So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. So we boiled my son - This is horrible; but for the sake of humanity we must allow that the children died through hunger, and then became food for their starved, desperate parents.
She hath hid her son - He was already dead, says Jarchi; and she hid him, that she might eat him alone.
This very evil Moses had foretold should come upon them if they forsook God; see Deuteronomy 28:53-57. The same evil came upon this wretched people when besieged by Nebuchadnezzar; see Ezekiel 5:10. And also when Titus besieged Jerusalem; see Josephus, De Bell. Judaic. lib. vi., cap. 3, and my notes on Matthew 24:19.