2Ki 6:24-25 | NET2full | STEP | Later King Ben Hadad of Syria assembled his entire army and attacked and besieged Samaria .

‏ 2 Kings 6:24-25

The Lord Saves Samaria

24 Later King Ben Hadad of Syria assembled his entire army and attacked ^{▼▼tn Heb “went up.”} and besieged Samaria. 25 Samaria’s food supply ran out. ^{▼▼tn Heb “and there was a great famine in Samaria.”} They laid siege to it so long that ^{▼▼tn Heb “and look, [they] were besieging it until.”} a donkey’s head was selling for eighty shekels of silver ^{▼▼tn Heb “eighty, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.} and a quarter of a kab ^{▼▼sn A kab was a unit of dry measure, equivalent to approximately 2 quarts (2 liters).} of dove’s droppings ^{▼▼tn The consonantal text (Kethib) reads “dove dung” (חֲרֵייוֹנִים, khareyonim), while the marginal reading (Qere) has “discharge” (דִּבְיוֹנִים, divyonim). Based on evidence from Akkadian, M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 79) suggest that “dove’s dung” was a popular name for the inedible husks of seeds.} for five shekels of silver. ^{▼▼tn Heb “five, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.}