2 Reis 25:3

And on the ninth day of the fourth month. — The text is supplemented from Jeremias 39:2; Jeremias 52:6. The Syriac, however, has, “And in the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, in the fifth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine prevailed,” &c.; which may be original. (Comp. 2 Reis 25:1.)

The famine prevailed. — Not that the scarcity was first felt on that day, but that it then had reached a climax, so that defence was no longer possible. The horrors of the siege are referred to in Lamentações 2:11 seq., Lamentações 2:19 seq., Lamentações 4:3; Ezequiel 5:10; Bar. 2:3. As in the famine of Samaria and the last siege of Jerusalem, parents ate their own offspring. (Comp. the prophetic threats of Levítico 26:29; Deuteronômio 28:53 seq.; Jeremias 15:2 seq., Jeremias 27:13; Ezequiel 4:16 seq.)

The people of the land. — The population of the city, especially the families which had crowded into it from the country. Thenius, as usual, insists that the militia are meant. But these are the “men of war” (2 Reis 25:4).