The Siege Is Over!

A “siege” is a military term, which the dictionary describes as a “military blockade of a city or fortified place to compel it to surrender”. This was common in Biblical times. In those days, cities were usually surrounded with walls to protect them from invasion by other nations. There is usually a city gate attached to the wall. Anytime there was a threat to the peace and security of a city, the gates were closed, and that effectively prevented anyone from going in or coming out.

Whilst this is an excellent military strategy, it also has the effect of cutting off food and other supplies that are needed for daily sustenance. Thus, those shut in the city were left with what was planted within the walls or what they had before the siege began. The invading army will usually encamp around the city under siege, ready to rush in or take over when the gates were opened. Sometimes the siege could last for several days, as when Israel encamped against the city of Jericho in Joshua 6:6-21 and Walls of Jericho fell after 7days, or when King Nebuchadnezzar encamped against the city of Tyre for about 13 years (see Ezekiel 29:17-22). Sometimes, the invading army will leave the city alone because they don’t have a choice. That what happened when King Sennacherib of Assyria laid a siege on Judah during the reign of King Hezekiah (see Isaiah 37:8-37) One night, God sent just one angel who killed 185,000 soldiers!

The awful effects of a siege are well chronicles in Deuteronomy 28:49-57, where the Bible says:

“The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, 50 a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. 51 It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

52 “They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you. 53 And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. 54 The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces,[d] and to the last of the children whom he has left, 55 so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. 56 The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces,[e] to her son and to her daughter, 57 her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.” ESV

The King of Syria had laid a siege against the city of Samaria at the time of King Jehoram. The famine in the land was so severe that people resorted to cannibalism. Food considered to be unclean was not only eaten but became extremely expensive, so that only those who were able to afford them could buy them. Thus, things like doves dung or waste became an expensive commodity. The Bible records, in 2 Kings 6:24-33:

“Afterward Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria, as they besieged it, until a donkey'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 on 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, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?” 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.” 30 When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body— 31 and he said, “May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today.”