Moreover, he called for a famine upon the land - It was not by chance; not by the mere operation of physical laws, but it was because God “ordered” it. The famine here referred to, as the connection shows, was that which occurred in the time of Jacob, and which was the occasion of the migration into Egypt. There was also a famine in the time of Abraham Genesis 12:10; but the design of the psalmist here is to refer to that period of the Jewish history which pertained to their residence in Egypt, and to the dealings of God with the nation when there, as furnishing an occasion for gratitude. Genesis 41; Genesis 42.
He brake the whole staff of bread - That which supports life, as a staff does a feeble man. See the notes at Isaiah 3:1.