Antioch Biblical Seminary & College, Pondicherry-14

An Academic Paper

By
Abraham

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Course

Bible & Eco-Concern

As A Part of Requirement for the Programme

Master of Divinity

To
Pr. Eslish Bhuyan, M.Th.

On
12/08/20
Water Crisis and Famine in Old Testament

A drought or Water Crisis is an excessive dryness of land without rainfall. And a famine is an extreme
shortage of food. So, we are going to explore how Bible reports or predicts the occurrence of several
Water Crisis and Famine in the Old Testament.
Drought was the most common cause of famines mentioned in the Bible. Drought caused famines in
the time of Abraham (Genesis 12:10 ), Isaac (Genesis 26:1 ), Joseph (Genesis 41:27 ), and the judges
(Ruth 1:1 ).
Joseph’s Successful Management of the Crisis

Joseph immediately went about the work to which Pharaoh had appointed him. His primary interest
was in getting the job done for others, rather than taking personal advantage of his new position at the
head of the royal court. He maintained his faith in God, giving his children names that credited God
with healing his emotional pain and making him fruitful (Gen. 41:51-52). He recognized that his
wisdom and discernment were gifts from God, but nevertheless that he still had much to learn about
the land of Egypt, its agricultural industry in particular. As the senior administrator, Joseph‘s work
touched on nearly every practical area of the nation‘s life. His office would have required that he learn
much about legislation, communication, negotiation, transportation, safe and efficient methods of
food storage, building, economic strategizing and forecasting, record-keeping, payroll, the handling of
transactions both by means of currency and through bartering, human resources, and the acquisition of
real estate. His extraordinary abilities with respect to God and people did not operate in separate
domains. The genius of Joseph‘s success lay in the effective integration of his divine gifts and
acquired competencies. For Joseph, all of this was godly work.
Pharaoh had already characterized Joseph as ―discerning and wise‖ (Gen. 41:39), and these
characteristics enabled Joseph to do the work of strategic planning and administration. The Hebrew
words for wise and wisdom (hakham and hokhmah) denote a high level of mental perceptivity, but
also are used of a wide range of practical skills including craftsmanship of wood, precious stones, and
metal (Exod. 31:3-5; 35:31-33), tailoring (Exod. 28:3; 35:26, 35), as well as administration (Deut.
34:9; 2 Chr. 1:10) and legal justice (1 Kgs. 3:28). These skills are found among unbelievers as well,
but the wise in the Bible enjoy the special blessing of God who intends Israel to display God‘s ways
to the nations (Deut. 4:6). As his first act, ―Joseph...went through all the land of Egypt‖ (Gen. 41:46)
on an inspection tour. He would have to become familiar with the people who managed agriculture,
the locations and conditions of the fields, the crops, the roads, and means of transportation. It is
inconceivable that Joseph could have accomplished all of this on a personal level. He would have had
to establish and oversee the training of what amounted to a Department of Agriculture and Revenue.

Foot Notes: (hakham and hokhmah) "a man's becoming an intellectual world corresponding to the
objective world".
During the seven years of abundant harvest, Joseph had the grain stored in cities (Gen. 41:48-49).
During the seven lean years that followed, Joseph dispensed grain to the Egyptians and other people
who were affected by the widespread famine. To create and administer all this, while surviving the
political intrigue of an absolute monarchy, required exceptional talent.
After the people ran out of money, Joseph allowed them to barter their livestock for food. This plan lasted
for one year during which Joseph collected horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys (Gen. 47:15-17). He
would have had to determine the value of these animals and establish an equitable system for exchange.
When food is scarce, people are especially concerned for the survival of themselves and their loved ones.
Providing access to points of food distribution and treating people even-handedly become acutely
important administrative matters.
When all of the livestock had been traded, people willingly sold themselves into slavery to Pharaoh and
sold him the ownership of their lands as well (Gen. 47:18-21). From the perspective of leadership, this
must have been awful to witness. Joseph, however, allowed the people to sell their land and to enter into
servitude, but he did not take advantage of them in their powerlessness. Joseph would have had to see that
these properties were valued correctly in exchange for seed for planting (Gen. 47:23). He enacted an
enduring law that people return 20 percent of the harvest to Pharaoh. This entailed creating a system to
monitor and enforce the people‘s compliance with the law and establishing a department dedicated to
managing the revenue. In all of this, Joseph exempted the priestly families from selling their land because
Pharaoh supplied them with a fixed allotment of food to meet their needs adequately (Gen. 47:22, 26).
Handling this special population would have entailed having a smaller, distinct system of distribution that
was tailored for them.
Poverty and its consequences are economic realities. Our first duty is to help eliminate them, but we cannot
expect complete success until God‘s kingdom is fulfilled. Believers may not have the power to eliminate
the circumstances that require people to make hard choices, but we can find ways to support people as
they—or perhaps we ourselves—cope. Choosing the lesser of two evils may be necessary work and can be
emotionally devastating. In our work, we may experience tension arising from feeling empathy for the
needy, yet bearing responsibility to do what is good for the people and organizations we work for. Joseph
experienced God‘s guidance in these difficult tasks, and we also have received God‘s promise that ―I will
never leave you or forsake you‖ (Heb. 13:5).
Happily, by applying his God-given skill and wisdom, Joseph successfully brought Egypt through the
agricultural catastrophe. When the seven years of good harvests came, Joseph developed a stockpiling
system to store the grain for use during the coming drought. When the seven years of drought arrived,
―Joseph opened the storehouses‖ and provided enough food to bring the nation through the famine. His
wise strategy and effective implementation of the plan even allowed Egypt to supply grain to the rest of the
world during the famine (Gen. 41:57). In this case, God‘s fulfillment of his promise that Abraham‘s
descendants would be a blessing to the world occurred not only for the benefit of foreign nations, but even
through the industry of a foreign nation, Egypt.

In fact, God‘s blessing for the people of Israel came only after and through his blessing of foreigners. God
did not raise up an Israelite in the land of Israel to provide for Israel‘s relief during the famine. Instead God
enabled Joseph, working in and through the Egyptian government, to provide for the needs of the people of
Israel (Gen. 47:11-12). Nonetheless, we shouldn‘t idealize Joseph.

Foot Notes : agricultural catastrophe. Violent, sudden and destructive change in the environment
either affecting or caused by land cultivation or the raising of crops or livestock.
Genesis‘s interest in Joseph‘s management of the food crisis lies more in its effect on the family of Israel
than in developing principles for effective management. Nonetheless, to the degree that Joseph‘s
extraordinary leadership can serve as an example for leaders today, we can derive some practical
applications from his work:
1. Become as familiar as possible with the state of affairs as they exist at the beginning of your service.

2. Pray for discernment regarding the future so that you can make wise plans.
3. Commit yourself to God first and then expect him to direct and establish your plans.
4. Gratefully and appropriately acknowledge the gifts God has given you.

5. Even though others recognize God‘s presence in your life and the special talents you have, do not
broadcast these in a self-serving effort to gain respect.

6. Educate yourself about how to do your job and carry it out with excellence.

7. Seek the practical good for others, knowing that God has placed you where you are to be a blessing.
8. Be fair in all of your dealings, especially when the circumstances are grim and deeply problematic.

9. Although your exemplary service may propel you to prominence, remember your founding mission as
God‘s servant. Your life does not consist in what you gain for yourself.

10. Value the godliness of the myriad types of honourable work that society needs.
11. Generously extend the fruit of your labor as widely as possible to those who truly need it, regardless of
what you think of them as individuals.
12. Accept the fact that God may bring you into a particular field of work under extremely challenging
conditions. This does not mean that something has gone terribly wrong or that you are out of God‘s will.
13. Have courage that God will fit you for the task.

14. Accept the fact that sometimes people must choose what they regard as the better of two very
unpleasant yet unavoidable situations.
15. Believe that what you do will not only benefit those whom you see and meet, but also that your work
has the potential to touch lives for many generations to come. God is able to accomplish abundantly far
more than we can ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20).

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) Therefore deliver up their children . . .—The bitter words that follow startle and pain
us, like the imprecations of Psalms 35, 69, 109. To what extent they were the utterances of a
righteous indignation, a true zeal for God, which had not yet learnt the higher lesson of
patience and forgiveness, or embodied an element of personal vindictiveness, we are not
called on to inquire, and could not, in any case, decide. It is not ours to judge another man‘s
servant. In all like cases we have to remember that the very truthfulness with which the
prayer is recorded is at least a proof that the prophet felt, like Jonah, that he did well to be
angry (Jonah 4:9), Pour out their blood by the force of the sword.
Foot Notes: ―vindictiveness‖ disposed or inclined to revenge; vengeful: a vindictive person.
proceeding from or showing a revengeful spirit: vindictive rumors.
18:18-23 When the prophet called to repentance, instead of obeying the call, the people
devised devices against him. Thus do sinners deal with the great Intercessor, crucifying him
afresh, and speaking against him on earth, while his blood is speaking for them in heaven.
But the prophet had done his duty to them; and the same will be our rejoicing in a day of evil.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Pour out ... sword - literally, "pour them out upon the hands of the sword, i. e., give them up
to the sword."
Put to death - Rather, slain of death. The prophet's phrase leaves it entirely indefinite in what
way the men are to die.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. pour out their blood by the force of the sword—literally, "by the hands of the sword." So
Eze 35:5. Maurer with Jerome translates, "deliver them over to the power of the sword." But
compare Ps 63:10, Margin; Isa 53:12. In this prayer he does not indulge in personal revenge,
as if it were his own cause that was at stake; but he speaks under the dictation of the Spirit,
ceasing to intercede, and speaking prophetically, knowing they were doomed to destruction
as reprobates; for those not so, he doubtless ceased not to intercede. We are not to draw an
example from this, which is a special case.
put to death—or, as in Jer 15:2, "perish by the death plague" [Maurer].
men … young men—Horsley distinguishes the former as married men past middle age; the
latter, the flower of unmarried youth.
Matthew Poole's Commentary

Deliver up their children to the famine; a dreadful imprecation; we meet with more of the
same nature, Jeremiah 11:20 15:15 17:18. We find also several such imprecation in the
Psalms, Psalm 35:4 40:14 69:22-25,27,28 109:6-10, &c. Hence a question is raised, whether
it be lawful for God‘s servants to pray for evil against their enemies. That which makes the
doubt is, Christ‘s command to us to pray for them that persecute us, Matthew 5:43,44, his
own example, and Stephen‘s, Acts 7:60. See the notes upon the aforementioned texts. It is
doubtless our duty to pray for the conversion, forgiveness, and eternal salvation of our worst
enemies; so Christ prayed, and Stephen, but neither of them prayed for their outward
prosperity in their persecution and rage; and without doubt we may pray against God‘s
enemies, that God would tie their hands, weaken their power, confound their devices. For
such other particulars as are mentioned in this verse, and the beginning of the following
verse, and such as David mentions, Psalm 69, we must know they were both prophets, and
did but pray to God to do that thing which God had revealed to them he would do.
Foot Notes : [Maurer] Maurer is a German surname, translating in English to "bricklayer" or "wall
builder." Notable people with the surname include: Alfred Henry Maurer (1868–1932), American
artist. Angela Maurer (born 1975), German long-distance swimmer.
Therefore, deliver up their children to the famine,.... To be starved, and perish by it, as they
were in the siege of Jerusalem, both by the Chaldeans, and the Romans:
and pour out their blood by the force of the sword: or, "upon the hands of the sword" (f); by
means of it; that is, the blood of the parents of the children; let the one perish by famine, and
the other by the sword; which, when thrust into a man, blood gushes out, and runs upon the
sword to the handle of it:
and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; let them have neither
husbands nor children; which latter might be a comfort to them, when they had lost their
husbands; but being stripped of these also, the affliction and distress must be the greater:
and let their men be put to death; or "slain with death" (g); with the pestilence, as Kimchi
rightly interprets it; see Revelation 6:8; Jarchi understands it of the angel of death; see
Hebrews 2:14;
let their young men be slain by the sword in battle; such being commonly employed in
military service, as being the most proper persons for it.
(f) "super manus gladii", Montanus, Schmidt. (g) "occisi morte", Pagninus, Montanus, "i.e.
peste" Schmidt; "occisi mortis", Cocceius.
Geneva Study Bible

Therefore {i} deliver their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the
sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be
put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
(i) Seeing the obstinate malice of the adversaries, who grew daily more and more, the prophet
being moved with God's Spirit, without any carnal affection prays for their destruction
because he knew that it would be to God's glory, and profit of his Church
21–23. See on Jeremiah 17:18. Here also we may be permitted to consider the passage to be
an editorial addition. Erbt retains 22 b and 23 as genuine, Gi. all but ―and their … battle‖
(Jeremiah 18:21), while Du. and Co. reject the passage, which in its bitter imprecations
indeed forms a harsh contrast to the prophet‘s expressions elsewhere of affectionate
mourning for the attitude taken up by his countrymen, as well as to the teaching of the N.T.
(Matthew 5:44).
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 21. - Pour out their blood by the force, etc.; rather, spill them into the hands of, etc.
(see Psalm 63:10); a phrase akin to that in Isaiah 53:12. The sword is personified. Let their
men he put to death; another personification, for the Hebrew has "slain of Death" - pestilence
is referred to, as Jeremiah 15:2.
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
The application at Jeremiah 18:15 is introduced by a causal .‫ ּכי‬Ew. wrongly translates: that
my people forgot me. ‫ ּכי‬means for; and the causal import is founded on the main idea of
Jeremiah 18:13 : A very horrible thing hath Israel done; for it hath done that which is unheard
of in the natural world, it hath forsaken me, the rock of safety; cf. Jeremiah 2:32. They burn
odours, i.e., kindle sacrifices, to the vanity, i.e., the null gods, cf. Psalm 31:7, i.e., to Baal,
Jeremiah 7:9; Jeremiah 11:13, Jeremiah 11:17. The subject to ‫ יכׁשלּום‬may be most simply
supplied from the idea of "the vanity:" the null gods made them to stumble; cf. for this idea 2
Chronicles 28:23. This seems more natural than to leave the subject indefinite, in which case
the false prophets (cf. Jeremiah 23:27) or the priests, or other seducers, would be the moving
spirits. "The ancient paths" is apposition to "their ways:" upon their ways, the paths of the old
time, i.e., not, however, the good old believing times, from whose ways the Israelites have
but recently diverged. For ‫ עולם‬never denotes the time not very long passed away, but always
old, immemorial time, here specially the time of the patriarchs, who walked on the right paths
of faithfulness to God, as in Jeremiah 6:16. Hitz. and Graf have taken "the ancient paths" as
subject: the old paths have made the Israelites to stumble on their ways, which gives a most
unnatural idea, while the "paths of the earliest time" is weakened into "the example of their
ancestors;" and besides, the parallelism is destroyed. As "by-paths" is defined by the
apposition "a way not cast up," so is "on their ways" by "the ancient paths." The Chet. ‫ׁשבּולי‬
is found only here; the Keri is formed after Psalm 77:20. A way not cast up is one on which
one cannot advance, reach the goal, or on which one suffers hurt and perishes. - In Jeremiah
18:16 the consequences of these doings are spoken of as having been wrought out by
themselves, in order thus to bring out the God-ordained causal nexus between actions and
their consequences. To make their land an object of horror to all that set foot on it. ‫ׁשרּוקות‬
occurs only here, while the Keri ‫ ׁשריקות‬is found only in Judges 5:16 for the piping of
shepherds, from ,‫ ׁשרק‬to hiss, to pipe. In connection with ‫ ׁשּמה‬as expression of horror or
amazement, Jeremiah elsewhere uses only ,‫ ׁשרקה‬cf. Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah
25:18; Jeremiah 29:18; Jeremiah 51:37, so that here the vowelling should perhaps be .‫ׁשרּוקת‬
The word does not here denote the hissing equals hissing down or against one, by way of
contempt, but the sound midway between hissing and whistling which escapes one when one
looks on something appalling. On "every one that passeth by shall be dismayed," cf. 1 Kings
9:8. ‫ הניע ּבראׁשו‬only here equals ,‫ הניע ראׁש‬to move the head to and fro, shake the head; a
gesture of malicious amazement, cf. Psalm 22:8; Psalm 109:25, like ‫ מנוד ראש‬, Psalm 44:15.
- In Jeremiah 18:17 the Lord discloses the coming punishment. Like an east wind, i.e., a
violent storm-wind (cf. Psalm 48:8), will I scatter them, cf. Jeremiah 13:24. Because they
have turned to Him the back and not the face (cf. Jeremiah 2:27), so will He turn His back on
them in the day of their ruin, cf. Ezekiel 35:5.
These are some main verse on Famine in the old testament
Amos 8:11 ESV / 146 helpful votes
―Behold, the days are coming,‖ declares the Lord GOD, ―when I will send a famine on the
land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.
Luke 21:11 ESV / 90 helpful votes
There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will
be terrors and great signs from heaven.

Matthew 24:7 ESV / 87 helpful votes

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines
and earthquakes in various places.
Genesis 12:10 ESV / 64 helpful votes
Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the
famine was severe in the land.
Genesis 41:53-57 ESV / 59 helpful votes
The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, and the seven
years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all
the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried
to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, ―Go to Joseph. What he says to you,
do.‖ So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and
sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth
came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.

Psalm 107:34 ESV / 54 helpful votes

A fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants.
Amos 4:6-9 ESV / 49 helpful votes
―I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you
did not return to me,‖ declares the LORD. ―I also withheld the rain from you when there were
yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another
city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or
three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you
did not return to me,‖ declares the LORD. ―I struck you with blight and mildew; your many
gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you
did not return to me,‖ declares the LORD.
Job 5:20 ESV / 49 helpful votes
In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.
2 Kings 7:4 ESV / 48 helpful votes
If we say, ‗Let us enter the city,‘ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit
here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our
lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.‖
Jeremiah 52:6 ESV / 42 helpful votes
On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no
food for the people of the land.

Genesis 41:1-57 ESV / 42 helpful votes

After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and behold, there
came up out of the Nile seven cows attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. And
behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the
other cows on the bank of the Nile. And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump
cows. And Pharaoh awoke. And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven
ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. ...

Psalm 37:19 ESV / 41 helpful votes

They are not put to shame in evil times; in the days of famine they have abundance.
Ezekiel 14:13 ESV / 40 helpful votes
―Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand
against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and
beast,

Genesis 26:1 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of
Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines.

Psalm 105:16 ESV / 35 helpful votes

When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread,
Joel 1:16 ESV / 34 helpful votes
Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

Lamentations 5:10 ESV / 33 helpful votes

Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine
Luke 12:33 ESV / 31 helpful votes
Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not
grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no
moth destroys.

Between 1250 and 1100 B.C.E., all the great civilizations of the eastern
Mediterranean – pharaonic Egypt, Mycenaean Greece and Crete, Ugarit in Syria
and the large Canaanite city-states – were destroyed, ushering in new peoples and
kingdoms including the first Kingdom of Israel.
  Hidden Secret of Gezer: A pre-Solomonic City Beneath the Ruins
 Israeli Archaeologists: 3,000-year-old Cinnamon Traces Attest to
Ancient Trade
 The Backwards Development of Kingship in Ancient Canaan
 Global Warming Means Food, Water Shortages, Warns UN Report
 How the Blow-fly Flies and Why Engineers Are All Excited About It
 Global Warming Is Man-made With 99.9% Certainty, Study Says
 Forecast for 2014: El Nino - and Grain Famine
 Syrian Civil War Causing 'Catastrophic' Damage to Archaeological
Sites
 New Study: If We Want to Get Serious About Global Warming, Jack
Up the Price of Oil
 2014 Was Earth's Hottest Year on Record, U.S. Scientists Say

Now scientists are suggesting a climatic explanation for this great upheaval: A
long dry period caused droughts, hunger and mass migration. Such is the
conclusion of a three-year study published this week in Tel Aviv: Journal of the
Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University.
The researchers drilled deep under the Kinneret, retrieving 18-meter strips of
sediment from the bottom of the lake. From the sediment they extracted fossil
pollen grains. "Pollen is the most enduring organic material in nature," says
palynologist Dafna Langgut, who did the sampling work.
According to Langgut, "Pollen was driven to the Kinneret by wind and streams,
deposited in the lake and embedded in the underwater sediment. New sediment
was added annually, creating anaerobic conditions that help preserve pollen
particles. These particles tell us about the vegetation that grew near the lake and
testify to the climatic conditions in the region."
The paradoxical appreciation by Deuteronomy 11:10ff. of this disadvantage (as involving
God in constant attention to the land) puts a good face upon what Ezekiel 36:30 bluntly calls
the land's "reproach among the nations for its famine." Kimhi comments on this as follows:
"The land of Israel stands in greater need of rain than other lands [being mountainous in
contrast, e.g., to the great river valleys of Mesopotamia and Egypt]; hence famine is more
common in it than elsewhere. And when one has to leave his land for another because of
famine – as witness Abraham, Isaac, and Elimelech – it is a reproach to it." Another cause of
famine through natural causes was the failure of the crop through pests and disease. In
addition to these two "acts of God," famine was caused by siege in time of war. Of the
famines in Ereẓ Israel mentioned in the Bible (the most famous, the seven years' famine
predicted by Joseph in Egypt, included also the Land of Israel – Gen. 41:54, 43:1) most were
due to drought (Gen. 12:10; 26:1; 41:54; Ruth 1:1; II Sam. 21:1; I Kings 18:1–2; II Kings
8:1; and apparently Amos 4:6 (cf. verses 7ff.), two to the result of siege – that of Samaria by
Ben-Hadad (II Kings 6:24–29) and of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (ibid. 25:3) – and one
the result of a visitation of locusts (Joel 1:4–20). A vivid description of the effects of drought
occurs in Jeremiah 14:1–6. The same conditions, both natural and man-made (cf. Jos., Wars,
5:424–35), continued during the period of the Second Temple, but to them were added
famine, or at leastshortage of food, which resulted from the strict adherence to the law
requiring that land should remain untilled during the Sabbatical year, to which there is no
historical reference in the Bible. The frequency of famine is reflected in the fact that of the
seven calamities said in the Mishnah to afflict the world because of sin, three are famines of
various degrees of intensity: the "famine of drought," which does not affect the whole
population, the "famine of panic," which affects all, and the "famine of utter destruction"
The traditional triad of major catastrophes consists of "pestilence, sword, and famine" (cf.
Jer. 14:12; 21:7, 9; 24:10; Ezek. 6:11, etc.; compare the Hashkivenu and the Avinu Malkenu
prayers). The fact that, given a choice of one of these three, David chose pestilence suggests
that it was the least of them (II Sam. 24:14f.). Lamentations gives a preference in the scale of
suffering to famine over the sword (4:9). This would indicate that famine was the greatest
evil of all: it is in fact difficult to envisage the terrible suffering endured through famine in
ancient times. The grim picture, given by R. Johanan, imaginative though it is, of the
consequences of the seven-year famine predicted by *Elisha (II Kings 8:1) – that in the fourth
year people would be reduced to eating unclean animals, in the fifth reptiles and insects, in
the sixth their children, and in the seventh their own flesh (Ta'an. 5a) – is probably not so
exaggerated as may appear. Both during the famine caused by the siege of Samaria by *Ben-
Hadad and of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the eating of human flesh is mentioned (II
Kings 6:29; Lam. 2:20–31; 4:10). Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria (669–27) claims that the
Babylonians under siege by him ate their children. Similarly, Assyrian treaties threaten
potential violators that they will bereduced to eating their children. Josephus mentions the
eating of children in Jerusalem during the Roman War (Wars 6:201–13, cf. I Bar. 2:2ff.).
The primary source from which to gain insights into alimentary problems faced by the
ancient Hebrews in surviving as a cultural group is the Bible. Food referenced in the
Bible, food schemes of those who lived in the Promised Land, food problems and
famines reflected regional and local politics, changing technologies, diffusion
processes and the general living conditions of a place. Ten famine periods in almost
two millenia created social disruption, fear and mass death in a Promised Land with
an environment very conducive to the support of human beings. Cultural decisions,
indecisions and indifferences were the major factors in biblical famine formation. The
most appalling and shocking catastrophic famines were experienced in major urban
centers, a portent for the twenty‐first century.
The Israelites
... overflow of its river. It was a famine in Canaan, produced by the absence of
rain, which made Jacob and his sons "go down into Egypt.". ...
/.../sayce/early israel and the surrounding nations/chapter i the israelites.htm

The Importance of a Choice

... He had been commanded to go to Canaan; should he not have stopped there"famine or
no famine"till the same authority commanded him to leave the land? ...
/.../maclaren/expositions of holy scripture k/the importance of a choice.htm
The Removal of Joseph's Father with all his Family, to Him, on ...
... in it, and no more think of removing into the land of Canaan, and possessing ... 7.
However,
the famine increased among the Egyptians, and this heavy judgment grew ...
/.../josephus/the antiquities of the jews/chapter 7 the removal of.htm
His Name --The Counsellor
... Ah! Jacob, the Lord is about to provide for thee in Egypt, when there is a famine
in Canaan, and he is about to make thy son Joseph great and mighty. ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 4 1858/his namethe counsellor.htm
The Antiquities of the Jews
... CHAPTER 8. That When There Was A Famine In Canaan, Abram Went Thence Into
Egypt;
And After He Had Continued There A While He Returned Back Again. ...
//christianbookshelf.org/josephus/the antiquities of the jews/
 Bibliography

1. https://www.theologyofwork.org/old-testament/genesis-12-50-and-work#josephs-
successful-management-of-the-food-crisis-genesis-4146-57-4713-26