Introduction: The city of Samaria was surrounded by enemies. Famine had come into the city and people were paying tremendous amounts of money for small portions of food. But for two mothers, they had a gruesome item on the menu.
1 The famine affected the city
Text, 2 Kings 6:24-25, KJV: 24 And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.
Israel, by now consisting of the ten northern tribes, was in trouble. Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s assistants, we might say (1 Kings 11:28). That same chapter has a prophecy that he would become king of the ten northern tribes because of what Solomon had done or allowed to happen, all in violation of God’s Law. When he actually became king, though, one of the first things he did was to announce a new set of “gods”, feast, priests, and so forth (1 Kings 12). Every king in the northern kingdom followed this “lead” or new religion—actually, not so new as Israel had made a, you guessed it, a golden calf soon after leaving Egypt, while Moses was on the mountain receiving the Law of God (Exodus 32)!
Now, many years after Jeroboam, Ahab had married Jezebel of Sidon, and together they imposed Baal-worship on the nation. Elijah had prophesied and given God’s messages, and the LORD had promised Elijah that He had 7000 other genuine believers (at least) in the kingdom, but nothing seemed to stop the downward trend.
And when this king, Jehoram (2 Kings 3:1), was on the throne, he also had his share of problems. Elisha had basically told him to go away and talk to the false prophets in his own kingdom (2 Kings 3:13-15). The next few chapters of 2 Kings detail other things Jehoram endured but this famine was something he couldn’t control.
In reality, nobody should have been surprised about this. God had told Israel, through Moses, in Deuteronomy 28 exactly what would happen if the nation obeyed Him. The LORD also spelled out, very specifically, what would happen if the nation did not obey Him. One of the curses, and it happened here, was in Deut. 32:49-57, especially verse 53, where the LORD predicted the parents would eat their own children. More about this later.
Now take a look at what the survivors, if you can call them this, were trying to purchase for food. The writer of 2 Kings reported that the people bought “an ass’s head” for 80 pieces of silver. Most commentaries I’ve reviewed mention a “piece of silver” as the same thing as a shekel, which was worth various amounts of money. Some might note an irony, in that Samson found the jawbone of a donkey and slew a thousand Philistines (Judges 15:15) many years ago; now, the people of Samaria were buying the heads of donkeys for something to eat—and at “top dollar”, we might say!
Oh, and speaking of “dove’s dung”: incredibly, some think this was literally the droppings or excrement of doves. We don’t know if there were even any doves left alive, but some of the commentators
(Barnes, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/barnes/2_kings/6.htm ;
Ellicott, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/2_kings/6.htm ;
and Clarke, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/clarke/2_kings/6.htm )
all think it could be literal dove’s dung but this may refer to a certain plant or legume. Whatever it was, this too was expensive with a capital E—the cost was five “pieces of silver” for a “cab”, or maybe a quart of the stuff.
And just a short time before, Jehoram had provided a feast for Syrian soldiers brought in by Elisha the prophet (6:18-23). Now these same soldiers, or replacements, had camped around Samaria, laying siege to the city, meaning they were going to stay unless and until the people died of starvation, surrendered to them, or—and I think they believed this would never happen—deliverance from somewhere would save Samaria.
We’ll see in a moment that the Syrians were not in any such condition when it came to food, provisions, and so forth. No, they were set for a good long time.
Samaria, however, was not, and things became gruesome for any number of people.
2 The famine affected two mothers
Text, 2 Kings 6:26-29, KJV: 26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. 27 And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? 28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. 29 So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.
Verse 26 relates how the king of Israel, Jehoram, was “passing by upon the wall”. This may mean he was taking a look at the situation—remember, the Syrians were camped all around the city and nobody could get in or out, except at his or her own risk. Something odd, to me, is that he was walking on the wall, where he could have been an easy target for any expert bowman or archer. Then again, as king, he was responsible for everything in the city.
While he was walking, inspecting, meditating, whatever, he heard a cry. This one might have been different from what he had heard before, because it was a woman’s voice. The woman cried out to him with, what seems to be, a simple request: “Help, my lord, O king.” She didn’t express anything else to him at the time.
Now the king utters what could be one of the rudest replies to a question: “If the LORD doesn’t help you, what makes you think I can?” Was he insulting the woman, telling her that if she worshiped the LORD, He wouldn’t allow this to happen? Was he saying, “well, look what Baal or the golden calves did for me and it could happen to you too”—this, while the city was in a serious famine. Another possible reason is that he was frustrated. After all, he had an entire city and kingdom to rule, he and the city are surrounded by enemies, and here’s a woman whom he thinks tracked him down to ask a favor? No wonder he muttered such a reply—or was it loud enough for the woman to hear?
Then he directly replied to her, “What aileth thee?” or, “What’s your problem (and can’t you see I have enough of my own—implied)? Clearly the king had many things on his mind and my guess is that he didn’t want to be bothered with a woman’s problem, no matter what it might be or what might have been,
And I doubt he was prepared to hear what this woman had to say. She told him, “This woman (not herself, perhaps she had brought the other woman along with her) said, ‘let’s eat your dead son today and we’ll share my dead son tomorrow.’”
At least I hope each of the two boys were dead by this time.
What kind of mother would kill and eat her own child?
What kind of mother would kill and eat someone else’s child?
Those who were desperately hungry, past the point of compassion on their own children, or perhaps so consumed for self-survival, that’s who. Something that might be easy to miss is that the woman—let’s call her Mother X—appealed directly to the king, not Elisha or any of God’s true prophets. There’s no record she even went to any of the temples, shrines, whatever, of any of the pagan deities worshiped (!) in the northern kingdom. No, she went straight to the top and stated her case.
And Mother X wasn’t finished. Sure enough, she and Mother Y boiled and ate the son of Mother X. I don’t want to get to gruesome here but the child couldn’t have been very big to fit into a vessel for boiling. I don’t know the dimensions of such a vessel. Or, she could have arranged the pieces so they would fit into this pot or vessel.
Then, dinner was served.
How low can one go?
The next day came, and, no doubt, hunger came along with it. I’m pretty sure Mother X came to visit Mother Y to complete the deal: “mine today, yours tomorrow; we have no time for any sorrow.” But Mother Y decided, “Ah, no deal, you aren’t getting my son.” According to Mother X, the other woman hid her son. It’s not clear if the son of Mother Y was still alive and she was keeping him, or if he was already dead and she was keeping the body for herself. At any rate, this was a gruesome encounter, and who knows how many others had resorted to this.
To repeat something said earlier, this famine was the result of God’s judgment. It would be an interesting study, to see how many famines came during the days of Israel in the land and why each one came about. God had plainly said this was going to happen if the nation ever forgot Him, and the northern tribes definitely had done so. Deuteronomy 28 may not have been on their minds, but there was no way to escape the reality. It was right there, up close and personal.
Now the king had heard the woman’s request for help, and her report of the situation. What was he going to do? What could he do?
3 The famine affected the king
Text, 2 Kings 6:30-31, KJV: 30 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. 31 Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.
Mother X had come to the king with an appeal for help. The king likely muttered a reply, “If the LORD can’t help you, what makes you think I can? Do you think I have anything left over in the barn floor or anything left in the wine press?” Whether or not the woman heard it, God did, and we have the king’s reply right there in print to this day.
Then the woman had explained the situation, gruesome as it was, and that made the king furious. He tore his clothes, and these were probably not cheap items. He was the king and either wore the very best, or, as he was walking on the city’s walls, he may have worn something not so elaborate. Anyway, he ripped his clothes in two, a sign of grief, anger, desperation, or other emotions. One might well do a study on how, when, and why people tore their clothes.
After he had done this, the king “passed by on the wall (verse 30)”. This means he was walking to a different location, but we’re not told where. No need to try and guess the destination.
As he was passing by, the people noticed he was wearing something under his clothes. They saw he was wearing sackcloth, or something similar to our burlap sacks! I’ve handled some of this material, carrying sacks of potatoes and also in a junior high arts-and-crafts class, where I tried to make a “rug” out of a piece of burlap and yarn using some kind of tool (I forget what it’s called). But one thing I never forgot was the feel (!) of that burlap on my skin. That stuff was rough!
Now imagine having enough of that stuff to cover your body, or at least your torso. That would have surely inflicted a lot of discomfort, and as some teachers explain, that was the point. Wearing sackcloth was a way to show God you were sincere in trying to make something right, or that you were genuinely remorseful over something you did.
And Jehoram wasn’t the first or the last to do this: Ahab, his father, had done this some years before (1 Kings 21, when Elijah prophesied against him) and even the king of Assyria when Jonah preached the doom of Nineveh (Jonah 3).
But even though Jehoram was wearing sackcloth, that didn’t change his heart in the least. He decided then and there that he was going to have Elisha the prophet executed that very day. Now, the rest of the story shows how the Syrian army fled and left everything behind, and how that the sky-high prices for less than desirable food came back down to affordable fare.
The point of this story is that Israel’s sin had brought them into this state. Worse, instead of repenting and seeking God, the woman in this story, Mother X, appealed to the king—and the king wanted nothing to do with this problem! Still worse, instead of repenting himself (hadn’t he heard about God’s mercy as well as judgment?) the king didn’t ask the prophet to pray—he wanted the prophet dead!
When you and I sin, we can expect discipline from the Lord. He cares and He corrects us as any good Father would do. The problem comes when we do not respond to His correction. If we keep on going on the path we choose, we shouldn’t be surprised when bad things happen. Mother X could have had a lot better situation if she had repented and turned to God. She didn’t, and that was the most terrible choice she ever made. Not only did it cost the life of her son, she may have also lost her soul—there’s no record she ever repented and believed in the God of Abraham.
The time will come when all of us will have a choice to make. Don’t make the wrong choice!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
