The Siege of Samaria—Cannibalism

²⁴ Now it came about after this, that ^(A)Ben-hadad the king of Aram gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. ²⁵ So there was a severe ^(B)famine in Samaria; and behold, they kept besieging it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a ^[a]kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. ²⁶ And as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord the king!” ²⁷ But he said, “^[b]If the Lord does not help you, from where am I to help you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?” ²⁸ Then the king said to her, “^(C)What ^[c]is on your mind?” And she said, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son so that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ ^29 (D)So we cooked my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, so that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.” ³⁰ When the king heard the woman’s words, ^(E)he tore his clothes—and he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth ^[d]underneath on his ^[e]body. ³¹ Then he said, “May ^(F)God do so to me and more so, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat ^[f]remains on him today.”

³² Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and ^(G)the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man from his presence; but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you ^(H)see how this son of a murderer has sent a man to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and ^[g]hold the door shut against him. Is the sound of his master’s feet not behind him?” ³³ While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him and he said, “^(I)Behold, this evil is from the Lord; why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”