Dove's dung (Hebrew: חרייונים, romanized: ḥărê yōnîm; in Septuagint κόπρου περιστερῶν, koprou peristelōn)[1] is named as a commodity (possibly a food) whose price had escalated during a famine in Samaria reported in 2 Kings 6:25, when the city was besieged by the Syrian (Aram-Damascus) armies.
The narrative describes how, during the siege of Samaria by Syrian king Ben-Hadad, a quarter of a kab (i.e. about one pint or 600 mL) of 'dove's dung' was sold for five shekels of silver (about 55 grams or nearly two troy ounces).
[2] At the same time, a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver (nearly one kilogram or two troy pounds).
[5][6] Jewish historian Josephus suggested that dove's dung could have been used as a salt substitute.
[7] A third option, followed by the translations of NEB ("locust beans") and NJPS ("carob pods") is based on Akkadian evidence: in a lexical list of plants, ḫalla/ze summāti, "dove's dung," is defined as zēr ašāgi = ḫarūbu, "the seed of the (false) carob.