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 to day, and we will eat my son to morrow.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The woman's answer reveals a horror beyond famine: two mothers, starving together, have made a pact to cannibalize their own children.
Context
The king asks what is wrong. The woman then discloses something so appalling that it will move him to tear his clothes. She and another woman had made a bargain: she would surrender her son for food on the first day, and the other woman would surrender her son on the second. Cannibalism is the law of the siege.
What Does 2 Kings 6:28 Mean?
This is the nadir. Not just hunger but the destruction of the fundamental human bond: mother to child. The two women have made a contract born of desperation, a pact that turns them against nature itself. The woman's words are flat and factual: 'This woman said unto me...' as if recounting a normal arrangement. But it is anything but normal. It is the collapse of society, the inversion of all that is sacred. A mother is she who protects her child, nourishes her child, lays down her life for her child. Here, mothers are eating their own, having agreed to do so in turn. The siege has reduced human relationship to mere survival, and survival has reduced mothers to cannibals.
This is what sin does. It breaks every bond. It makes the unthinkable thinkable. In this moment, the city of Israel is no different from the cities God destroyed in Genesis for their abominations. The siege did not cause this depravity; it revealed it. Starvation did not invent the cannibalism; it disclosed what happens when people are severed from God. Yet even here, even in this horror, God is not absent. The king will hear, will grieve, will be moved to seek the prophet. Salvation comes in judgment, and the next verses will show God's intervention.
In the Original Language
ben (בֵּן), 'son' -- one's own offspring, the continuation of one's name and legacy, here offered for food
Application
When you see modern cannibalism—people devouring one another through greed, exploitation, cruelty, or despair—recognize it as the fruit of godlessness. Christ came to restore the bonds that sin breaks. Seek Him, that He might restore covenant, family, and the sanctity of life.