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THE MESSAGE
Genesis 47:13
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- BridgewayEncyclopedias:
- CondensedParallel Translations
There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Mitzrayim and the land of Kana`an fainted by reason of the famine.
And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe. And the land of Egypt languished, with the land of Canaan, on account of the famine.
The hunger became worse, and since there was no food anywhere in the land, Egypt and Canaan became very poor.
But there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe; the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan wasted away because of the famine.
Now [in the course of time] there was no food in all the land, for the famine was distressingly severe, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan languished [in destitution and starvation] because of the famine.
Now there was no food in all the land, because the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
Now there was no bread in all the land: for the famine was exceeding sore: so that the land of Egypt, and the land of Canaan were famished by reason of the famine.
Now there was no food in all the land because the famine was very heavy, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
The famine was bad everywhere in Egypt and Canaan, and the people were suffering terribly.
There was no food anywhere, for the famine was very severe, so that both Egypt and Kena‘an grew weak from hunger.
And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very grievous; and the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were exhausted through the famine.
The famine got worse; there was no food anywhere in the land. Egypt and Canaan became very poor because of this bad time.
Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine.
And there was no grain in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were desolate by reason of the famine.
The famine was so severe that there was no food anywhere, and the people of Egypt and Canaan became weak with hunger.
But there was no food in the entire region, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were exhausted by the famine.
And no bread was in the land, because the famine was exceedingly severe. And the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were exhausted from the famine.
There was no bred in all the londe, for the derth was very sore: so yt the lande of Egipte & the lande of Canaan were fameshed by ye reason of the derth.
And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
Now there was no food to be had in all the land, so that all Egypt and Canaan were wasted from need of food.
There was no bread in all the lande, for the dearth was exceedyng sore, so that the lande of Egypt, and the land of Chanaan were famished by reason of the dearth.
And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine.
And there was no bread in all the land: for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
And there was no corn in all the land, for the famine prevailed greatly; and the land of Egypt, and the land of Chanaan, fainted for the famine.
And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
Yet there was no food throughout that region, because the famine was so severe; the lands of Egypt and Canaan had been exhausted by the famine.
For breed failide in al the world, and hungur oppresside the lond, moost of Egipt and of Canaan;
And there is no bread in all the land, for the famine [is] very grievous, and the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan are feeble because of the famine;
And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very intense, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
And [there was] no bread in all the land; for the famine [was] very distressing, so that the land of Egypt, and [all] the land of Canaan, fainted by reason of the famine.
There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
Now there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
Meanwhile, the famine became so severe that all the food was used up, and people were starving throughout the lands of Egypt and Canaan.
Now there was no food in the land for the time without food was very hard. So the people in the land of both Egypt and Canaan became weak because of hunger.
Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
But, bread, was there none in all the land, - for the famine was, very severe, - so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine,
For in the whole world there was want of bread, and a famine had oppressed the land, more especially of Egypt and Chanaan;
Now there was no food in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine.
Now there was no food in all the land, because the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
am 2300, bc 1704
so that: Genesis 41:30, Genesis 41:31, 1 Kings 18:5, Jeremiah 14:1-6, Lamentations 2:19, Lamentations 2:20, Lamentations 4:9, Acts 7:11
fainted: Jeremiah 9:12, Joel 1:10-12
Reciprocal: Genesis 12:10 - was a Genesis 41:36 - that the Genesis 41:54 - and the dearth Psalms 105:16 - brake
Cross-References
Joseph went to Pharaoh and told him, "My father and brothers with their flocks and herds and everything they own have come from Canaan. Right now they are in Goshen."
So Joseph bought up all the farms in Egypt for Pharaoh. Every Egyptian sold his land—the famine was that bad. That's how Pharaoh ended up owning all the land and the people ended up slaves; Joseph reduced the people to slavery from one end of Egypt to the other.
Israel said, "Promise me." Joseph promised. Israel bowed his head in submission and gratitude from his bed.
Ahab ordered Obadiah, "Go through the country; locate every spring and every stream. Let's see if we can find enough grass to keep our horses and mules from dying." So they divided the country between them for the search—Ahab went one way, Obadiah the other.
I asked, "Is there anyone around bright enough to tell us what's going on here? Anyone who has the inside story from God and can let us in on it? "Why is the country wasted? "Why no travelers in this desert?"
Better to have been killed in battle than killed by starvation. Better to have died of battle wounds than to slowly starve to death.
"Later a famine descended on that entire region, stretching from Egypt to Canaan, bringing terrific hardship. Our hungry fathers looked high and low for food, but the cupboard was bare. Jacob heard there was food in Egypt and sent our fathers to scout it out. Having confirmed the report, they went back to Egypt a second time to get food. On that visit, Joseph revealed his true identity to his brothers and introduced the Jacob family to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent for his father, Jacob, and everyone else in the family, seventy-five in all. That's how the Jacob family got to Egypt. "Jacob died, and our fathers after him. They were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb for which Abraham paid a good price to the sons of Hamor. "When the four hundred years were nearly up, the time God promised Abraham for deliverance, the population of our people in Egypt had become very large. And there was now a king over Egypt who had never heard of Joseph. He exploited our race mercilessly. He went so far as forcing us to abandon our newborn infants, exposing them to the elements to die a cruel death. "In just such a time Moses was born, a most beautiful baby. He was hidden at home for three months. When he could be hidden no longer, he was put outside—and immediately rescued by Pharaoh's daughter, who mothered him as her own son. Moses was educated in the best schools in Egypt. He was equally impressive as a thinker and an athlete. "When he was forty years old, he wondered how everything was going with his Hebrew kin and went out to look things over. He saw an Egyptian abusing one of them and stepped in, avenging his underdog brother by knocking the Egyptian flat. He thought his brothers would be glad that he was on their side, and even see him as an instrument of God to deliver them. But they didn't see it that way. The next day two of them were fighting and he tried to break it up, told them to shake hands and get along with each other: ‘Friends, you are brothers, why are you beating up on each other?' "The one who had started the fight said, ‘Who put you in charge of us? Are you going to kill me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday?' When Moses heard that, realizing that the word was out, he ran for his life and lived in exile over in Midian. During the years of exile, two sons were born to him. "Forty years later, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to him in the guise of flames of a burning bush. Moses, not believing his eyes, went up to take a closer look. He heard God's voice: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Frightened nearly out of his skin, Moses shut his eyes and turned away. "God said, ‘Kneel and pray. You are in a holy place, on holy ground. I've seen the agony of my people in Egypt. I've heard their groans. I've come to help them. So get yourself ready; I'm sending you back to Egypt.' "This is the same Moses whom they earlier rejected, saying, ‘Who put you in charge of us?' This is the Moses that God, using the angel flaming in the burning bush, sent back as ruler and redeemer. He led them out of their slavery. He did wonderful things, setting up God-signs all through Egypt, down at the Red Sea, and out in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to his congregation, ‘God will raise up a prophet just like me from your descendants.' This is the Moses who stood between the angel speaking at Sinai and your fathers assembled in the wilderness and took the life-giving words given to him and handed them over to us, words our fathers would have nothing to do with. "They craved the old Egyptian ways, whining to Aaron, ‘Make us gods we can see and follow. This Moses who got us out here miles from nowhere—who knows what's happened to him!' That was the time when they made a calf-idol, brought sacrifices to it, and congratulated each other on the wonderful religious program they had put together. "God wasn't at all pleased; but he let them do it their way, worship every new god that came down the pike—and live with the consequences, consequences described by the prophet Amos: Did you bring me offerings of animals and grains those forty wilderness years, O Israel? Hardly. You were too busy building shrines to war gods, to sex goddesses, Worshiping them with all your might. That's why I put you in exile in Babylon. "And all this time our ancestors had a tent shrine for true worship, made to the exact specifications God provided Moses. They had it with them as they followed Joshua, when God cleared the land of pagans, and still had it right down to the time of David. David asked God for a permanent place for worship. But Solomon built it. "Yet that doesn't mean that Most High God lives in a building made by carpenters and masons. The prophet Isaiah put it well when he wrote, "Heaven is my throne room; I rest my feet on earth. So what kind of house will you build me?" says God. "Where I can get away and relax? It's already built, and I built it." "And you continue, so bullheaded! Calluses on your hearts, flaps on your ears! Deliberately ignoring the Holy Spirit, you're just like your ancestors. Was there ever a prophet who didn't get the same treatment? Your ancestors killed anyone who dared talk about the coming of the Just One. And you've kept up the family tradition—traitors and murderers, all of you. You had God's Law handed to you by angels—gift-wrapped!—and you squandered it!" At that point they went wild, a rioting mob of catcalls and whistles and invective. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, hardly noticed—he only had eyes for God, whom he saw in all his glory with Jesus standing at his side. He said, "Oh! I see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God's side!" Yelling and hissing, the mob drowned him out. Now in full stampede, they dragged him out of town and pelted him with rocks. The ringleaders took off their coats and asked a young man named Saul to watch them. As the rocks rained down, Stephen prayed, "Master Jesus, take my life." Then he knelt down, praying loud enough for everyone to hear, "Master, don't blame them for this sin"—his last words. Then he died.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And [there was] no bread in all the land,.... The land of Egypt and the parts adjacent, but in Pharaoh's storehouses, all being consumed that were in private hands the first two years of the famine:
for the famine [was] very sore; severe, pressed very hard:
so that the land of Egypt, and [all] the land of Canaan, fainted by reason of the famine; that is, the inhabitants of both countries, their spirits sunk, as well as their flesh failed for want of food: or "raged" b; became furious, and were like madmen, as the word signifies; according to Kimchi c, they were at their wits' end, knew not what to do, as Aben Ezra interprets it, and became tumultuous; it is much they had not in a violent manner broke open the storehouses of corn, and took it away by force; that they did not must be owing to the providence of God, which restrained them, and to the care and prudence of Joseph as a means, who, doubtless, had well fortified the granaries; and very probably there were a body of soldiers placed everywhere, who were one of the three parts or states of the kingdom of Egypt, as Diodorus Siculus d relates; to which may be added, the mild and gentle address of Joseph to the people, speaking kindly to them, giving them hopes of a supply during the famine, and readily relieving them upon terms they could not object to.
b תלה "insanivit vel acta fuit in rahiem", Vatablus; "furebat", Junius Tremellius, Piscator. c In Sepher Shorash rad להה so Ben Melech in loc. d Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 67.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- Jacob in Goshen
11. רעמסס ra‛mesês, Ra‘meses “son of the sun.”
31. מטה mı̂ṭṭāh, “bed.” מטה maṭṭeh “staff.”
Arrangements are now made for the settlement of Israel in Goshen. The administration of Joseph during the remaining years of the famine is then recorded. For the whole of this period his father and brothers are subject to him, as their political superior, according to the reading of his early dreams. We then approach to the death-bed of Jacob, and hear him binding Joseph by an oath to bury him in the grave of his fathers.
Genesis 47:1-12
Joseph announces to Pharaoh the arrival of his kindred. “Of the whole of his brethren,” more exactly from the end of his brethren. Five men, a favorite number in Egypt. Shepherds, owners and feeders of sheep and other cattle. “Pasture.” Hence, it appears that the drought had made the grazing extremely scanty. Men of ability, competent to take the oversight of others. “Jacob his father,” he presents before Pharaoh, after he has disposed of all business matters. “Jacob blessed Pharaoh.” This is the patriarch’s grateful return for Pharaoh’s great kindness and generosity toward him and his house. He is conscious of even a higher dignity than that of Pharaoh, as he is a prince of God; and as such he bestows his precious benediction. Pharaoh was struck with his venerable appearance, and inquired what was his age. “Pilgrimage” - sojourning, wandering without any constant abode or fixed holding.
Such was the life of the patriarchs in the land of promise Hebrews 11:13. “Few and evil.” Jacob’s years at this time were far short of those of Abraham and Isaac, not to speak of more ancient men. Much bitterness also had been mingled in his cup from the time that he beguiled his brother of the birthright and the blessing, which would have come to him in a lawful way if he had only waited in patience. Obliged to flee for his life from his father’s house, serving seven years for a beloved wife, and balked in his expected recompense by a deceitful father-in-law, serving seven long years more for the object of his affections, having his wages changed ten times during the six years of his further toil for a maintenance, afflicted by the dishonor of his only daughter, the reckless revenge taken by Simon and Levi, the death of his beloved wife in childbed, the disgraceful incest of Reuben, the loss of Joseph himself for twenty-two years, and the present famine with all its anxieties - Jacob, it must be confessed, has become acquainted with no small share of the ills of life. “Blessed Pharaoh.” It is possible that this blessing is the same as that already mentioned, now reiterated in its proper place in the narrative. “According to the little ones.” This means either in proportion to the number in each household, or with all the tenderness with which a parent provides for his infant offspring.
Genesis 47:13-26
Joseph introduces remarkable changes into the relation of the sovereign and the people of Egypt. “There was no bread in all the land.” The private stores of the wealthy were probably exhausted. “And Joseph gathered up all the silver.” The old stores of grain and the money, which had flowed into the country during the years of plenty, seem to have lasted for five years. “And Joseph brought the silver into Pharaoh’s house.” He was merely the steward of Pharaoh in this matter, and made a full return of all the payments that came into his hands. “The silver was spent.” The famishing people have no more money; but they must have bread. Joseph is fertile in expedients. He proposes to take their cattle. This was really a relief to the people, as they had no means of providing them with fodder. The value of commodities is wholly altered by a change of circumstances. Pearls will not purchase a cup of water in a vast and dreary wilderness. Cattle become worthless when food becomes scarce, and the means of procuring it are exhausted. For their cattle Joseph supplies them with food during the sixth year.
Genesis 47:18-20
The seventh year is now come. The silver and cattle are now gone. Nothing remains but their lands, and with these themselves as the serfs of the soil. Accordingly they make this offer to Joseph, which he cannot refuse. Hence, it is evident that Pharaoh had as yet no legal claim to the soil. In primeval times the first entrants into an unoccupied country became, by a natural custom, the owners of the grounds they held and cultivated. The mere nomad, who roamed over a wide range of country, where his flocks merely cropped the spontaneous herbage, did not soon arrive at the notion of private property in land. But the husbandman, who settled on a promising spot, broke up the soil, and sowed the seed, felt he had acquired by his labor a title to the acres he had cultivated and permanently occupied, and this right was instinctively acknowledged by others. Hence, each cultivator grew into the absolute owner of his own farm. Hence, the lands of Egypt belonged to the peasantry of the country, and were at their disposal. These lands had now become valueless to those who had neither provisions for themselves nor seed for their ground. They willingly part with them, therefore, for a year’s provision and a supply of seed. In this way the lands of Egypt fell into the hands of the crown by a free purchase. “And the people he removed into the cities.” This is not an act of arbitrary caprice, but a wise and kind measure for the more convenient nourishment of the people until the new arrangements for the cultivation of the soil should be completed. The priestly class were sustained by a state allowance, and therefore, were not obliged to alienate their lands. Hence, they became by this social revolution a privileged order. The military class were also exempted most probably from the surrender of their patrimonial rights, as they were maintained on the crown lands.
Genesis 47:23-26
I have bought you. - He had bought their lands, and so they might be regarded, in some sort, as the servants of Pharaoh, or the serfs of the soil. “In the increase ye shall give the fifth to Pharaoh.” This explains at once the extent of their liability, and the security of their liberty and property. They do not become Pharaoh’s bondmen. They own their land under him by a new tenure. They are no longer subject to arbitrary exactions. They have a stated annual rent, bearing a fixed ratio to the amount of their crop. This is an equitable adjustment of their dues, and places them under the protection of a statute law. The people are accordingly well pleased with the enactment of Joseph, which becomes henceforth the law of Egypt.
Genesis 47:27-31
And they were possessed thereof. - They become owners or tenants of the soil in Goshen. The Israelites were recognized as subjects with the full rights of freemen. “They grew and multiplied exceedingly.” They are now placed in a definite territory, where they are free from the contamination which arises from promiscuous intermarriage with an idolatrous race; and hence, the Lord bestows the blessing of fruitfulness and multiplication, so that in a generation or two more they can intermarry among themselves. It is a remarkable circumstance that until now we read of only two daughters in the family of Jacob. The brothers could not marry their sisters, and it was not desirable that the females should form affinity with the pagan, as they had in general to follow the faith of their husbands. Here the twelfth section of the Pentateuch terminates.
Genesis 47:28-31
Jacob lives seventeen years in Egypt, and so survives the famine twelve years. “He called his son Joseph.” Joseph retained his power and place near Pharaoh after the fourteen years of special service were completed; hence, Jacob looks to him for the accomplishment of his wishes concerning the place of his burial. “Put thy hand under my thigh” Genesis 24:2. He binds Joseph by a solemn asseveration to carry his mortal remains to the land of promise. “And Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.” On receiving the solemn promise of Joseph, he turns toward the head of the bed, and assumes the posture of adoration, rendering, no doubt, thanks to God for all the mercies of his past life, and for this closing token of filial duty and affection. The Septuagint has the rendering: ἐπί τὸ ἄκρον τῆσῥάβδον αὐτοῦ epi to ākron akron tēs rabdou autou “on the top of his staff,” which is given in the Epistle to the Hebrews Hebrews 11:21. This is obtained by a mere change in the vowel pointing of the last word.
