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; or, "burning winds" u; 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.
u זלעפות רעב "horrorum famis", Montanus; "terrores, [vel] tremores", Vatablus; "procellas famis", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "exustiones", Pagninus, Calvin; "adustiones famis", Stockius, p. 281.