2 Kings 25:3

By the ninth day of the fourth month ¹  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ²  had no food.

By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.

On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

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.

By the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so bad that there wasn't so much as a crumb of bread for anyone.

Now on the ninth day of the fourth month, the store of food in the town was almost gone, so that there was no food for the people of the land.

On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

By the ninth day of the fourth month ¹  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ²  had no food.

¹ tn The MT has simply “of the month,” but the parallel passage in Jer 52:6 has “fourth month,” and this is followed by almost all English translations. The word “fourth,” however, is not actually present in the MT of 2 Kgs 25:3.

sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

² tn Heb “the people of the land.”