Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The passage is a third-person narrative account at the moment Abram travels south toward the Negev. It records his decision to relocate temporarily to Egypt following a severe famine.
The words — רָעָב (ra.'Av) translates literally as "a famine," and לָ/ג֣וּר (la./Gur) means "to sojourn" or "to reside as a foreigner." These terms frame the environmental crisis and Abram’s provisional response.
The thread — Severe famines in the land recur in Genesis 43:1, Genesis 26:1, and Genesis 42:5, establishing a repeated pattern of drought-driven displacement in the patriarchal narratives.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human survival strategies, like fleeing to Egypt, arise directly from environmental crisis rather than divine instruction. It asks the reader to observe how immediate necessity shapes patriarchal movement without moral commentary.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Genesis 43:1 Now the famine was still severe in the land.
- 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 42:5 So the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, since the famine had also spread to the land of Canaan.
- Genesis 46:3 “I am God,” He said, “the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.
- 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.
- Ruth 1:1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab.
- 2 Samuel 21:1 During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”
- 1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
- 2 Kings 4:38 When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”
- 2 Kings 6:25 So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.