The Ten Famines and Why Saul's Famine Came in David's Days

Ten famines came into the world. One in the days of Adam — "Cursed is the ground for your sake" (Genesis 3:17). One in the days of Lamech — "Out of the ground which the LORD has cursed" (Genesis 5:29). One in the days of Abram — "And there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt" (Genesis 12:10). One in the days of Isaac — "And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine" (Genesis 26:1). One in the days of Jacob — "For these two years has the famine been" (Genesis 45:6). One in the days of the judging of the judges — "And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land" (Ruth 1:1). One in the days of David — "And there was a famine in the days of David" (2 Samuel 21:1). One in the days of Elijah — "As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be these years dew nor rain" (1 Kings 17:1). One in the days of Elisha — "And there was a great famine in Samaria" (2 Kings 6:25). One that rolls along and comes into the world; one for the time to come — [as it is said] "Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD" (Amos 8:11). The famine that came in the days of Elijah was a famine of drought: one year it worked and one year it did not work. The famine that came in the days of Elisha was a famine of tumult — "until an ass's head was sold for eighty pieces of silver" (2 Kings 6:25). Rav Huna and Rav Yirmiyah in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Rav Yitzhak: its principal authority [authentia] should by right have been not [in the days of David] but in the days of Saul; but because Saul was a stump of a sycamore, the Holy One, blessed be He, rolled it along and brought it in the days of David — [text uncertain] is repaid. And none of them came in the days of feeble men, but in the days of mighty men.