¹³ So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall ^(A)three^[a] years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”

¹² either ^(A)three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”

Elijah Predicts a Drought

17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of ^(A)Tishbe^[a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, ^(B)“As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, ^(C)before whom I stand, ^(D)there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” ² And the word of the Lord came to him: ³ “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁴ You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” ⁵ So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. ⁶ And 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 after a while the brook dried up, because there was 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)sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

²⁵ And ^(A)I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, ^(B)I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

²⁵ But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when ^(A)the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land,

¹⁹ “Or ^(A)if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, ²⁰ even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.

²¹ “For thus says the Lord God: How much more ^(B)when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, ^(C)sword, ^(D)famine, ^(E)wild beasts, and ^(F)pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!

^13 (A)“Son of man, when a land sins against me ^(B)by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and ^(C)break its supply^[a] of bread and send famine upon it, and ^(D)cut off from it man and beast,

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