1 Now it came about in the days when the judges+ administered justice that a famine+ arose in the land, and a man proceeded to go from Bethʹle·hem+ in Judah to reside as an alien in the fields of Moʹab,+ he with his wife and his two sons.

25 In time a great famine arose in Sa·marʹi·a,+ and, look! they were besieging it until an ass’s head+ got to be worth eighty silver pieces, and the fourth of a cab* measure of dove’s dung+ was worth five silver pieces.

9 ‘If there should come upon us calamity,+ sword, adverse judgment, or pestilence+ or famine,+ let us stand before this house+ and before you (for your name+ is in this house), that we may call to you for aid out of our distress, and may you hear and save.’+