FAMINE
An extreme food shortage; also, a scarcity of hearing the words of Jehovah, that is, a spiritual famine. (Amos 8:11) Famine is one of the plagues to come upon symbolic Babylon the Great.—Rev. 18:8.
CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF FAMINES
Drought, destructive hailstorms (Ex. 9:23-25), pests, scorching and mildew of crops, as well as war, were among the common causes of famine in Bible times. (Amos 4:7-10; Hag. 2:17) Locusts, sometimes coming in huge hordes, were especially devastating to crops. (Ex. 10:15) Sometimes the problem was not lack of rain, but rain at the wrong season, as during the wheat or barley harvest.—Compare Leviticus 26:4; 1 Samuel 12:17, 18.
Temporary hunger is a natural sensation but prolonged hunger, as by famine is very detrimental to mental and physical health As The Encyclopædia Britannica (1959 ed., Vol. 9, pp. 63 and 64) shows, marked lethargy sets in, the emotions are dulled and there is mental apathy. The mind is dominated by a desire for food. (Compare Exodus 16:3.) Moral standards fall. (Compare Isaiah 8:21.) Actual starvation may have a dehumanizing effect, resulting in theft, murder and even cannibalism. Famine is often accompanied by sickness and epidemics due to the weakened condition of those affected.—Compare Deuteronomy 32:24.
ANCIENT FAMINES
The first truly historical famine is the one that forced Abram (Abraham) to leave Canaan and take up alien residence in Egypt. (Gen. 12:10) In Isaac’s day another famine occurred, but Jehovah told him not to go to Egypt. (Gen. 26:1, 2) The seven-year famine that came upon Egypt while Joseph served as prime minister and food administrator evidently reached far beyond the boundaries of Egypt, for “people of all the earth came to Egypt to buy [food] from Joseph.”—Gen. 41:54-57.
While the Egyptian inscriptions scrupulously avoid any reference to Israel’s sojourn in Egypt, there are ancient Egyptian texts that describe periods of famine due to insufficient rising of the Nile River. One text describes a period of seven years of low Nile risings and the resulting famine. According to the account, certain portions of land were granted to the priesthood when relief from the famine came. Although the question is raised as to whether the document is “a priestly forgery of some late period, justifying their claim to territorial privileges,” at least we see reflected a tradition of a period of seven lean years. (Pritchard’s Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p. 31) During the eleventh century of the Common Era, a seven-year famine took place in Egypt, and the account by an eyewitness of the extremities to which the people were driven, eating animals that died of themselves and even human flesh, gives some idea of what could have taken place had God not provided for the conservation of food through Joseph.—M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopaedia, Vol. III, p. 480.
Before Israel entered the Promised Land, Jehovah, through Moses, assured them that they would have an abundance of food if they continued serving Him in faithfulness. (Deut. 28:11, 12) However, famine would be one of the fearful results to come upon Israel for unfaithfulness. (Deut. 28:23, 38-42) A famine in the days of the judges prompted Naomi’s husband Elimelech of Bethlehem to reside with his family as an alien in Moab. (Ruth 1:1, 2) Jehovah brought a three-year famine upon the land of Israel in David’s day due to bloodguilt resting on the house of Saul in connection with the Gibeonites. (2 Sam. 21:1-6) A three-and-a-half-year drought resulting in severe famine came upon unfaithful Israel in answer to Elijah’s prayer. (Jas. 5:17; 1 Ki. chap. 17) In addition to general famines in Elisha’s day, there was the famine produced by the Syrian siege of Samaria, during which one case of cannibalism was reported.—2 Ki. 4:38; 8:1; 6:24-29.
Although God’s prophets warned that apostasy would bring death by famine, pestilence and the sword, the unfaithful Judeans preferred to listen to their false prophets, who assured them that no such calamity would come. (Jer. 14:11-18; Ezek. 5:12-17) Yet the words of God’s prophets proved true. So severe was the famine in Jerusalem during the siege by the Babylonians (609-607 B.C.E.) that women boiled and ate their own children.—Lam. 4:1-10; 5:10; 2 Ki. 25:1-3; Jer. 52:4-6; compare Deuteronomy 28:51-53.
Through the prophet Joel, Jehovah forewarned Israel of a tremendous plague of insects that would devastate the land and bring about severe famine prior to the coming of the “day of Jehovah.”—Joel chap. 1.
Centuries later, food shortages were foretold by Jesus as being among the characteristics marking the conclusion of “the system of things.” (Matt. 24:7; compare Revelation 6:5, 6.) As announced in advance by Agabus, a Christian prophet, a great famine did occur in the time of Emperor Claudius (c. 46-49 C.E.). (Acts 11:28) A few years earlier, in the year 42 C.E., a severe famine had hit Egypt, where many Jews resided. And “great necessity” came on the land of Judah and Jerusalem when the Roman armies under General Titus besieged Jerusalem and finally destroyed it in 70 C.E. (Luke 21:23) Josephus recounts the terrible starvation conditions in the city, the eating of leather, grass, hay, and, in one instance, a mother roasting and eating her son. When foretelling such food shortages, Jesus indicated that he had in mind not only events preceding Jerusalem’s destruction but also what would occur when the time arrived for the Son of man to return in the glory of his kingdom.—Luke 21:11, 27, 31.
FREEDOM FROM FAMINE
Christ Jesus gives assurance that the prayer of faithful servants for their daily bread would be answered by God and that those putting God’s kingdom first would be cared for. (Matt. 6:11, 33; compare Psalm 33:19; 37:19, 25.) However, due to opposition and persecution, Jesus showed that his servants might suffer hunger at times. (Matt. 25:35, 37, 40) The apostle Paul in particular recounts his suffering both hunger and thirst many times while engaged in the ministry under difficult circumstances. (1 Cor. 4:11-13; 2 Cor. 11:27; Phil. 4:12) Yet he expressed confidence that physical hunger would never be able to separate God’s faithful servants from the sustaining strength of God’s love.—Rom. 8:35, 38, 39; contrast Luke 6:25.
Those who have a proper hunger and thirst for righteousness and truth will always be spiritually filled. (Matt. 5:6; John 6:35) Those of the great crowd of persons surviving the “great tribulation” are promised that they will “hunger no more nor thirst any more,” under the rule of the Lamb Christ Jesus.—Rev. 7:9, 13-17.