Famine
79 passages listed in Nave’s Topical Bible and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook. Verse text: Berean Standard Bible; links open in your translation.
53 sections
- A Dearth of the Means of Grace
- Cannibalism In
- Caused by Blasting and Mildew
- Caused by Devastation by Enemies
- Caused by God's Blessing Withheld
- Caused by Rotting of the Seed in the Ground
- Caused by Swarms of Insects
- Caused by Want of Seasonable Rain
- Caused: Blackness of the Skin
- Caused: Burning and Fever
- Caused: Death
- Caused: Faintness
- Caused: Grief and Mourning
- Caused: Wasting of the Body
- Described
- Destruction of Idols
- Expressed by Cleanness of Teeth
- Expressed by Taking Away the Stay of Bread
- Expressed by The Arrows of Famine
- Figurative
- God Provided for his People During
- Instances of, in Scripture in the Day of the Judges
- Instances of, in Scripture in the Days of Abraham
- Instances of, in Scripture in the Days of Isaac
- Instances of, in Scripture in the Days of Joseph
- Instances of, in Scripture in the Reign of Ahab
- Instances of, in Scripture in the Reign of Claudius Caesar
- Instances of, in Scripture in the Reign of David
- Instances of, in Scripture in the Time of Elisha
- Instances of, in Scripture in the Time of Jeremiah
- Instances of, in Scripture of Seven Years Foretold by Elisha
- Instances of, in Scripture: After the Captivity
- Instances of, in Scripture: Before Destruction of Jerusalem
- Instances of, in Scripture: During the Siege of Jerusalem
- Instances of, in Scripture: During the Siege of Samaria
- Often Accompanied by War
- Often Followed by Pestilence
- Often Long Continued
- Often on Account of Sin
- Often Severe
- One of God's Four Sore Judgments
- Pharaoh Forewarned of, in Dreams
- Provisions Sold by Weight During
- Righteous Delivered From
- Sent As a Judgment
- Sent by God
- Suffering of Brute Creation From
- The Jews in Their Restored State not to be Afflicted By
- Things Eaten During: Donkey's Flesh
- Things Eaten During: Dung
- Things Eaten During: Human Flesh
- Things Eaten During: Wild Herbs
- Universal
A Dearth of the Means of Grace
- Amos 8:11–12 Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land — not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. …
Cannibalism In
- Deuteronomy 28:53 Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you.
- 2 Kings 6:28 Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’
Caused by Blasting and Mildew
- Amos 4:9 “I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
- Haggai 2:17 I struck you— all the work of your hands— with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.
Caused by Devastation by Enemies
- Deuteronomy 28:33 A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
- Deuteronomy 28:51 They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish.
Caused by God's Blessing Withheld
- Hosea 2:8–9 For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold — which they crafted for Baal. …
- Haggai 1:6 You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”
Caused by Rotting of the Seed in the Ground
- Joel 1:17 The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away.
Caused by Swarms of Insects
- Deuteronomy 28:38 You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.
- Deuteronomy 28:42 Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
- Joel 1:4 What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.
Caused by Want of Seasonable Rain
- 1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
- Jeremiah 14:1–4 This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought: …
- Amos 4:7 “I also withheld the rain from you when the harvest was three months away. I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another. One field received rain; another without rain withered.
Caused: Blackness of the Skin
- Lamentations 4:8 But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
- Lamentations 5:10 Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.
Caused: Burning and Fever
- Deuteronomy 32:24 They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.
Caused: Death
- 2 Kings 7:4 If we say, ‘Let us go into the city,’ we will die there from the famine in the city; but if we sit here, we will also die. So come now, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they let us live, we will live; if they kill …
- Jeremiah 11:22 So this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.
Caused: Faintness
- Genesis 47:13 There was no food, however, in all that region, because the famine was so severe; the lands of Egypt and Canaan had been exhausted by the famine.
Caused: Grief and Mourning
- Joel 1:11–13 Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. …
Caused: Wasting of the Body
- Lamentations 4:8 But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
- Ezekiel 4:17 So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.
Described
- Deuteronomy 28:53–57 Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you. …
- Isaiah 5:13 Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
- Isaiah 9:18–21 For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets, which roll upward in billows of smoke. …
- Isaiah 17:11 though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout — yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.
- Jeremiah 5:17 They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which …
- Jeremiah 14:1–6 This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought: …
- Jeremiah 48:33 Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard and from the fields of Moab. I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses; no one treads them with shouts of joy; their shouts are not for joy.
- Lamentations 1:11 All her people groan as they search for bread. They have traded their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. Look, O LORD, and consider, for I have become despised.
- Lamentations 1:19 I called out to my lovers, but they have betrayed me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive.
- Lamentations 2:11–22 My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. …
- Lamentations 4:4–10 The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any. …
- Joel 1:17–20 The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away. …
Destruction of Idols
- Zephaniah 2:11 The LORD will be terrifying to them when He starves all the gods of the earth. Then the nations of every shore will bow in worship to Him, each in its own place.
Expressed by Cleanness of Teeth
- Amos 4:6 “I afflicted all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
Expressed by Taking Away the Stay of Bread
- Isaiah 3:1 For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,
Expressed by The Arrows of Famine
- Ezekiel 5:16 When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food.
Figurative
- Amos 8:11 Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land — not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
God Provided for his People During
- 1 Kings 17:4 And you are to drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
- 1 Kings 17:9 “Get up and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”
- Job 5:20 In famine He will redeem you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
- Psalm 33:19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
- Psalm 37:19 In the time of evil they will not be ashamed, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied.
Instances of, in Scripture in the Day of the Judges
- Ruth 1:1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab.
Instances of, in Scripture in the Days of Abraham
- Genesis 12:10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
Instances of, in Scripture in the Days of Isaac
- Genesis 26:1 Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.
Instances of, in Scripture in the Days of Joseph
- Genesis 41:53–56 When the seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt came to an end, …
Instances of, in Scripture in the Reign of Ahab
- 1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
- 1 Kings 18:5 Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go throughout the land to every spring and every valley. Perhaps we will find grass to keep the horses and mules alive so that we will not have to destroy any livestock.”
Instances of, in Scripture in the Reign of Claudius Caesar
- Acts 11:28 One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted through the Spirit that a great famine would sweep across the whole world. ( This happened under Claudius.)
Instances of, in Scripture in the Reign of David
- 2 Samuel 21:1 During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”
Instances of, in Scripture in the Time of Elisha
- 2 Kings 4:38 When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”
Instances of, in Scripture in the Time of Jeremiah
- Jeremiah 14:1 This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
Instances of, in Scripture of Seven Years Foretold by Elisha
- 2 Kings 8:1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed that a seven-year famine will come to the land.”
Instances of, in Scripture: After the Captivity
- Nehemiah 5:3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine.”
Instances of, in Scripture: Before Destruction of Jerusalem
- Matthew 24:7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Instances of, in Scripture: During the Siege of Jerusalem
- 2 Kings 25:3 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
Instances of, in Scripture: During the Siege of Samaria
- 2 Kings 6:25 So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.
Often Accompanied by War
- Jeremiah 14:15 Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end!
- Jeremiah 29:18 I will pursue them with sword and famine and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth— a curse, a desolation, and an object of scorn and reproach among all the nations to which I banish them.
Often Followed by Pestilence
- Jeremiah 42:17 So all who resolve to go to Egypt to reside there will die by sword and famine and plague. Not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring upon them.’
- Ezekiel 7:15 The sword is outside; plague and famine are within. Those in the country will die by the sword, and those in the city will be devoured by famine and plague.
- Matthew 24:7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Often Long Continued
- Genesis 41:27 Moreover, the seven thin, ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind — they are seven years of famine.
- 2 Kings 8:1–2 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed that a seven-year famine will come to the land.” …
Often on Account of Sin
- Leviticus 26:21 If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.
- Leviticus 26:26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
- Lamentations 4:4–6 The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any. …
Often Severe
- Genesis 12:10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
- 1 Kings 18:2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria,
- Jeremiah 52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
One of God's Four Sore Judgments
- Ezekiel 14:21 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments— sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague— in order to cut off from it both man and beast?
Pharaoh Forewarned of, in Dreams
- Genesis 41:1 After two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing beside the Nile,
Provisions Sold by Weight During
- Ezekiel 4:16 Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.
Righteous Delivered From
- Job 5:20 In famine He will redeem you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
- Psalm 33:19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
- Psalm 37:19 In the time of evil they will not be ashamed, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied.
Sent As a Judgment
- Leviticus 26:19–29 I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze, …
- Deuteronomy 28:23–24 The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. …
- Deuteronomy 28:38–42 You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it. …
- 1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
- 2 Kings 8:1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed that a seven-year famine will come to the land.”
- 1 Chronicles 21:12 between three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies and overtaken by their swords, or three days of the sword of the LORD— days of plague upon the land, with the angel of the LORD ravaging every …
- Psalm 105:16 He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.
- Psalm 107:33–34 He turns rivers into deserts, springs of water into thirsty ground, …
- Isaiah 3:1–8 For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water, …
- Isaiah 14:30 Then the firstborn of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety, but I will kill your root by famine, and your remnant will be slain.
- Jeremiah 19:9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
- Jeremiah 14:15–22 Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end! …
- Jeremiah 29:17 this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I will send against them sword and famine and plague, and I will make them like rotten figs, so bad they cannot be eaten.
- Jeremiah 29:19 I will do this because they have not listened to My words, declares the LORD,which I sent to them again and again through My servants the prophets. And neither have you exiles listened, declares the LORD.”
- Lamentations 5:4–5 We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price. …
- Lamentations 5:10 Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.
- Ezekiel 4:16–17 Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure. …
- Ezekiel 5:16–17 When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food. …
- Ezekiel 14:13 “Son of man, if a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand against it to cut off its supply of food, to send famine upon it, and to cut off from it both man and beast,
- Joel 1:15–16 Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. …
- Amos 4:6–9 “I afflicted all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD. …
- Amos 5:16–17 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail. …
- Haggai 1:10–11 Therefore, on account of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth has withheld its crops. …
- Matthew 24:7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
- Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven.
- Revelation 6:5–8 And when the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” Then I looked and saw a black horse, and its rider held in his hand a pair of scales. …
Sent by God
- Psalm 10:16 The LORD is King forever and ever; the nations perish from His land.
Suffering of Brute Creation From
- Jeremiah 14:5–6 Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass. …
The Jews in Their Restored State not to be Afflicted By
- Ezekiel 36:29–30 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it plentiful, and I will not bring famine upon you. …
Things Eaten During: Donkey's Flesh
- 2 Kings 6:25 So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.
Things Eaten During: Dung
- 2 Kings 6:25 So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.
- Lamentations 4:5 Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
Things Eaten During: Human Flesh
- Leviticus 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
- 2 Kings 6:28–29 Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’ …
Things Eaten During: Wild Herbs
- 2 Kings 4:39–40 One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. …
Universal
- Acts 11:28 One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted through the Spirit that a great famine would sweep across the whole world. ( This happened under Claudius.)
Related topics
Famine in CanaanFamine in Jerusalem, from SiegeFamine in EgyptCannibalism
Topics: Nave’s Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook (1897), public domain, via the Berean Bible topical index.