Genesis 43:1

And the famine was sore in the land.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
famine	וְהָרָעָ֖ב ve.ha.ra.'Av	H7458	hunger (more or less extensive) · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sore	כָּבֵ֥ד ka.Ved	H3515	heavy · adjective, masculine singular absolute
land	בָּאָֽרֶץ ba.'A.retz	H776	the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Genesis 12:10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
Genesis 18:13 And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
Genesis 41:54-57 And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt the…
Genesis 42:5 And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came: for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
Ecclesiastes 9:1-2 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: n…
Lamentations 5:10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
Acts 7:11-13 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 43:1-10

Here, 1. Jacob urges his sons to go and buy more corn in Egypt, Gen 43:1, Gen 43:2. 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? Jacob bids them go again and buy a little food; now, in time of scarcity, a little must suffice, for nature is content with a little. 2. Judah urges him to consent that Benjamin should go down with them, how much soever it went against his feelings and previous determination. Note, It is not at all inconsistent with the honour and duty which…

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John Gill on Genesis 43:1

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.

John Calvin on Genesis 43:1-2

And the famine was sore in the land. In this chapter is recorded the second journey of the sons of Jacob into Egypt, when the former supply of provision had been exhausted. It may, however, here be asked, how Jacob could have supported his family, even for a few days, with so small a quantity of corn: for, suppose it to be granted that several asses were conducted by each of the brethren, what was this to sustain three hundred persons? [166] 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 compelle…

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Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 43:1-7

As the famine continued, Jacob’s family needed more grain, but they could not return to Egypt without Benjamin (42:16, 20). Jacob realized that he was in a bind; he needed more food but was loath to lose Benjamin.

Dictionary and topics

Judah · .Goes down into Egypt for corn (grain) — .Goes down into Egypt for corn (grain)

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).