2Ki 25:3 Cross References

2 Kings 25:3

3: By July 18 of Zedekiah's eleventh year, the famine in the city had become very severe, with the last of the food entirely gone.

"Now this is what the Sovereign LORD says: How terrible it will be when all four of these fearsome punishments fall upon Jerusalem--war, famine, beasts, and plague--destroying all her people and animals.

A third of your people will die in the city from famine and disease. A third of them will be slaughtered by the enemy outside the city walls. And I will scatter a third to the winds and chase them with my sword.

They will lay siege to your cities until all the fortified walls in your land--the walls you trusted to protect you--are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the LORD your God has given you.
The siege will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you.

I will completely destroy your food supply, so the bread from one oven will have to be stretched to feed ten families. They will ration your food by weight, and even if you have food to eat, you will not be satisfied.

"This is what the LORD says: Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who surrender to the Babylonians will live.

The parched tongues of their little ones stick with thirst to the roofs of their mouths. The children cry for bread, but no one has any to give them.
The people who once ate only the richest foods now beg in the streets for anything they can get. Those who once lived in palaces now search the garbage pits for food.
The guilt of my people is greater than that of Sodom, where utter disaster struck in a moment with no one to help them.
Our princes were once glowing with health; they were as clean as snow and as elegant as jewels.
But now their faces are blacker than soot. No one even recognizes them. Their skin sticks to their bones; it is as dry and hard as wood.

By July 18 of Zedekiah's eleventh year, the famine in the city had become very severe, with the last of the food entirely gone.

Any who leave the city walls will be killed by enemy swords. Those who stay inside will die of famine and disease.

"This is what the LORD Almighty says: The traditional fasts and times of mourning you have kept in early summer, midsummer, autumn, and winter are now ended. They will become festivals of joy and celebration for the people of Judah. So love truth and peace.

Parents will eat their own children, and children will eat their parents. And I will punish you by scattering the few who survive to the far reaches of the earth.

So King Zedekiah commanded that Jeremiah not be returned to the dungeon. Instead, he was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace. The king also commanded that Jeremiah be given a loaf of fresh bread every day as long as there was any left in the city. So Jeremiah was put in the palace prison.

"Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use this food to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side.
Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces of food for each day, and eat it at set times.
Then measure out a jar of water for each day, and drink it at set times.
Each day prepare your bread as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.
For this is what the LORD says: Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands, where I will banish them!"

Two and a half years later, on July 18, the Babylonians broke through the wall, and the city fell.

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