Font Size
2 Kings 6:24-26
New American Standard Bible
2 Kings 6:24-26
New American Standard Bible
The Siege of Samaria—Cannibalism
24 Now it came about after this, that (A)Ben-hadad the king of Aram gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 So there was a severe (B)famine in Samaria; and behold, they kept besieging it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a [a]kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. 26 And as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord the king!”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Kings 6:25 One kab equals about 2 qt. or 1.9 liters
2 Kings 6:24-26
New International Version
2 Kings 6:24-26
New International Version
Famine in Besieged Samaria
24 Some time later, Ben-Hadad(A) king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege(B) to Samaria. 25 There was a great famine(C) in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels[a] of silver, and a quarter of a cab[b] of seed pods[c](D) for five shekels.[d]
26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 6:25 That is, about 2 pounds or about 920 grams
- 2 Kings 6:25 That is, probably about 1/4 pound or about 100 grams
- 2 Kings 6:25 Or of doves’ dung
- 2 Kings 6:25 That is, about 2 ounces or about 58 grams
New American Standard Bible (NASB) 
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.