Verse 14: He had spent everything, when a bad famine spread through that whole land. Soon he had nothing to eat.

"All the friends that money can buy..." That phrase comes from a popular song of some years back. The younger son probably had many friends when his pockets were deep and he was buying the food and drink. And those friends, whatever they promised when times were good, suddenly vanished when his money ran out. Perhaps he went to some of them looking for a place to crash, or a loan to "tide him over" and he was refused. Maybe he went to a bank, or a rich person for a loan, and was turned down because he had no references or was a stranger.

He had truly scattered his possessions to the wind. He had established no relationships, had made no investments. His money had produced nothing lasting, it had truly been wasted.

Digging deeper
· Greek text of the verse
dapanh,santoj de. auvtou/ pa,nta evge,neto limo.j ivscura. kata. th.n cw,ran evkei,nhn( kai. auvto.j h;rxato u`sterei/sqaiÅ

· Famines. Agriculture is always dependent on the weather. And in a time without much in the way of technology such as weather forecasting, drought resistant crops, and so forth, it could be much worse. The Bible records many famines. Examples are found at Genesis 12.10, 26.1, 41.27-47, 42.5, 43.1, 47.4, Ruth 1.1, 2 Samuel 21.1, 1 Kings 18.2, 2 Kings 4.38, 6.25, Nehemiah 5.3, Luke 4.25, Acts 11.28 and Revelation 18.8.