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.
Parallel translations
- KJV 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.
- BSB 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.
- NKJV 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.
- NASB 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.
- NLT At that time a severe famine struck the land of Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he lived as a foreigner.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A severe famine drove Abram to sojourn in Egypt. The man of promise faces a hard test of faith in the very land of blessing.
Overview
A famine in the promised land confronts Abram with a trial, and he goes down to Egypt for relief. The text records the move without explicit approval, and faithful readers have long debated whether this was wise or a lapse of faith. The episode prefigures Israel's later descent into Egypt and shows that even faithful believers face circumstances that strain their trust.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Gen 43:1The famine was severe in the land.
- Gen 26:1–3There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
- 2 Kgs 8:1–2Now Elisha had spoken to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise, and go, you and your household, and stay for a while wherever you can; for Yahweh has called for a famine. It will also come on the land for seven years.”
- Jer 14:1This is Yahweh’s word that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.
- Ps 105:13They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.
- John 16:33I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
- Gen 42:5The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
- Gen 46:3–4He said, “I am God, the God of your father. Don’t be afraid to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation.
- Ruth 1:1In the days when the judges judged, there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.
- Ps 107:34and a fruitful land into a salt waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
- 2 Kgs 4:38Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Get the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”
- 2 Kgs 6:25There was a great famine in Samaria. Behold, they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.
- Gen 47:13There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
- 2 Kgs 7:1–8Elisha said, “Hear Yahweh’s word. Yahweh says, ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’”
- 2 Sam 21:1There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
- Acts 7:11Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.
- 1 Kgs 17:1–18Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”
- Ps 34:19Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.
- Acts 14:22confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 12:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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