Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 6:28
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 today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.
28. What aileth thee? ] The woman’s cry is not stopped by his answer. She has more to speak about than to ask him for food.
This woman said unto me ] It would appear as if she had brought her neighbour along with her, that what she deemed justice might be done her at once. That they should be brought to such hardships and horrors as are here described had been foretold to Israel in early times (Lev 26:29; Deu 28:53-57); cf. also Lament. 2Ki 2:20; 2Ki 4:10; Eze 5:10. Josephus relates the like dreadful sufferings in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus ( B. J. 6:3. 4).
my son ] According to the history the children were both sons. Josephus represents only one of them as a boy.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The king had assumed that the cry of the woman was for food. Her manner indicated that it was not so. He therefore proceeded to inquire what she wanted of him.
This woman – Both women, it would seem, were present; and the aggrieved one pointed to the other.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
And the king said unto her, what aileth thee?…. His passion subsiding, or pitying her as in distress, and supposing that there might be something particular and pressing in her case:
and she answered,
this woman said unto me; who was now with her, and to whom she pointed:
give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow; and this was agreed to between them, that first one should be eaten, and then the other, and that they should feed upon one as long as it would last, and then on the other; for it is not to be limited precisely to a day and tomorrow.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(28) And the king said.When she had explained what she wanted. With the hideous facts here recorded, comp. Deu. 28:56, seq. Similar things were done during the sieges of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (1Sa. 4:10; Eze. 5:10), and by Vespasian and Titus (Josephus, Bell. Jud. vi. 3, 4).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 6:28 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.
Ver. 28. Give thy son, that we may eat him. ] The like fell out among the Turks and Tartars in Hungary; a the Germans in Transylvania, 1604; the Tunetans in Africa; and the English here in Edward II’s time, A.D. 1316: so terrible was the famine, that horses, dogs, yea, men and children, were stolen for food; and the thieves newly brought into the jails were torn in pieces, and eaten presently, half-alive, by such as had been longer there. b
a Turk. Hist., 1060.
b Purch., Pilgrim., 289. Speed, 674.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
woman. One of the ten deaths occasioned by women. See note on Jdg 4:21.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
What aileth thee: Gen 21:17, Jdg 18:23, 1Sa 1:8, 2Sa 14:5, Psa 114:5, Isa 22:1
Give thy son: Lev 26:29, Deu 28:53-57, Isa 9:20, Isa 9:21, Isa 49:15, Lam 4:10, Eze 5:10, Mat 24:18-21, Luk 23:29
Reciprocal: 2Ki 6:25 – a great famine Job 39:16 – as Lam 2:20 – Shall the women
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 6:28-29. The king said, What aileth thee? Is there any thing singular in thy case? Dost thou fare worse than thy neighbours? Truly, yes: she and one of her neighbours had made a barbarous agreement, that, all provisions failing, they should boil and eat her son first, and then her neighbours: hers was eaten, (who can think on it without horror?) and now her neighbour hid hers. This shocking story is a terrible effect of the divine vengeance, which Moses, about six hundred years before, had warned the Israelites would fall upon them in case of their apostacy from, and rebellion against, God; as the reader may see in the passages referred to in the margin. The same dreadful calamity befell them at two other times besides this; at the siege of Jerusalem, under Nebuchadnezzar, Lam 2:20; Eze 5:10; and that under Titus. See Joseph., Jewish War, lib. 7, c. 10.