This Mother Made A Terrible Choice Series

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.