Bible Strands
Genesis 45:6
For the famine has covered the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joseph speaks to his brothers in Egypt, clarifying the timeline of the famine that forced his elevation and framed his offer of reconciliation.
The words — The Hebrew phrase בְּקֶרֶב הָאָרֶץ (be-qereḇ hā-ʾereṣ) literally renders “in the midst of the land,” specifying that the famine is actively consuming the region’s interior rather than merely bordering it.
The thread — This duration anchors Joseph’s earlier predictions in Genesis 41:29 and Genesis 41:54, which detailed seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, and extends into Genesis 47:23 where the same timeline dictates land redistribution and seed distribution.
Why it lands — The text explicitly states a fixed period of agricultural collapse followed by continued scarcity, requiring the reader to accept that prolonged crisis operates within a bounded, purposeful framework rather than as random destruction.
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
For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Cross-references
- Genesis 47:23 Then Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh this day, here is seed for you to sow in the land.
- Genesis 41:29 Behold, seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt,
- Genesis 41:54 the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. And although there was famine in every country, there was food throughout the land of Egypt.
- 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.
- Genesis 47:18 When that year was over, they came to him the second year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord that our money is gone and all our livestock belongs to you. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.
- Exodus 34:21 Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest.
- Deuteronomy 21:4 bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.
- 1 Samuel 8:12 He will appoint some for himself as commanders of thousands and of fifties, and others to plow his ground, to reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.
- Isaiah 30:24 The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.