2 Kings 25:3 - Exposition

And on the ninth day of the fourth month. The text of Kings is hero 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 Jeremiah 52:2 ). 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 , Lamentations 4:4 , Lamentations 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 )". 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 ).