Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 26:29

And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.

29. Cp. Deu 28:53; Jer 19:9, and, for the fulfilment of the prophet’s words, Lam 4:10.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 29. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, &c.] This was literally fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem. Josephus, WARS of the Jews, book vii., chap. ii., gives us a particular instance in dreadful detail of a woman named Mary, who, in the extremity of the famine during the siege, killed her sucking child, roasted, and had eaten part of it when discovered by the soldiers! See this threatened, Jer 19:9.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Through extreme hunger. See Lam 4:10.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

29. ye shall eat the flesh of yoursonsThe revolting picture was actually exhibited at the siegeof Samaria, at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (La4:10), and at the destruction of that city by the Romans. (See onDe 28:53).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons,…. Which was fulfilled at the siege of Samaria, in the times of Joram, 2Ki 6:29; and at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, La 4:10; and though there is no instance of it at that time in the sacred records, the Jews p tells us of one Doeg ben Joseph, who died and left a little one with his mother, who was very fond of him; but at this siege slew him with her own hands, and ate him, with respect to which they suppose Jeremiah makes the lamentation, La 2:2; and of this also there was an instance at the last siege of Jerusalem, by Titus, when a woman, named Mary, of a considerable family, boiled her son, and ate part of him, and the rest was found in her house when the seditious party broke in upon her, as Josephus q relates:

and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat; of which, though no instances are given, it is as reasonable to suppose it was done as the former. Some of the Jewish writers r think, that in this prediction is included, that children should eat their parents, as well as parents their children, as in Eze 5:10.

p Torat Cohanim in Yalkut, par. 1. fol. 197. 1. q De Bello. Jud. l. 6. c. 3. sect. 4. r Torat Cohanim, ib.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

29. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons. This scourge is still more severe and terrible (than the others;) (229) yet we know that the Israelites were smitten with it more than once. This savage act would be incredible; but we gather from it how terrible it is to fall into the hands of God, when men, by adding crime to crime, cease not to provoke His wrath. Jeremiah (230) mentions this monstrous case among others: “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children,” and prepared them for food, (Lam 4:10😉 and hence, not without cause, he mourns that this had not been done elsewhere, that women should devour the offspring which they themselves had brought up. (Lam 2:20.) And (231) the last siege of Jerusalem, which in the fullness of their crimes was, as it were, the final act of God’s vengeance, reduced the wretched people who were then alive to such straits, that they commonly partook of this unholy food.

When He again declares that He “will cast their carcases upon those of their idols,” He shews by the very nature of the punishment that their impiety would be manifest; for apostates take marvelous delight in their superstitions, until God openly appears as the avenger of His service. But that their idols should be cast into a common heap with the bones of the dead, was as if the finger of God pointed out His abomination of their false worship. And then, because their last resource was in sacrifices, He declares that they should be of no avail for atonement; for, in the expression, “savour of peace,” (232) He embraces all the expiatory rites, by their confidence in which they were the more obstinate. Afterwards He threatens banishment as well as the desolation of the land; by which punishment He made it apparent that they were utterly renounced, as we shall again see a little further on.

(229) Added from Fr.

(230) “Jeremie recite que cest acte monstreux est advenu de son temps;” Jeremiah relates that this monstrous act occurred in his own times. — Fr.

(231) See Josephus’ Jewish War, B. 7. c. 2.

(232) “Savour of your sweet odours.” — A. V. “Odoris pacifici.” — Lat. “D’odeur paisible, ou de repos.” — Fr.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(29) And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons.The harrowing scene here described is also depicted in Deu. 28:53-57. This prediction actually came to pass at the siege of Samaria by the Syrians (2Ki. 6:28-29), and at the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldans, which Jeremiah thus bewails, the hands of pitiful women have sodden their own children, they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people (Lam. 4:10; comp. also Jer. 19:9; Eze. 5:10; Zec. 11:9, &c.). This also happened at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. A woman named Mary killed her infant child and boiled it during the height of the famine, and after she had eaten part of it, the soldiers found the rest in her house.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

29. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons This awful prediction was literally fulfilled in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus and the Roman army. Mary of Perea, a woman of high birth and great wealth, was so maddened by hunger that she killed, roasted, and ate one half of her sucking child. See Josephus, book vi, chap. Lev 3:4.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Lev 26:29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.

Ver. 29. And ye shall eat. ] As they did. 2Ki 6:29 Lam 4:19 Pone pretium humanae corni, was once heard openly proclaimed at Rome in the reign of Honorius the Emperor. A hard case indeed. Here in England, in Edward II’s time, anno 1316, there was so terrible a famine, that horses, dogs, yea, men and children, were stolen for food, and the thieves newly brought into the jail were torn in pieces, and eaten presently half alive, by such as had been longer there. a

a Alsted, Chron. Speed’s Hist.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)