Deuteronomy 28:55

55 refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates. ^[a]

Deuteronomy 28:55 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 28:55

So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his
children whom he shall eat
Neither give to a brother, nor to a wife, nor to any of his remaining children, the least bit of the flesh of a child he has killed and dressed for his own food; which adds to the barbarity of his action:

because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness
wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates;
every creature being eaten up, dogs, cats and whatsoever else could be any ways made food of; as the dung of beasts, belts, shoes, the leather on shields as Josephus ^F4 says they did eat; and this being the case, nothing eatable remaining, therefore his heart would be hardened against his nearest relations, and not allow them the least part with him, even of what was so shocking and unnatural.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F4 De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 3. sect. 3.

Deuteronomy 28:55 In-Context

53 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 on you.

54 The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived,

55 refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates.

56 The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter

57 the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or within all your cities; similarly in verse 57