¶And He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bread.
Parallel translations
- WEB He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.
- KJV Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.
- BSB He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.
- NKJV Moreover He called for a famine in the land; He destroyed all the provision of bread.
- NLT He called for a famine on the land of Canaan, cutting off its food supply.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God Himself summoned a famine on the land, cutting off its food. It matters because even disaster serves His larger redemptive plan.
Overview
This recalls the famine that drove Jacob's family toward Egypt (Genesis 41-42). The psalmist presents the famine as God's deliberate act, governing history down to the food supply. What looked like calamity was the means by which God preserved His people, foreshadowing how He works all things, even hardship, for the salvation of His own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ezek 4:16Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay;
- Isa 3:1For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water;
- Gen 41:54The seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
- Lev 26:26When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight. You shall eat, and not be satisfied.
- Acts 7:11Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.
- 2 Kgs 8:1Now Elisha had spoken to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise, and go, you and your household, and stay for a while wherever you can; for Yahweh has called for a famine. It will also come on the land for seven years.”
- Gen 47:13There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
- Ps 104:15wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man’s heart.
- Hag 1:10–11Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit.
- Amos 3:6Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it?
- Gen 47:19Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh. Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land won’t be desolate.”
- Matt 8:8–9The centurion answered, “Lord, I’m not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
- Gen 42:5–6The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
- Amos 7:1–4Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: and behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s harvest.
- Hag 2:17I struck you with blight, mildew, and hail in all the work of your hands; yet you didn’t turn to me,’ says Yahweh.
- Rev 6:8And behold, a pale horse, and he who sat on it, his name was Death. Hades followed with him. Authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth was given to him.
- Gen 41:25–32Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one. What God is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 105:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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