This was according to what God had threatened in case of disobedience, Deu_28:57, and a thing which hath often happened in sieges, 2Ki_6:29. Such things did happen in the last destruction of Jerusalem, as we read in Josephus; and though we read of no such thing happening in the siege of it by Nebuchadnezzar, yet that there were some such sad instances appears from this text.