Scarcity and Famine

“The waters of the lakes shall ebb away as stream beds become desolate and dry. The rivers shall turn foul, and Egypt’s waterways recede and dry up. Reeds and rushes shall wither; vegetation adjoining canals and estuaries, and all things sown along irrigation channels, shall shrivel and blow away and be no more.” (Isaiah 19:5–7)

“Until the cities lie desolate and without inhabitant, the houses without a man, and the land ravaged to ruin.” (Isaiah 6:11)

“The joyful festivity will be gone from the orchards; no shouts of delight shall sound in the vineyards. The wine treaders will tread no wine in the presses; the vintage shout I will bring to an end.” (Isaiah 16:10)

“After being like a harvest of ripe grain, whose ears are reaped by the armful, he will become like ears plucked in the Valley of Rephaim when only the gleanings are left, or when an olive tree is beaten, having two or three berries in the topmost bough, or four or five in its most fruitful branch.” (Isaiah 17:5–6)

“In that day every plot of ground with a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of currency shall be briars and thorns. Men will go there with bows and arrows, for the whole land shall revert to wilderness.” (Isaiah 7:23–24)

“Up, and listen to my voice, O complacent women; you careless daughters, hear my words! In little more than a year you shall be in anguish, O carefree ones, for when the harvest is over, the produce shall fail to arrive.” (Isaiah 32:9–10)

“The harvest shall vanish in a day of diseases and incurable pain.” (Isaiah 17:11)

“And instead of perfume there shall be a stench, instead of the girdle, a piece of twine, instead of the coiffure, baldness, instead of the festive dress, a loincloth of burlap; for in place of beauty there shall be ignominy.” (Isaiah 3:24)

“Then will a man apprehend a kinsman of his father’s house, [and say,] You have a tunic: be our leader and take charge of this ruination! But he will raise [his hand] in that day and swear, I am no physician. There is neither food nor clothing in my house; you cannot make me a leader of the people.” (Isaiah 3:6–7)

“Men will have no compassion for one another. They will snatch on the right, yet remain hungry; they will devour on the left, but not be satisfied: men will eat the flesh of their own offspring.” (Isaiah 9:19–20)

“They roam about embittered by hunger; and when they are hungry, they become enraged and, gazing upward, curse their king and their God. They will look to the land, but there shall be a depressing scene of anguish and gloom; and thus are they banished into outer darkness.” (Isaiah 8:21–22)

“But to you this shall be a sign: This year eat what grows wild, and the following year what springs up of itself. But in the third year sow and harvest, plant vineyards and eat their fruit: the remnant of the house of Judah that survives shall once more take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and from Mount Zion a band of survivors.” (Isaiah 37:30)