Bible Verses About Siege

If at any time thou come to fight against a city, thou shalt first offer it peace.

If they receive it, and open the gates to thee, all the people that are therein, shall be saved, and shall serve thee paying tribute.

But if they will not make peace, and shall begin war against thee, thou shalt besiege it.

When thou hast besieged a city a long time, and hath compassed it with bulwarks, to take it, thou shalt not cut down the trees that may be eaten of, neither shalt thou spoil the country round about with axes: for it is a tree, and not a man, neither can it increase the number of them that fight against thee.

But if there be any trees that are not fruitful, but wild, and fit for other uses, cut them down, and make engines, until thou take the city, which fighteth against thee.

And it came to pass, after these things, that Benadad, king of Syria, gathered together all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria.

And there was a great famine in Samaria: and so long did the siege continue, till the head of an ass was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cabe of pigeons' dung, for five pieces of silver.

And as the king of Israel was passing by the wall, a certain woman cried out to him, saying: Save me, my lord, O king.

And he said: If the Lord doth not save thee, how can I save thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? And the king said to her: What aileth thee? And she answered:

This woman said to me: Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.

So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day: Give thy son, that we may eat him. And she hath hid her son.

The ninth day of the month: and a famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

And he shall turn to the right hand, and shall be hungry: and shall eat on the left hand, and shall not be filled: every one shall eat the flesh of his own arm: Manasses Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasses, and they together shall be against Juda.

And I will make a circle round about thee, and I will cast up a rampart against thee, and raise up bulwarks to besiege thee.

And Rabsaces said to them: Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee, to speak all these words; and not rather to the men that sit on the wall; that they may eat their own dung, and drink their urine with you?

Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a trench about it.

And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters: and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege, and in the distress wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.