Genesis 41:36

36 et paretur futurae septem annorum fami quae pressura est Aegyptum et non consumetur terra inopia

Genesis 41:36 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 41:36

And that food shall be for store to the land
A deposit in the said cities, to be brought forth and used in a time of public distress; the Targum of Jonathan is, it

``shall be hidden in a cave in the earth:''

against the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt:
and so be a supply to the inhabitants of the land, when they should be sore pressed with a famine, and know not what to do, nor where to go for food: that the land perish not through the famine;
that is, that the people of the land perish not, as the above Targum, which, without such a provision, they would have been in great danger of perishing. Justin, an Heathen writer ^F17, confirms this account of the advice of Joseph, of whom he says, that

``he was exceeding sagacious of things wonderful, and first found out the meaning of dreams; and nothing of right, divine or human, seemed unknown to him, so that he could foresee the barrenness of land many years beforehand; and all Egypt would have perished with the famine, if the king, by his advice, had not commanded an edict, that the fruits of the earth, for many years, should be preserved.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 E. Trogo, l. 36. c. 32.

Genesis 41:36 In-Context

34 qui constituat praepositos per singulas regiones et quintam partem fructuum per septem annos fertilitatis

35 qui iam nunc futuri sunt congreget in horrea et omne frumentum sub Pharaonis potestate condatur serveturque in urbibus

36 et paretur futurae septem annorum fami quae pressura est Aegyptum et non consumetur terra inopia

37 placuit Pharaoni consilium et cunctis ministris eius

38 locutusque est ad eos num invenire poterimus talem virum qui spiritu Dei plenus sit