Famine

"famine; hunger." This word appears about 101 times and in all periods of biblical Hebrew. Ra‘ab means "hunger" as opposed to "thirst": "Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things …" (Deut 28:48).

Another meaning of the word is "famine," or the lack of food in an entire geographical area: "And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt …" (Gen 12:10, the first occurrence). God used a "famine" as a means of judgment (Jer 5:12), of warning (1Kings 17:1), of correction (2Sam 21:1), or of punishment (Jer 14:12), and the "famine" was always under divine control, being planned and used by Him. Ra‘ab was also used to picture the "lack of God's word" (Amos 8:11; cf. Deut 8:3).

"to be hungry, suffer famine." This verb, which appears in the Old Testament 14 times, has cognates in Ugaritic (rgb), Arabic, and Ethiopic. The first biblical occurrence is in Gen 41:55: "And when all the land of Egypt was famished…"

Usage Number: 3
Part of Speech: Adjective
Strong's Number: H7456,
Original Word: ra‘eb

Usage Notes: "hungry." This word appears as an adjective 19 times. The first biblical occurrence is in 1Sa 2:5: "… and they that were hungry ceased:…."

is translated "hunger" in Luk 15:17, 2Co 11:27; elsewhere it signifies "a famine," and is so translated in each place in the RV; the AV has the word "dearth" in Act 7:11, Act 11:28, and "hunger" in Rev 6:8; the RV "famine" is preferable there; see Mat 24:7, Mar 13:8, Luk 4:25, Luk 15:14, Luk 21:11, Rom 8:35, Rev 18:8. See HUNGER.