2 Kings 6:25

6:25 Samaria’s food supply ran out. ¹  They laid siege to it so long that ²  a donkey’s head was selling for eighty shekels of silver ³  and a quarter of a kab ⁴  of dove’s droppings ⁵  for five shekels of silver. ⁶ 

2 Kings 7:13

7:13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people – we’re all going to die!) ⁷  Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” ⁸ 

2 Kings 25:19

25:19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five ⁹  of the king’s advisers ¹⁰  who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ¹¹  for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city.

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¹ tn Heb “and there was a great famine in Samaria.”

² tn Heb “and look, [they] were besieging it until.”

³ tn Heb “eighty, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

⁴ sn A kab was a unit of dry measure, equivalent to approximately one quart.

⁵ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) reads, “dove dung” (חֲרֵייוֹנִים, khareyonim), while the marginal reading (Qere) has “discharge” (דִּבְיוֹנִים, divyonim). Based on evidence from Akkadian, M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 79) suggest that “dove’s dung” was a popular name for the inedible husks of seeds.

⁶ tn Heb “five, silver.” The unit of measurement is omitted.

⁷ tn Heb “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.” The MT is dittographic here; the words “that remain in it. Look they are like all the people of Israel” have been accidentally repeated. The original text read, “Let them take five of the remaining horses that remain in it. Look, they are like all the people of Israel that have come to an end.”

⁸ tn Heb “and let us send so we might see.”

⁹ tn The parallel passage in Jer 52:25 has “seven.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “five seers of the king’s face.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the people of the land.”