FAMINE (רָעֵב֒, H8279, λιμός, G3350). Rā'āb and limós are tr. “famine”—an acute and prolonged lack of food almost always in Eng. VSS, but in a few cases they are rendered “dearth” or “hunger.”

In lands dependent on seasonal rainfall, failure of the rain or its coming at an inappropriate time means the failure of crops and pasturage. In Pal. there were two rainy seasons, the “early rain” in October-November and the “latter rain” in March-April. The OT also mentions famines caused by the destruction of the food supply by hail (Exod 9:23-25, 31, 32), insects (Exod 10:15; Joel 1:4; Amos 4:9), or by the human agency of invasion (Deut 28:51) or siege (2 Kings 6:25). Famines in Egypt, as in the time of Joseph, are caused by the failure of the annual overflowing of the Nile, due ultimately to lack of rain in the interior. Famine often was accompanied by widespread disease (1 Kings 8:37; Jer 14:12; 21:9; Luke 21:11).

In the Bible famine is never regarded as a mere accident of nature, for God is the Creator and Ruler of all natural powers. Famines form part of God’s ordering of the lives of His people, as with the journeys of Abraham and Isaac to Egypt (Gen 12:10) and the meeting of Naomi with Ruth (Ruth 1:1). By means of a famine God raised Joseph to a position of authority in Egypt and brought all the families of Israel into that land (Gen 41-47).

The usual stated purpose of famine, whether actual or threatened, was the judgment of God: to warn (1 Kings 17:1), correct (2 Sam 21:1), or punish His people or the heathen (Jer 14:12, 15). Jesus predicted famines as a sign of the end of the age (Matt 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11).

Scripture tells of many famines, among them those in the time of Abraham (Gen 12:10), Isaac (26:1), Joseph (chs. 41-47), Ruth (Ruth 1:1), David (2 Sam 21:1), Elijah (1 Kings 17; 18), Elisha (2 Kings 4:38; 6:24-7:20), Zedekiah (2 Kings 25:3), Claudius (Acts 11:28)—the last prob. being the one mentioned by Josephus (Jos. Antiq. XX. ii. 5) who also gives one of the most vivid descriptions of the terrible effects of famine in a besieged city in his account of the Rom. siege of Jerusalem (Jos. War V. x. 3).

The prophet Amos used the word in a fig. sense when he says that in Israel there would be “a famine...of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11).