2 Kings 6:24-29

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

Ben-hadad’s Siege of Samaria

²⁴ Afterward Ben-ha′dad king of Syria mustered his entire army, and went up, and besieged Samar′ia. ²⁵ And there was a great famine in Samar′ia, as they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. ²⁶ Now as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” ²⁷ And he said, “If the Lord will not help you, whence shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?” ²⁸ And the king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ ²⁹ So we boiled my son, and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”