By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
Parallel translations
- WEB On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
- KJV And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
- NKJV By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.
- NASB On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.
- NLT By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine is so severe there is no bread. The siege brings the people to starvation.
Overview
The prolonged blockade produces a devastating famine, leaving the inhabitants without food. This horror fulfills the specific covenant curses warned of in the Law and by the prophets (Lev. 26; Jer. 21). The suffering reveals the bitter fruit of national sin and the seriousness of forsaking the Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Lev 26:26When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
- Ezek 7:15The sword is outside; plague and famine are within. Those in the country will die by the sword, and those in the city will be devoured by famine and plague.
- Ezek 14:21For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?
- Deut 28:52–53They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you.
- Jer 38:2“This is what the LORD says: Whoever stays in this city will die by sword and famine and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live; he will retain his life like a spoil of war, and he will live.
- Lam 4:4–10The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any.
- Jer 52:6By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
- Ezek 5:12A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.
- Jer 37:21So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
- Jer 39:2And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city was breached.
- Ezek 5:10As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’
- Zech 8:19“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: The fasts of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months will become times of joy and gladness, cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore you are to love both truth and peace.”
- Ezek 4:9–17But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side.
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Christ at the center
Amid the long decline toward exile, the promise to David's house refuses to die; the flickering lamp kept burning anticipates the coming King who will not fail or be cut off.
How 2 Kings 25:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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