Category:Dearth

Dearth, n. Etym: [OE. derthe, fr. dere. See Dear.]

Defn: Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine. There came a dearth over all the land of Egypt. Acts 7:11. He with her press'd, she faint with dearth. Shak. Dearth of plot, and narrowness of imagination. Dryden.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

Dearth - 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; 2 Kings 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).