Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.

5. the famine was in the land ofCanaanThe tropical rains, which annually falling swell theNile, are those of Palestine also; and their failure would producethe same disastrous effects in Canaan as in Egypt. Numerous caravansof its people, therefore, poured over the sandy desert of Suez, withtheir beasts of burden, for the purchase of corn; and among others,”the sons of Israel” were compelled to undertake a journeyfrom which painful associations made them strongly averse.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And the sons of Israel came to buy [corn] among those that came,…. Either among the Egyptians that came to buy, or among those who came from different countries, or rather particularly among the Canaanites, as the Targum of Jonathan; with these they might join upon the road, and go together in a body where the market for corn was:

for the famine was in the land of Canaan: which obliged the inhabitants of it as well as Jacob’s family to seek for corn elsewhere, and confirms the sense of the preceding clause: this, though a very fruitful land, yet when God withheld a blessing from it, it became barren, as it had been before, Ge 12:10, and was to try the faith of those good men to whom God had given it, and to wean their hearts from being set upon it, and to put them upon seeking a better country, as they did.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

5. Among those that came They mingled themselves with the multitudes of some caravan, as if anxious to escape notice .

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And the sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.’

As they travelled to Egypt they found themselves in company with many travelling the same route, for all had been hit by the famine. They would probably have a number of servants with them for much corn would be needed. Others would tend what remained of the once abundant flocks and herds. But the fact that they had ‘money’ (silver and gold – there were no coins in those days) demonstrated that they were not yet poor.

“The sons of Israel.” The narrative switches easily between the two names Jacob and Israel. While the use of two names for the same person in one narrative was not unusual it is probable that the writer wants to make sure that we connect these events both with the patriarchs of the past and with the future Israel. It is a fulfilling of the covenant promises and a preparation for the future.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Gen 42:5 And the sons of Israel came to buy [corn] among those that came: for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

Ver. 5. And the sons of Israel came. ] God could have fed them by a miracle, as he did Elijah by the ravens; and Israel in the wilderness, where he rained them down manna, and set the flint abroach; a and Merlin, hid in a hay mow in the massacre of Paris, by a hen that came thither, and laid an egg by him every morning. b But he worketh ordinarily by means, and will have them used, but not trusted to.

a Dedit eis pluviam escatilem, et petram aquatilem. – Tertul.

b Dike’s Mich. and the Drag.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)