2 Kings 6:24-29

Amplified Bible

The Siege of Samaria—Cannibalism

²⁴ But it came about after this, that Ben-hadad king of Aram (Syria) gathered his whole army together and went up and besieged Samaria. ²⁵ Now 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. ²⁶ As the king of Israel (Jehoram) was passing by on the [city] wall a woman cried out to him, “Help, my lord, O king!” ²⁷ He said, “If the Lord does not help you, from where shall I get you help? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?” ²⁸ And the king said to her, “What is the matter with you?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son so we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ ²⁹ So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give your son so that we may eat him’; but she had hidden her son.”