²³ So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands^(A) from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.

Famine in Besieged Samaria

²⁴ Some time later, Ben-Hadad^(B) king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege^(C) to Samaria. ²⁵ There was a great famine^(D) in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels^[a] of silver, and a quarter of a cab^[b] of seed pods^[c](E) for five shekels.^[d]

²⁶ As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”

²⁷ The king replied, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?” ²⁸ Then he asked her, “What’s the matter?”

She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’

¹⁰ For the Most Holy Place he made a pair^(A) of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold. ¹¹ The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits^[a] long and touched the temple wall, while its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub. ¹² Similarly one wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and touched the other temple wall, and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the first cherub. ¹³ The wings of these cherubim^(B) extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main hall.^[b]

⁷ The priests then brought the ark^(A) of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim.

⁸ The cherubim^(A) spread their wings over the place of the ark and covered the ark and its carrying poles.