Bible Strands
2 Kings 6:28
Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The king questions a distressed woman during a famine siege, responding to her desperate plea for intervention.
The words — The Hebrew מַה (mah) means "what?" and הָ/אִשָּׁ֨ה הַ/זֹּ֜את (ha.'i.Shah ha.Zot) means "this woman," capturing the king's direct inquiry and the woman's specific attribution of a horrific proposal.
The thread — The king's question mirrors 2 Samuel 14:5 and Judges 18:23, while the reported cannibalism directly fulfills the curse outlined in Leviticus 26:29.
Why it lands — The text records a woman's literal account of a neighbor's proposal to consume each other's sons, requiring a reader to face the concrete reality of covenant judgment before drawing any theological conclusion.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 14:5 “What troubles you?” the king asked her. “Indeed,” she said, “I am a widow, for my husband is dead.
- Leviticus 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
- Judges 18:23 When they called out after them, the Danites turned to face them and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you that you have called out such a company?”
- Lamentations 4:10 The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Luke 23:29 Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
- Genesis 21:17 Then God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he lies.
- Deuteronomy 28:53 Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you.
- 1 Samuel 1:8 “Hannah, why are you crying?” her husband Elkanah asked. “Why won’t you eat? Why is your heart so grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”
- Psalms 114:5 Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back,
- Isaiah 9:20 They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.