2 Kings 6:23-25

Amplified Bible

²³So the king prepared a great feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the marauding bands of Aram did not come into the land of Israel again.

The Siege of Samaria—Cannibalism

²⁴But it came about after this, that Ben-hadad king of Aram (Syria) gathered his whole army together and went up and besieged Samaria. ²⁵Now there was a great famine in Samaria; and they ^[a]besieged it until a ^[b]donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a ^[c]kab of ^[d]dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.

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Footnotes

2 Kings 6:25 The purpose of a siege was to starve out or weaken the inhabitants of a fortified city, minimizing risk to the attacking army. The success of the siege depended on whether the city was sufficiently stocked with food and water. Here, with a famine, not only does the city fall well short of adequate provisions, but those inhabitants who have a surplus of anything edible or useful make the situation even worse by engaging in price-gouging.
2 Kings 6:25 Apparently the famine was so severe that the inhabitants were purchasing products that were barely edible as well as being ceremonially unclean.
2 Kings 6:25 One kab is about two quarts.
2 Kings 6:25 Normally dung was used as fertilizer or for fuel; however, in this verse “dove’s dung” may be a nickname for a wild pealike vegetable.