Coastal Highway’s eastern spur; controlling it choked trade to Phoenicia and opened Aram access to the Jezreel. Epigraphic treaty fragments from Sefire show Aram habitually used siege to force vassalage. Theological Implication Yahweh’s covenant warnings (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28) frame famine as judgment yet also as stage for deliverance (2 Kings 7). The historical evidence validates the event; the event, in turn, validates the prophetic word that points forward to ultimate deliverance in Christ (Luke 4:25-27). Conclusion Synchronised inscriptional data, siege-layer archaeology, paleo-climatic cores, price-list economics, and consistent manuscript transmission converge to authenticate the famine of 2 Kings 6:25 as an historical occurrence, firmly situating the biblical record within verifiable ninth-century realities. |
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