Dove's dung

Dove's dung appears in 2 Kings 6:25 in the account of the Aramean siege of Samaria, which produced a famine so severe that "a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five shekels." The phrase has generated scholarly debate over its interpretation: Easton presents two main views—(1) the phrase refers literally to dried bird excrement used as fuel for cooking, a practice attested in the ancient Near East and known from travelers' accounts; or (2) it designates a plant known as "dove's dung," possibly a bulbous plant (Ornithogalum umbellatum, Star of Bethlehem) whose bulbs were eaten as food in times of scarcity.

Smith and the ISBE lean toward the literal interpretation, noting that under conditions of extreme siege-starvation, even excrement used as cooking fuel could command a price. Both interpretations agree on the underlying point: the siege had reduced Samaria to consuming substances utterly unsuited for human use, illustrating the completeness of the siege's desperation before God's miraculous intervention.