Bible Verses About Famine: Described

Then, because of the severity of the siege and distress that your enemies are inflicting on you, you will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom ADONAI your God has given you.

Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will be without pity for his brother, his beloved wife or his surviving children,

to the degree that he will refuse to share with any of them the flesh of his children whom he is eating; because if he did, he would have nothing left for himself -in the severity of the siege and distress your enemies are inflicting on you in all your towns.

The most delicate and sensitive woman among you, so sensitive and delicate that she wouldn't think of touching the sole of her foot to the ground, will so begrudge her own beloved husband, son and daughter

that she will secretly eat the afterbirth that comes out of her and even her own children as she bears them -so desperately hungry will she be in the severity of the siege and distress your enemies are inflicting on you in your towns.

For wickedness burns like fire, it devours briars and thorns; it sets the forest underbrush ablaze, with clouds of smoke whirling upward.

The anger of ADONAI-Tzva'ot is burning up the land; the people, too, are fuel for the fire - no one spares even his brother.

The one on the right grabs but stays hungry, the one on the left eats but is unfilled. Everyone devours his own arm's flesh

M'nasheh devours Efrayim; and Efrayim, M'nasheh; while together they oppose Y'hudah. Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.

The word of ADONAI that came to Yirmeyahu concerning the drought:

"Y'hudah is mourning, her gates are languishing; they sit on the ground in gloom; Yerushalayim sends up a cry of anguish.

Her nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water, so they return with empty jars. Ashamed and dismayed, they cover their heads.

Because of the ground, which is cracked, since it has not rained in the land, the farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

The doe in the countryside, giving birth, abandons her young for lack of grass.

The wild donkeys standing on the bare heights gasp for air like jackals; their eyes grow dim from trying to spot any vegetation."

My eyes are worn out from weeping, everything in me is churning; I am empty of emotion because of the wounds to my people, because children and infants are fainting away in the streets of the city.

They keep asking their mothers, "Where is something to eat or drink?"as they faint away in the streets of the city, gasping out their last breath in their mother's bosom.

What can be said to you, what can be compared with you, daughter of Yerushalayim? What example can I give to comfort you, virgin daughter of Tziyon? For your downfall is as vast as the sea; who can heal you?

The visions your prophets saw for you were futile, just a whitewash. They did not expose your guilt, so as to reverse your fortunes -no, the visions they saw for you were alluring, but futile.

All who pass your way clap their hands at you, hissing and shaking their heads at the daughter of Yerushalayim: "This city was called 'perfection in beauty'? 'the joy of the whole earth'?"

All your adversaries open their mouths to jeer at you. They hiss, they grind their teeth; they say, "We have swallowed her up! This is the day we were waiting for, and now we have lived to see it!"

ADONAI has done what he planned, he has fulfilled his promise, which he decreed in ancient times. He has destroyed without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you and filled your foes with pride.

Their hearts cried out to Adonai, "Wall of the daughter of Tziyon! Let your tears stream down like a torrent, day and night! Give yourself no respite, give your eyes no rest!

"Get up! Cry out in the night, at the beginning of every watch! Pour your heart out like water before the face of Adonai! Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your babies, who are fainting away from hunger at every streetcorner."

ADONAI, look and see who it is you have thus tormented! Should women eat the fruit of their wombs, the children they have held in their hands? Should cohanim and prophets be slaughtered in the sanctuary of Adonai?