He allowed no one to oppress them;
    for their sake he rebuked kings:
¹⁵ “Do not touch my anointed ones;
    do my prophets no harm.”…

He called down famine on the land
    and destroyed all their supplies of food;
¹⁷ and he sent a man before them—
    Joseph, sold as a slave.
¹⁸ They bruised his feet with shackles,
    his neck was put in irons,
¹⁹ till what he foretold came to pass,
    till the word of the Lord proved him true.
²⁰ The king sent and released him,
    the ruler of peoples set him free.
²¹ He made him master of his household,
    ruler over all he possessed,
²² to instruct his princes as he pleased
    and teach his elders wisdom.

²³ Then Israel entered Egypt;
    Jacob resided as a foreigner in the land of Ham.
²⁴ The Lord made his people very fruitful;
    he made them too numerous for their foes,
²⁵ whose hearts he turned to hate his people,
    to conspire against his servants.
²⁶ He sent Moses his servant,
    and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
²⁷ They performed his signs among them,
    his wonders in the land of Ham.
²⁸ He sent darkness and made the land dark—
    for had they not rebelled against his words?
²⁹ He turned their waters into blood,
    causing their fish to die.
³⁰ Their land teemed with frogs,
    which went up into the bedrooms of their rulers.
³¹ He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,
    and gnats throughout their country.
³² He turned their rain into hail,
    with lightning throughout their land;
³³ he struck down their vines and fig trees
    and shattered the trees of their country.
³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came,
    grasshoppers without number;
³⁵ they ate up every green thing in their land,
    ate up the produce of their soil.
³⁶ Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land,
    the firstfruits of all their manhood.
³⁷ He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold,
    and from among their tribes no one faltered.
³⁸ Egypt was glad when they left,
    because dread of Israel had fallen on them.

³⁹ He spread out a cloud as a covering,
    and a fire to give light at night.
⁴⁰ They asked, and he brought them quail;
    he fed them well with the bread of heaven.
⁴¹ He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
    it flowed like a river in the desert.

⁴² For he remembered his holy promise
    given to his servant Abraham.
⁴³ He brought out his people with rejoicing,
    his chosen ones with shouts of joy;
⁴⁴ he gave them the lands of the nations,
    and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—
⁴⁵ that they might keep his precepts
    and observe his laws.

Praise the Lord.^[a] Psalm 105:16-45

While God kept the Israelites safe from being attacked by other kings He sent them famine. Why one and not the other?