The number of the fourth month is missing in the Hebrew, but it is correctly supplied in Jer. 52:6. The fourth month is approximately our July. In Zedekiah’s 11th year the ninth of the fourth month was probably July 19, 586 B.C. (see on v. 1).

 By this time the famine had become so severe that defense was no longer possible. Mothers ate their own children in the extremity, and the skin of the sufferers became black and parched (Lam. 2:11, 12, 19, 20; 4:3-10; 5:10). The Lord had warned His people that such terrible conditions would be the result of transgression (Lev. 26:29; Deut. 28:53-57; Jer. 14:12-16; 15:2; 27:8, 13; Eze. 4:16, 17; 5:10, 12).