It came to pass in the days when judges were governing, there was a famine in the land. A man went from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to dwell in the region of Moab with his wife and his two sons.
Now there was a famine in the land—aside from the previous famine that happened in Abraham’s days. So Isaac went to King Abimelech of the Philistines, to Gerar.
Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year, so David sought the face of Adonai. Adonai replied, “It is because of Saul and his bloody house, for he put the Gibeonites to death.”
“Son of man, suppose a land sins against Me by trespassing grievously and I stretch out My hand over it, break off its staff of bread, send famine upon it and cut it off from man and beast.
For thus Adonai says: “How much more if I send My four dreadful judgments against Jerusalem—the sword, the famine, the evil beasts and the plague—to cut man and beast off from it.
“So also, I myself have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places— yet you have not returned to Me,” declares Adonai.
Then the man departed from the town, from Bethlehem of Judah, to sojourn wherever he could find a place; and as he journeyed he arrived to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.