Genesis 43:1
in Genesis 43Now the famine was still severe in the land.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And the famine was sore in the land.
KJV
And the famine was sore in the land.
⋯
This verse in Genesis 43
Commentary
5 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
the famine was still severe in the land
on Genesis 43:1-2
The grain they carried home from Egypt is eaten, and Jacob tells his sons to go back and buy a little more food. God had told Abram at 15:13 that his offspring would be strangers in a land not their own for four hundred years. The famine is still severe, and it carries them there.
The record, by era
The Reformation1 voice
For, since Abraham had a much larger number of servants, and mention has been made above of the servants of Isaac; it is incredible that Jacob was so entirely destitute, as to have no servants left. If we say, that he, being a stranger, had been compelled to sell them all, it is but an uncertain guess.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And the famine was sore in the land. In the land of Canaan; it increased yet more and more: this is observed for the sake of what follows, showing the reason and necessity of Jacob's sons taking a second journey into Egypt.
The famine continued; and the corn they had bought was all spent, for it is meat that perisheth. Jacob, as a good master of a family, is in care to provide for those of his own house food convenient; and shall not God provide for his children, for the household of faith?
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
- Joseph and His Eleven Brethren 11. דבשׁ debash, “honey,” from the bee, or sirup from the juice of the grape. בטנים bôṭen, “pistachio nuts.” שׁקד shâqêd, “almond tree;” related: “awake.” The tree is also called לוּז lûz. Some refer the former to the fruit, the latter to the tree. The eleven brothers are now to bow down before Joseph. Gen 43:1-10 The famine was severe. The pressure began to be felt more and more. The twelve households had at length consumed all the corn they had purchased, and the famine still pressed heavily upon them.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
והרעב, Yehudah said to his brothers not to argue with their aged father until there would be no more bread in the house at which time he would agree to send his son Binyamin with the brothers.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
3 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהָרָעָ֖ב | veharaav | and the famine | H7458 → | 101 times |
| כָּבֵ֥ד | kaved | [was] heavy | H3515 → | 41 times |
| בָּאָֽרֶץ׃ | baaretz | in the land | H776 → | 2504 times |
וְהָרָעָ֖בand the famine
veharaavH7458 →101 times
כָּבֵ֥ד[was] heavy
kavedH3515 →41 times
בָּאָֽרֶץ׃in the land
baaretzH776 →2504 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 42:5So the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, since the famine had also spread to the land of Canaan.
it leads to
- Genesis 41:57
And every nation came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.
- Genesis 12:10
Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
- Acts 7:11
Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food.
- Genesis 26:1
Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.
- Genesis 41:57
Through
Genesis 12:10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
it leads to
- Genesis 26:1–3
Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.
- Genesis 47:13
There was no food, however, in all that region, because the famine was so severe; the lands of Egypt and Canaan had been exhausted by the famine.
- 1 Kings 17:1–18
Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD lives—the God of Israel before whom I stand—there will be neither dew nor rain in…
- 2 Kings 8:1–2
Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed a…
- Genesis 26:1–3
About Genesis
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Chuck Missler, The Book of Genesis; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.