Genesis 41:54
The seven years of scarcity, which Joseph had foretold, began to come: and the famine prevailed in the whole world, but there was bread in all the land of Egypt.
Open Genesis 41:54 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- cœperunt venire septem anni inopiæ, quos prædixerat Joseph : et in universo orbe fames prævaluit, in cuncta autem terra Ægypti panis erat.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἤρξαντο τὰ ἑπτὰ ἔτη τοῦ λιμοῦ ἔρχεσθαι, καθὰ εἶπεν Ἰωσήφ. καὶ ἐγένετο λιμὸς ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ· ἐν δὲ πάσῃ γῇ Αἰγύπτου οὐκ ἦσαν ἄρτοι.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַתְּחִלֶּ֜ינָה שֶׁ֣בַע שְׁנֵ֤י הָרָעָב֙ לָב֔וֹא כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר אָמַ֣ר יוֹסֵ֑ף וַיְהִ֤י רָעָב֙ בְּכָל הָ֣אֲרָצ֔וֹת וּבְכָל אֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם הָ֥יָה לָֽחֶם
Haydock's commentary
World. Round about Egypt; such as Chanaan, Syria, &c. (Menochius)
There was. The Syriac and some Latin copies, read not, &c.: there was a famine. We must adhere to the Vulgate and Hebrew.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XV. Of liberality. To whom it must chiefly be shown, and how men of slender means may show it by giving their service and counsel
74. How much grander it was for Abraham to have recovered his captured son-in-law by his victorious arms, than if he had ransomed him! How much more usefully did holy Joseph help King Pharaoh by his counsel to provide for the future, than if he had offered him money! For money would not have bought back the fruitfulness of any one state; whilst he by his foresight kept the famine for five years from the whole of Egypt.