John Gill Commentary


John Gill Commentary
"And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, whom Jehovah thy God hath given thee, in the siege and in the distress wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee." — Deuteronomy 28:53 (ASV)
And you shall eat the fruit of your body
Than which nothing can be more shocking and unnatural, which is explained as follows:
the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, which the Lord your God
has given you ;
which is an aggravation of the cruel and inhuman fact:
in the siege, and in the straitness wherewith your enemies shall
distress you ;
this shows the cause of it, a famine by reason of the closeness of the siege, so that no provisions could be brought in for their relief; and all within being eaten up, and everything that was eatable, even the most nauseous and disagreeable, they would be led on to this strange, unheard of, and barbarous action, eating their own children. This was fulfilled in the siege of Samaria, (2 Kings 6:25 2 Kings 6:28 2 Kings 6:29) ; and in the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, (Lamentations 2:10) (4:10)
and again in the Apocrypha: ``Moreover he hath delivered them to be in subjection to all the kingdoms that are round about us, to be as a reproach and desolation among all the people round about, where the Lord hath scattered them.'' and in the siege of the same city by the Romans; of which an instance will be hereafter given.