¹³ So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, “Shall ^(A)seven^[a] years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.”

^12 (A)either ^[a]three years of famine, or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three days the sword of the Lord—the plague in the land, with the ^[b]angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now consider what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.”

Elijah Proclaims a Drought

17 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the ^(A)inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, ^(B)“As the Lord God of Israel lives, ^(C)before whom I stand, ^(D)there shall not be dew nor rain ^(E)these years, except at my word.”

² Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ³ “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. ⁴ And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ^(F)ravens to feed you there.”

⁵ So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. ⁷ And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

David Avenges the Gibeonites

21 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David ^(A)inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, “It is because of Saul and his ^[a]bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.”

²⁵ But I tell you truly, ^(A)many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land;

¹⁹ “Or if I send ^(A)a pestilence into that land and ^(B)pour out My fury on it in blood, and cut off from it man and beast, ²⁰ even ^(C)though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.”

²¹ For thus says the Lord God: “How much more it shall be when ^(D)I send My four ^[a]severe judgments on Jerusalem—the sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence—to cut off man and beast from it?

¹³ “Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its ^(A)supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it.

⁵² “They shall ^(A)besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you.