Deuteronomy 28:53

53 You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.

Deuteronomy 28:53 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 28:53

And thou shall eat the fruit of thine body
Than which nothing can be more shocking and unnatural, which is explained as follows:

the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God
hath given thee;
which is an aggravation of the cruel and inhuman fact:

in the siege, and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall
distress thee;
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.'' (Baruch 2:4)

and in the siege of the same city by the Romans; of which an instance will be hereafter given.

Deuteronomy 28:53 In-Context

51 and shall eat the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; that also shall not leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your cattle, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

52 They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you.

53 You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.

54 The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining;

55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates.