2 Kings 6:25

_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._ An ass' head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver. Though the donkey was deemed unclean food, necessity might warrant their violation of a positive law when mothers, in their extremity, were found violating the laws of nature. The head was the worst part of the animal. Eighty pieces of silver, equal to œ5, 5s. THE FOURTH PART OF A CAB. A cab was the smallest dry measure. The proportion here stated was nearly half a pint for 12 shillings, 6d. "Dove's dung" is thought by Bochart to be a kind of pulse or pea, common in Judaea, and still kept in the storehouses of Cairo and Damascus, and other places, for the use of it by pilgrim caravans. By Linnoeus and other botanists it is said to...

24-33 Learn to value plenty, and to be thankful for it; see how contemptible money is, when in time of famine it is so freely parted with for any thing that is eatable! The language of Jehoram to the woman may be the language of despair. See the word of God fulfilled; among the threatenings of God's judgments upon Israel for their sins, this was one, that they should eat the flesh of their own children, Deuteronomy 28:53-5. The truth and the awful justice of God were displayed in this horrible transaction. Alas! what miseries sin has brought upon the world! But the foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord. The king swears the death of Elisha. Wicked men will blame any one as the cause of their troubles, rather than themselves, and will not leave their sins. If rending the clothes, without a broken and contrite heart, would avail, if wearing sackcl...

Verse 2 Kings 6:25. _AND, BEHOLD, THEY BESIEGED IT_] They had closed it in on every side, and reduced it to the greatest necessity. _AN ASS'S HEAD WAS SOLD FOR FOURSCORE_ PIECES _OF SILVER_] I suppose we are to take the _ass's head_ literally; and if the _head_ sold for so much, what must other parts sell for which were much to be preferred? The famine must be great that could oblige them to eat any part of an animal that was proscribed by the law; and it must be still greater that could oblige them to purchase so _mean a part_ of this _unclean_ animal at so _high a price_. The _piece of silver_ was probably the _drachm_, worth about _seven pence three farthings_ of our money; the whole amounting to about _two pounds nine_ _shillings_. And the fourth part of a cab of

As the donkey was “unclean,” it would not be eaten except in the last resort; and its head would be its worst and cheapest part. CAB - This measure is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture. According to the rabbinical writers it was the smallest of all the dry measures in use among the Jews, being the sixth part of a seah, which was the third part of an ephah. If it was about equal to two of our quarts, the “fourth part of a cab” would be about a pint. DOVE’S DUNG - Most commentators understand by this expression a sort of pulse which is called “dove’s dung,” or “sparrow’s dung” in Arabic. But it is possible that the actual excrement of pigeons is meant. The records of sieges show that both animal and human excrement have been used as food - under circumstances of extreme necessity....

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-7:20 FURTHER MIRACLES WROUGHT BY ELISHA. The historian relates first a (comparatively) private miracle wrought by Elisha in the vicinity of Jericho, for the benefit of one of the "sons of the prophets" (2 Kings 7:1). He then tells us briefly of a series of public miracles which brought Elisha into much note and prominence. War, it appears, had again broken out in a pronounced form between Israel and Syria, Syria being the aggressor. The Syrian monarch prepared traps for his adversary, encamping in places where he hoped to take him at a disadvantage. But Elisha frustrated these plans, by addressing warnings to the King of Israel, and pointing out to him the various positions occupied ...

AND THERE WAS A GREAT FAMINE IN SAMARIA,.... No care, perhaps, having been taken to lay up stores against a siege: AND, BEHOLD, THEY BESIEGED IT UNTIL AN ASS'S HEAD WAS [SOLD] FOR FOURSCORE [PIECES] OF SILVER; shekels, as the Targum explains the word in the next clause, which amounted to about nine or ten pounds of our money; a great price for the head of such a creature, by law unclean, its flesh disagreeable, and of that but very little, as is on an head: AND THE FOURTH PART OF A CAB OF DOVES' DUNG FOR FIVE PIECES OF SILVER; some of the Jewish writers say h, this was bought for fuel, which was scarce: Josephus says i, for salt, and so Procopious Gazaeus, and Theodoret; others, for dunging the lands, which is the use of it in Persia k for melons; neither of which are probable; most certainly it was for food; but as doves' dung must be not only disagreeable, but scarce affording any no...

5. ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The lost axe-head recovered (2 Kings 6:1)_ 2. Elisha makes known Ben-hadad's plans (2 Kings 6:8) 3. Elisha's arrest planned (2 Kings 6:13) 4. The blinded Syrians led to Samaria (2 Kings 6:18) 5. Samaria besieged (2 Kings 6:24) 6. The king's wrath against Elisha (2 Kings 6:31) It has been truly said that the miracle of the swimming axe-head reveals the condescension of

AN AXEHEAD SWIMS. ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS AT DOTHAN. In several minor miracles Elisha is always represented as working them not by his word, but by some expedient. Thus he heals the miscarrying waters by salt, and the pot by meal, and recovers the axehead by casting a stick into the water. The prophet appears in the second narrative as the moving spirit in the Syrian war. Whenever the king of Syria devised an ambush (2 Kings 6:8, with a slight alteration of reading), Elisha revealed the secret. Elisha was at Dothan (2 Kings 6:13), a city standing on a hill about 10 miles N. of Samaria, on the caravan road from Egypt to Damascus (Genesis 37:17, p. 30). Elisha was defended, as we are finely told, by horses and chariots of f

FAMINE. One of the thirteen recorded in Scripture. See note on Genesis 12:10. ASS'S HEAD. This was unclean food. PIECES. Supply Figure of speech _Ellipsis_ (App-6), "shekels" instead of "pieces". CAB. Only occurrence. See App-51. DOVE'S DUNG.. _Euphemism_ (App-6) is included in official Massoretic lists as being substituted for this indelicate expression, the word meaning "decayed leaves". Whichever is the meaning, it was always highly valuable as manure, especially to force growth during dearth....

_a great famine in Samaria_ The walls were protection enough, but the enemy lay outside, and the provisions came to an end. _an ass's head_ This would not, except in dire extremity, be taken for food, but they were in such straits in Samaria that 80 shekels of silver were now given for it. _a kab_ So R.V. The measure is not mentioned elsewhere, but is said to have been the sixth part of a _seah_, which is more frequently spoken of. The kab is put as an equivalent to the Greek χοῖνιξ. _dove's dung_ Supposed by some to be the name of a very worthless kind of pulse, which in ordinary times nobody dreamt of eating, but of which now a small quantity fetched a large price. That excrement has been used for food in times of famine we have examples (Joseph. _B. F._v. 2 Kings 13:7), but that dove's dung should have been specially gathered for this purpose would