Famine in sieges in the Bible

• Curses in the Law describe parents eating their children in a siegeLev 26:29, Deut 28:53–57
  The verses

  Lev 26:29You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.

  Deut 28:53–57Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you. The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived, refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates. The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.

Samaria

• In the siege of Samaria a donkey's head sold for a fortune in silver2 Kgs 6:24–25
  The verses

  2 Kgs 6:24–25Some time later, Ben-hadad king of Aram assembled his entire army and marched up to besiege Samaria. So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.
• Two mothers agreed to eat their sons; one hid hers2 Kgs 6:28–29
  The verses

  2 Kgs 6:28–29Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’ So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.”
• Hearing it, the king tore his clothes; he wore sackcloth underneath2 Kgs 6:30
  The verses

  2 Kgs 6:30When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. And as he passed by on the wall, the people saw the sackcloth under his clothes next to his skin.

Jerusalem

• Lamentations: women ate their own infants in the fall of JerusalemLam 2:20, Lam 4:10
  The verses

  Lam 2:20Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

  Lam 4:10The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.