2 Kings 6:25 (YLT)

Passage

and there is a great famine in Samaria, and lo, they are laying siege to it, till the head of an ass is at eighty silverlings, and a forth of the cab of dovesdung at five silverlings.

Nearby Context

2 Kings 6:23 And he prepareth for them great provision, and they eat and drink, and he sendeth them away, and they go unto their lord: and troops of Aram have not added any more to come in to the land of Israel.

2 Kings 6:24 And it cometh to pass afterwards, that Ben-Hadad king of Aram gathereth all his camp, and goeth up, and layeth siege to Samaria,

2 Kings 6:25 and there is a great famine in Samaria, and lo, they are laying siege to it, till the head of an ass is at eighty silverlings, and a forth of the cab of dovesdung at five silverlings.

2 Kings 6:26 And it cometh to pass, the king of Israel is passing by on the wall, and a woman hath cried unto him, saying, `Save, my lord, O king.'

2 Kings 6:27 And he saith, `Jehovah doth not save thee--whence do I save thee? out of the threshing-floor, or out of the wine-vat?'

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "great", "famine", "samaria", "laying", "siege", "till", "head", and "eighty". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "great" and "famine", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 24's "And it cometh to pass afterwards that..." into verse 26's "And it cometh to pass the king...", so "great" and "famine" belong inside that flow. In 2 Kings context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "great" and "famine" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.