Leviticus 26:29
in Leviticus 26You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
KJV
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
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This verse in Leviticus 26
Commentary
4 notes on this verseYe shall eat the flesh of your sons, etc. - This was literally fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book vii., chap. ii., gives us a particular instance in dreadful detail of a woman named Mary, who, in the extremity of the famine during the siege, killed her sucking child, roasted, and had eaten part of it when discovered by the soldiers! See this threatened, Jer 19:9 (note).
This site's exposition
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons
This is the floor of the passage, and Scripture records it happening. Two women agree to it during the siege of Samaria at 2 Kings 6:28-29, and Lamentations 4:10 says the hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children in the fall of Jerusalem. Deuteronomy 28:53-57 gives the same warning at greater length, and Josephus describes it again inside Jerusalem during the siege of AD 70.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
ye shall eat the flesh of your sons--The revolting picture was actually exhibited at the siege of Samaria, at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (La 4:10), and at the destruction of that city by the Romans.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַאֲכַלְתֶּ֖ם | vaakhaltem | and you will eat | H398 → | 810 times |
| בְּשַׂ֣ר | besar | [the] flesh of | H1320 → | 270 times |
| בְּנֵיכֶ֑ם | beneikhem | sons your | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| וּבְשַׂ֥ר | uvesar | and [the] flesh of | H1320 → | 270 times |
| בְּנֹתֵיכֶ֖ם | benoteikhem | daughters your | H1323 → | 588 times |
| תֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃ | tokhelu | you will eat | H398 → | 810 times |
וַאֲכַלְתֶּ֖םand you will eat
vaakhaltemH398 →810 times
בְּשַׂ֣ר[the] flesh of
besarH1320 →270 times
בְּנֵיכֶ֑םsons your
beneikhemH1121 →4930 times
וּבְשַׂ֥רand [the] flesh of
uvesarH1320 →270 times
בְּנֹתֵיכֶ֖םdaughters your
benoteikhemH1323 →588 times
תֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃you will eat
tokheluH398 →810 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Lamentations 2:20Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
it leads to
- Jeremiah 19:9
I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Lamentations 4:10
The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 19:9
Through
Matthew 24:19How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
it leads to
- Luke 23:29–30
Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
- Deuteronomy 28:53–56
Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict…
- Luke 21:23
How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people.
- Mark 13:17–18
How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
- Luke 23:29–30
Through
Ezekiel 5:10As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’
it leads to
- Zechariah 2:6
“Get up! Get up! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the LORD, “for I have scattered you like the four winds of heaven,” declares the LORD.
- Zechariah 2:6
Through
Lamentations 4:10The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
it leads to
- Isaiah 49:15
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!
- Isaiah 49:15
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Leviticus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).