Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible
famine.
] Or "terrors [and horrors of] famine"; which are very dreadful and distressing: or, "the storms of famine"; see ( Psalms 11:6 ) ( 119:53 ) ; or, "burning winds" F21; such as are frequent in Africa and Asia; to which the famine is compared that was in Jerusalem, at the siege of it, both by the Chaldeans and Romans; and as an oven, furnace, or chimney becomes black by the smoke of the fire burnt in it, or under it; so the skins of the Jews became black through these burning winds and storms, or burnings of famine; see ( Lamentations 4:8 ) . So Jarchi says the word has the signification of "burning"; for famine as it were burns up the bodies of men when most vehement.