Bible Strands
Genesis 41:56
When the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened up all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians; for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Joseph’s administrative actions immediately after Pharaoh instructs all Egyptians to obey Joseph during an extreme hunger crisis.
The words — וַ/יִּפְתַּ֨ח (va/i.yif.Tach) translates literally as “and he opened,” denoting Joseph’s physical release of stored grain. רָעָ֣ב (ra.'Av) means “famine,” specifying the severe condition that triggered the distribution.
The thread — The grain distribution continues in Genesis 42:6, which identifies Joseph as the land’s ruler selling food, and Genesis 47:14, which details his collection of all available money for the grain.
Why it lands — The verse documents a factual logistical response to starvation, requiring the reader to observe how stored resources are mobilized under centralized authority without importing theological 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 the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
Cross-references
- Genesis 42:6 Now Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
- Genesis 47:14 Joseph collected all the money to be found in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were buying, and he brought it into Pharaoh’s palace.
- Isaiah 23:17 And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.
- Zechariah 5:3 Then he told me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of all the land, for according to one side of the scroll, every thief will be removed; and according to the other side, every perjurer will be removed.
- Luke 21:35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth.
- Acts 17:26 From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.