2 Kings 6:24–31

The Siege of Samaria—Cannibalism

²⁴Now it came about after this, that ^aBen-hadad king of Aram gathered all his army and went up and besieged Samaria.

²⁵There was a great ^afamine in Samaria; and behold, they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a ¹kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.

²⁶As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!”

²⁷He said, “¹If the Lord does not help you, from where shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?”

²⁸And the king said to her, “^aWhat ¹is the matter with you?” And she ²answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’

²⁹“^aSo we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”

³⁰When the king heard the words of the woman, ^ahe tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth ¹beneath on his ²body.

³¹Then he said, “May ^aGod do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat ¹remains on him today.”