2 Samuel 21:1

¹¹Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff. ¹²Therefore the children of Israel can’t stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.

¹⁰There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to live as a foreigner there, for the famine was severe in the land.

¹There was a famine in the land, in addition to the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

¹⁵He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honor him.

¹This is the LORD’s word that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought: ²“Judah mourns, and its gates languish. They sit in black on the ground. The cry of Jerusalem goes up. ³Their nobles send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns, and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads. ⁴Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed. They cover their heads. ⁵Yes, the doe in the field also calves and forsakes her young, because there is no grass. ⁶The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is no vegetation. ⁷Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, LORD; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you. ⁸You hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble, why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns aside to stay for a night? ⁹Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can’t save? Yet you, LORD, are in the middle of us, and we are called by your name. Don’t leave us.

¹⁰The LORD says to this people: “Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins.”

¹¹The LORD said to me, “Don’t pray for this people for their good. ¹²When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

¹³Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets tell them, ‘You will not see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.’”

¹⁴Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn’t send them. I didn’t command them. I didn’t speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. ¹⁵Therefore the LORD says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, but I didn’t send them, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine will not be in this land.’ Those prophets will be consumed by sword and famine. ¹⁶The people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. They will have no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them.

¹⁷“You shall say this word to them: “‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound. ¹⁸If I go out into the field, then behold, the slain with the sword! If I enter into the city, then behold, those who are sick with famine! For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.’”

¹⁵Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

⁴Then David inquired of the LORD yet again. The LORD answered him, and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.”

²⁵There was a great famine in Samaria. Behold, they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab^[+] of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.

⁸“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God, ⁹who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number; ¹⁰who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields;

¹¹Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant.” The LORD said, “He will come down.”