Genesis 12:10
New International Version
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

New Living Translation
At that time a severe famine struck the land of Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he lived as a foreigner.

English Standard Version
Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Berean Standard Bible
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.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.

New American Standard Bible
Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a time, because the famine was severe in the land.

NASB 1995
Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

NASB 1977
Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Legacy Standard Bible
Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Amplified Bible
Now there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to live temporarily, for the famine in the land was oppressive and severe.

Christian Standard Bible
There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a while because the famine in the land was severe.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine in the land was severe.

American Standard Version
And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was sore in the land.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And there was a famine in the land and Abram came down to Egypt to dwell there because the famine was very severe in the land.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, because the famine prevailed in the land.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And there came a famine in the country; and Abram went down into Egypt, to sojourn there: for the famine was very grievous in the land.

English Revised Version
And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was sore in the land.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
There was a famine in the land. Abram went to Egypt to stay awhile because the famine was severe.

Good News Translation
But there was a famine in Canaan, and it was so bad that Abram went farther south to Egypt, to live there for a while.

International Standard Version
There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live because the famine was so severe.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was sore in the land.

Literal Standard Version
And there is a famine in the land, and Abram goes down toward Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine [is] grievous in the land;

Majority Standard Bible
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.

New American Bible
There was famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, since the famine in the land was severe.

NET Bible
There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay for a while because the famine was severe.

New Revised Standard Version
Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land.

New Heart English Bible
There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, because the famine was severe in the land.

Webster's Bible Translation
And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to dwell there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

World English Bible
There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to live as a foreigner there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Young's Literal Translation
And there is a famine in the land, and Abram goeth down towards Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine is grievous in the land;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Abram and Sarai in Egypt
10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman,…

Cross References
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 41:57
And every nation came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.

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 43:1
Now the famine was still severe in the land.

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."


Treasury of Scripture

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.

A.

Genesis 26:1
And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

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.

Genesis 43:1
And the famine was sore in the land.

went.

Genesis 26:2,3
And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: …

Genesis 43:1
And the famine was sore in the land.

Genesis 46:3,4
And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: …

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Abram Dwell Egypt Famine Food Foreigner Grievous Live Severe Sojourn Sore Towards
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Abram Dwell Egypt Famine Food Foreigner Grievous Live Severe Sojourn Sore Towards
Genesis 12
1. God calls Abram, and blesses him with a promise of Christ.
4. He departs with Lot from Haran, and comes to Canaan.
6. He journeys through Canaan,
7. which is promised to him in a vision.
10. He is driven by famine into Egypt.
11. Fear makes him feign his wife to be his sister.
14. Pharaoh, having taken her from him, is compelled to restore her.
18. Pharaoh reproves Abram, whom he dismisses.














ABRAM'S VISIT TO EGYPT.

(10) There was a famine in the land.--This famine must have happened within a few years after Abram reached Canaan; for he was seventy-five years of age on leaving Haran, and as Ishmael, his son by an Egyptian slave-woman, was thirteen years old when Abram was ninety-nine, only about eight years are left for the events recorded in Genesis 12-16. As rain falls in Palestine only at two periods of the year, the failure of either of these seasons would be immediately felt, especially in a dry region like the Negeb, and at a time when, with no means of bringing food from a distance, men had to depend upon the annual products of the land. As Egypt is watered by the flooding of the Nile, caused by the heavy rains which fall in Abyssinia, it probably had not suffered from what was a mere local failure in South Palestine; and Abram, already far on his way to Egypt, was forced by the necessity of providing fodder for his cattle to run the risk of proceeding thither. In Canaan he had found a thinly scattered Canaanite population, for whom probably he would have been a match in war; in Egypt he would find a powerful empire, and would be at the mercy of its rulers. It is a proof of Abram's faith that in this necessity he neither retraced his steps (Hebrews 11:15), nor sought a new home. For he went to Egypt with no intention of settling, but only "to sojourn there," to remain there for a brief period, after which with returning rains he would go back to Canaan.

Verse 10. - And there was a famine. רָעָב, from a root signifying to hunger, the primary. idea appearing to lie in that of an ample, i.e. empty, stomach (Gesenius, Furst). The term is used of individuals, men or animal (Psalm 34:11; Psalm 50:12); or of regions (Psalm 41:55). In the land. Of Canaan, which, though naturally fertile, was, on account of its imperfect cultivation, subject to visitations of dearth (cf. Genesis 26:1; Genesis 41:56), especially in dry seasons, when the November and December rains, on which Palestine depended, either failed or were scanty. The occurrence of this famine just at the time of Abram's entering the land was an additional trial to his faith. And Abram went down to Egypt. Mizraim (vide Genesis 10:6) was lower than Palestine, and celebrated then, as later, as a rich and fruitful country, though sometimes even Egypt suffered from a scarcity of corn, owing to a failure in the annual inundation of the Nile. Eichhorn notes it as an authentication of this portion of the Abrahamic history that the patriarch proposed to take himself and his household to Egypt, since at that time no corn trade existed between the two countries such as prevailed in the days of Jacob (vide Havernick's Introduction, § 18). The writer to the Hebrews remarks it as an instance of the patriarch's faith that he did not return to either Haran or Ur (Hebrews 11:15, 16). To sojourn there. To tarry as a stranger, but not to dwell. Whether this journey was undertaken with the Divine sanction and ought to be regarded as an act of faith, or in obedience to his own fears and should be reckoned as a sign of unbelief, does not appear. Whichever way the patriarch elected to act in his perplexity, to leave Canaan or reside in it, there was clearly a strain intended to be put upon his faith. For the famine was grievous (literally, heavy) in the land.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Now there was
וַיְהִ֥י (way·hî)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

a famine
רָעָ֖ב (rā·‘āḇ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7458: Famine, hunger

in the land.
בָּאָ֑רֶץ (bā·’ā·reṣ)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 776: Earth, land

So Abram
אַבְרָ֤ם (’aḇ·rām)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 87: Abram -- 'exalted father', the original name of Abraham

went down
וַיֵּ֨רֶד (way·yê·reḏ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3381: To come or go down, descend

to Egypt
מִצְרַ֙יְמָה֙ (miṣ·ray·māh)
Noun - proper - feminine singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 4714: Egypt -- a son of Ham, also his descendants and their country in Northwest Africa

to live there
שָׁ֔ם (šām)
Adverb
Strong's 8033: There, then, thither

for a while
לָג֣וּר (lā·ḡūr)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 1481: To turn aside from the road, sojourn, to shrink, fear, to gather for, hostility

because
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

the famine
הָרָעָ֖ב (hā·rā·‘āḇ)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7458: Famine, hunger

was severe.
כָבֵ֥ד (ḵā·ḇêḏ)
Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 3515: Heavy


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OT Law: Genesis 12:10 There was a famine in the land (Gen. Ge Gn)
Genesis 12:9
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