מלכים ב, פרק ו׳, פסוק כ״ה

A devastating double disaster strikes the city of Samaria, as a severe natural famine collides with a suffocating military siege. This crisis unfolded right in the middle of a seven-year famine during the days of the prophet Elisha. Because the land was already suffering, the city had no grain reserves prepared before the enemy surrounded them [מלבי״ם]. The siege then sealed their fate, completely blocking any new food from entering the city walls and pushing the residents to the absolute edge of starvation [מצודת דוד].

The sheer desperation of the people caused a sharp spike in prices, where items normally considered completely worthless were sold for massive sums. For instance, a donkey's head was sold for eighty silver pieces [מצודת דוד]. The donkey is an impure animal, and its meat is of poor quality. Yet, the overwhelming hunger forced the people to consume impure animals and even repulsive creatures just to survive [רד״ק, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

The situation was so dire that even a tiny measure—a quarter of a kab—of dove droppings was sold for five silver pieces [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Commentators offer different explanations for why people would pay for such waste. One approach suggests the droppings were used as fuel for fires. Because the siege was so tight, the residents were trapped inside and could not go out to the forests to gather wood [רד״ק, מצודת ציון].

However, other commentators question why droppings would be in such high demand specifically during a famine, arguing instead that they were actually used for food. According to this view, doves would fly over the city walls to the fields outside, eat their fill of the grain ruined by the enemy army, and return to the city. The starving residents would then sift through the dove droppings to find and eat the undigested grain seeds [רלב״ג]. A similar perspective explains that the desperate people would extract the undigested grain directly from the crop, or stomach pouch, of the doves [רד״ק בשם אביו].