Syrians had already attacked Israel's capital twice before, reported in 1 Kings 20. This time they surround and besiege the city long enough that the people inside the walled city began to run out of food.
People trapped inside the city started running out of food. So the food got expensive. A donkey’s head cost two pounds of silver—which was 80 coins. And a two-ounce cup of dove droppings cost five silver coins.
Children, cooked an eaten
The king took a walk on the city wall one day and a woman called out to him, “My king, please help me!” He said, “If the LORD can’t save you, what can I do? I can’t find grain on a bare threshing floor. I can’t give you a drink of wine from an empty winepress.”Then the king said, “What’s wrong?” She said, “See this woman. She told me, ‘Give up your son. We will eat him today and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said, ‘It’s time to give up your son so we can eat him.’ But she hid him.”When the king heard that, he ripped his robe right in front of them. After that people could see that he had been in mourning all along, wearing scratchy sackcloth beneath his outer robe.
Mysterious noise scares off the Syrian army
Syrians had run away in a panic, fooled by God. They thought they heard the thunder of a massive army of cavalry and chariots attacking. They guessed it might be the Hittites and the Egyptians, both coming to save Israel.So they fled at dusk, just before the Israelite men arrived. Syrians left nearly everything they had brought, including their tents and livestock such as horses and donkeys.
