2 Kings 25:3
◄  2 Kings 25:3  ►
New International Version (©2011)
By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.

New Living Translation (©2007)
By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.

English Standard Version (©2001)
On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the people of the land had no food.

International Standard Version (©2012)
By the ninth day of the fourth month, the resulting famine had become so severe in the city that no food remained for the people who lived in the land.

NET Bible (©2006)
By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city became so severe that the common people had no food.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land.

American King James Version
And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

American Standard Version
On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The ninth day of the month: and a famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

Darby Bible Translation
On the ninth of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

English Revised Version
On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

Webster's Bible Translation
And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

World English Bible
On the ninth day of the [fourth] month the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

Young's Literal Translation
on the ninth of the month -- when the famine is severe in the city, and there hath not been bread for the people of the land,

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:1-7 Jerusalem was so fortified, that it could not be taken till famine rendered the besieged unable to resist. In the prophecy and Lamentations of Jeremiah, we find more of this event; here it suffices to say, that the impiety and misery of the besieged were very great. At length the city was taken by storm. The king, his family, and his great men escaped in the night, by secret passages. But those deceive themselves who think to escape God's judgments, as much as those who think to brave them. By what befell Zedekiah, two prophecies, which seemed to contradict each other, were both fulfilled. Jeremiah prophesied that Zedekiah should be brought to Babylon, Jer 32:5; 34:3; Ezekiel, that he should not see Babylon, Eze 12:13. He was brought thither, but his eyes being put out, he did not see it.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - And on the ninth day of the fourth month. The text of Kings is here incomplete, and has to be restored from Jeremiah 52:6. Our translators have supplied the missing words. The famine prevailed in the city (see the comment on ver. 2). As I have elsewhere observed, "The intensity of the suffering endured may be gathered from Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Josephus. The complexions of the men grew black with famine (Lamentations 4:8; Lamentations 5:10); their skin was shrunk and parched (Lamentations 4:8); the rich and noble women searched the dunghills for setups of offal (Lamentations 4:5); the children perished for want, or were even devoured by their parents (Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 4:3, 4, 10; Ezekiel 5:10); water was scarce, as well as food, and was sold at a price (Lamentations 5:4); third part of the inhabitants died of the famine, and the plague which grew out of it (Ezekiel 5:12)" (see the 'Speaker's Commentary,' vol. it. p. 147). And there was no bread for the people of the land. Bread commonly fails comparatively early in a siege. It was some time before the fall of the city that Ebed-Meleeh expressed his fear that Jeremiah would starve, since there was no more bread in the place (see Jeremiah 38:9).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed—In consequence of the close and protracted blockade, the inhabitants were reduced to dreadful extremities; and under the maddening influence of hunger, the most inhuman atrocities were perpetrated (La 2:20, 22; 4:9, 10; Eze 5:10). This was a fulfilment of the prophetic denunciations threatened on the apostasy of the chosen people (Le 26:29; De 28:53-57; Jer 15:2; 27:13; Eze 4:16).

2 Kings 25:3 Parallel Commentaries

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Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


Nebuchadnezzar Besieges Jerusalem
1And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about. 2And the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. …

2 Kings 6:24 Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria.
2 Kings 6:25 There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.
2 Kings 25:2 The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
Jeremiah 37:21 King Zedekiah then gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread from the street of the bakers each day until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
Jeremiah 52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.
Lamentations 4:9 Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste away for lack of food from the field.
Lamentations 4:10 With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food when my people were destroyed.
Zechariah 8:19 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace."