a scarcity of provisions ( 1 Kings 17 ). There were frequent dearths in Palestine. In the days of Abram there was a "famine in the land" ( Genesis 12:10 ), so also in the days of Jacob ( Genesis 47:4 Genesis 47:13 ). We read also of dearths in the time of the judges ( Ruth 1:1 ), and of the kings ( 2 Samuel 21:1 ; 1 Kings 18:2 ; 2 Kings 4:38 ; 8:1 ).
In New Testament times there was an extensive famine in Palestine ( Acts 11:28 ) in the fourth year of the reign of the emperor Claudius (A.D. 44 and 45).
A cutting off of rain.The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the DEARTH. Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. ( Jeremiah 14:1-4 )
DEARTH
durth. See FAMINE.
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