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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 26:26And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
- Ezek 7:15The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
- Ezek 14:21For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?
- Deut 28:52–53And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
- Jer 38:2Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.
- Lam 4:4–10The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
- Jer 52:6And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
- Ezek 5:12A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
- Jer 37:21Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
- Jer 39:2And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.
- Ezek 5:10Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.
- Zech 8:19Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.
- Ezek 4:9–17Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
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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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