Food vs. Gold

I came across this in my recent reading. From 2 King, Chapter 6:

24 ¶And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. 

25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver. 

26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. 

27 And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? 

28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. 

29 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.