²⁵ There was a great famine^(A) 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](B) 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!”

²⁷ The king replied, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?” ²⁸ Then he asked her, “What’s the matter?”

She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’ ²⁹ So we cooked my son and ate^(C) him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,’ but she had hidden him.”

⁹ I will make them eat^(A) the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies^(B) will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’