Bible Strands
2 Kings 6:29
So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The unnamed woman speaks to the king of Israel after he asks what troubles her. She recounts her desperate proposal to a neighbor during the siege, following the consumption of her own child.
The words — The text highlights וַ/נְּבַשֵּׁ֥ל (va./ne.va.Shel, "and we cooked") and וַ/נֹּֽאכְלֵ֑/הוּ (va./no.khe.Le./hu, "and we ate him") to record the act. It marks the timeline with בַּ/יּ֣וֹם הָ/אַחֵ֗ר (ba/i.Yom ha./'a.Cher, "on the next day") to show the plan's continuation.
The thread — This event fulfills the famine curses of Leviticus 26:29 and Deuteronomy 28:53, which warn that covenant disobedience will produce cannibalism. It specifically mirrors Deuteronomy 28:57, which describes a mother secretly eating her children due to extreme lack.
Why it lands — The account requires a reader to see the narrative as the literal realization of covenant warnings rather than isolated desperation. It demands acknowledgment that the text presents siege horror as the direct consequence of broken covenant boundaries.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
- 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.
- Deuteronomy 28:57 the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.
- 1 Kings 3:26 Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”
- Isaiah 49:15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!
- Isaiah 66:13 As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you, and you will be consoled over Jerusalem.”