| Geneva Study Bible And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine {c} prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. (c) So much that the mothers ate their children, La 4:10. Wesley's Notes 25:3 The people - For the common people, but only for the great men. Now they eat their own children for want of food, Lam 4:3, and c. Jeremiah in this extremity, earnestly persuaded the king to surrender; but his heart was hardened to his destruction. Scofield Reference Notes Margin fourth month i.e. July. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 3. on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed-In consequence of the close and protracted blockade, the inhabitants were reduced to dreadful extremities; and under the maddening influence of hunger, the most inhuman atrocities were perpetrated (La 2:20, 22; 4:9, 10; Eze 5:10). This was a fulfilment of the prophetic denunciations threatened on the apostasy of the chosen people (Le 26:29; De 28:53-57; Jer 15:2; 27:13; Eze 4:16). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 25:1-7 Jerusalem was so fortified, that it could not be taken till famine rendered the besieged unable to resist. In the prophecy and Lamentations of Jeremiah, we find more of this event; here it suffices to say, that the impiety and misery of the besieged were very great. At length the city was taken by storm. The king, his family, and his great men escaped in the night, by secret passages. But those deceive themselves who think to escape God's judgments, as much as those who think to brave them. By what befell Zedekiah, two prophecies, which seemed to contradict each other, were both fulfilled. Jeremiah prophesied that Zedekiah should be brought to Babylon, Jer 32:5; 34:3; Ezekiel, that he should not see Babylon, Eze 12:13. He was brought thither, but his eyes being put out, he did not see it. | 
