Quotes About Famine

Behold, seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt,

but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will devastate the land.

The abundance in the land will not be remembered, since the famine that follows it will be so severe.

This food will be a reserve for the land during the seven years of famine to come upon the land of Egypt. Then the country will not perish in the famine.”

During those seven years, Joseph collected all the excess food in the land of Egypt and stored it in the cities. In every city he laid up the food from the fields around it.

So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance, like the sand of the sea, that he stopped keeping track of it; for it was beyond measure.

Before the years of famine arrived, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.

When the seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt came to an end,

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.

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.

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

When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you staring at one another?”

“Look,” he added, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.”

So ten of Josephís brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

So the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, since the famine had also spread to the land of Canaan.

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.

“Not so, my lord,” they replied. “Your servants have come to buy food.

and they loaded the grain on their donkeys and departed.

Now the famine was still severe in the land.

For the famine has covered the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

And there I will provide for you, because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you and your household and everything you own will come to destitution.í

Then they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live in the land for a time, because there is no pasture for the flocks of your servants, since the famine in the land of Canaan has been severe. So now, please allow your servants to settle in the land of Goshen.”

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.

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 Pharaohís palace.