Ten Famines in History and Why Noah Delayed His Children

"From the ground which the LORD has cursed." Ten kinds of famine came into the world. One in the days of the first Adam, (Genesis 3:17) "Cursed is the ground because of you." One in the days of Lamech, "from the ground which the LORD has cursed." One in the days of Abraham, (Genesis 12:10) "And there was a famine in the land." One in the days of Isaac, "And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine." One in the days of Jacob, (Genesis 45:6) "For these two years the famine." One in the days when the judges judged, (Ruth 1:1) "And there was a famine in the land." One in the days of David, (2 Samuel 21:1) "And there was a famine in the days of David three years." One in the days of Elijah, "If there shall be these years dew or rain." One in the days of Elisha, (2 Kings 6:25) "And there was a great famine in Samaria." One that comes rolling in by stages. And one in the time to come, "Not a famine for bread nor a thirst for water, but to hear the words of the LORD." Rabbi Shmuel bar Rav Yitzchak said: its main onset should have been in the days of Saul and not David, but because Saul was a sprig of the sycamore (and some say: a small sapling) and could not withstand it, the Holy One, blessed be He, shifted it and brought it in the days of David. The proverb says: Shila sins and Yochana is punished. Therefore [the famines] did not come in the days of weak men but in the days of mighty men who could withstand them. A parable of a glassblower who held a basket full of cups and fine glassware: when he wishes to hang up his basket, he brings a peg and drives it in and hangs himself upon it first, and only afterward hangs his basket. Rabbi Berechyah would read concerning them, "He gives strength to the weary." (Genesis 5:32) Noah perceived that they were provoking the Holy One, blessed be He. He said: Why should I trouble myself with being fruitful and multiplying? Therefore he did not beget until five hundred years; and afterward he said, Let that man die without children. But the Holy One, blessed be He, said (Genesis 1:28), "Be fruitful and multiply"; immediately he engaged in being fruitful and multiplying.