Famine
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Gen. 12:10). Of famine in Palestine and the countries neighboring it, Holy Scripture speaks not infrequently. The most notable was the seven-year famine in Egypt in the days of Joseph. It was distinguished by its duration, its severity, and its universality everywhere. Famine in Judea often arose as a consequence of wars, sieges, and the like (2 Kings 8:1), but sometimes it was also a natural occurrence, as, for example, in those cases when the Nile did not rise sufficiently in Egypt, or when there was no rain in Judea at the usual seasons of the year — spring and autumn — or when worms, locusts, and other insects devoured all vegetation and produce.
Times of famine in Egypt were sometimes distinguished by their duration, lasting 7 years or more, and by their severity. There were occasions when people ate the entrails of animals and even human corpses. Famine in Samaria, briefly described in 2 Kings (6:25; 8:1, 2), likewise lasted seven years. The prophet Amos threatens Israel with a famine more terrible than the famine arising from the lack of ordinary human food — with a famine and thirst for hearing the words of the Lord (Amos 8:11).