Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 25:3

"On the ninth day of the [fourth] month the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land." — 2 Kings 25:3 (ASV)

And on the ninth day of the fourth month. —The text is supplemented from Jeremiah 39:2 and Jeremiah 52:6. The Syriac, however, has, “And in the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, in the fifth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine prevailed,” etc. which may be original. (Compare to 2 Kings 25:1.)

The famine prevailed. —Not that the scarcity was first felt on that day, but that it then had reached a climax, so that defence was no longer possible. The horrors of the siege are referred to in Lamentations 2:11 and following, Lamentations 2:19 and following, Lamentations 4:3–10, Ezekiel 5:10, and Baruch 2:3. As in the famine of Samaria and the last siege of Jerusalem, parents ate their own offspring. (Compare to the prophetic threats of Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53 and following; Jeremiah 15:2 and following, Jeremiah 27:13; and Ezekiel 4:16 and following.)

The people of the land. —The population of the city, especially the families which had crowded into it from the country. Thenius, as usual, insists that the militia are meant. But these are the men of war (2 Kings 25:4).