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,

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Trusting partly to the help of the Egyptians and partly to the strength of Jerusalem, Zedekiah paid no attention to the repeated entreaties of Jeremiah, that he would save himself with his capital and people from the destruction which was otherwise inevitable, by submitting, to the Chaldaeans (cf. Jeremiah 38:17, Jeremiah 38:18), but allowed things to reach their worst, until the famine became so intense, that inhuman horrors were perpetrated (cf. Lamentations 2:20-21; Lamentations 4:9-10), and eventually a breach was made in the city wall on the ninth day of the fourth month. The statement of the month is omitted in our text, where the words הרביעי בּחרשׁ (Jeremiah 52:6, cf. Jeremiah 39:2) have fallen out before בּתשׁעה (2 Kings 25:3, commencement) through the oversight of a copyist. The overwhelming extent of the famine is mentioned, not "because the people were thereby rendered quite unfit to offer any further resistance" (Seb. Schm.), but as a proof of the truth of the prophetic announcements (Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53-57; Jeremiah 15:2; Jeremiah 27:13; Ezekiel 4:16-17). הארץ עם are the common people in Jerusalem, or the citizens of the capital. From the more minute account of the entrance of the enemy into the city in Jeremiah 39:3-5 we learn that the Chaldaeans made a breach in the northern or outer wall of the lower city, i.e., the second wall, built by Hezekiah and Manasseh (2 Chronicles 32:5; 2 Chronicles 33:14), and forced their way into the lower city (המּשׁנה, 2 Kings 22:14), so that their generals took their stand at the gate of the centre, which was in the wall that separated the lower city from the upper city upon Zion, and formed the passage from the one to the other. When Zedekiah saw them here, he fled by night with the soldiers out of the city, through the gate between the two walls at or above the king's garden, on the road to the plain of the Jordan, while the Chaldaeans were round about the city. In 2 Kings 25:4 a faulty text has come down to us. In the clause המּלחמה וכל־אנשׁי the verb יברחוּ is omitted, if not even more, namely העיר מן ויּצאוּ יברחוּ, "fled and went out of the city." And if we compare Jeremiah 39:4, it is evident that before הם וכל־אנשׁיstill more has dropped out, not merely המּלך, which must have stood in the text, since according to 2 Kings 25:5 the king was among the fugitives; but most probably the whole clause יהוּדה מלך צדקיּהוּ ראם כּאשׁר ויהי, since the words הם וכל־אנשׁי have no real connection with what precedes, and cannot form a circumstantial clause so far as the sense is concerned. The "gate between the two walls, which (was) at or over (על) the king's garden," was a gate at the mouth of the Tyropoeon, that is to say, at the south-eastern corner of the city of Zion; for, according to Nehemiah 3:15, the king's garden was at the pool of Siloah, i.e., at the mouth of the Tyropoeon (see Rob. Pal. ii. 142). By this defile, therefore, the approach to the city was barred by a double wall, the inner one running from Zion to the Ophel, whilst the outer one, at some distance off, connected the Zion wall with the outer surrounding wall of the Ophel, and most probably enclosed the king's garden. The subject to ויּלך is המּלך, which has dropped out before הם וכל־אנשׁי. הערבה is the lowland valley on both sides of the Jordan (see at Deuteronomy 1:1).

Geneva Study Bible

And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine {c} prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

(c) So much that the mothers ate their children, La 4:10.

Wesley's Notes

25:3 The people - For the common people, but only for the great men. Now they eat their own children for want of food, Lam 4:3, and c. Jeremiah in this extremity, earnestly persuaded the king to surrender; but his heart was hardened to his destruction.

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
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."