Genesis 42:5

5 So the sons of Israel came to buy [grain] among those that came; for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

Genesis 42:5 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 42:5

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, ( Genesis 12:10 ) ( 26:1 ) , 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.

Genesis 42:5 In-Context

3 And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy [grain] out of Egypt.

4 But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest mischief may befall him.

5 So the sons of Israel came to buy [grain] among those that came; for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

6 And Joseph, he was the governor over the land -- he it was that sold [the corn] to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down to him, the face to the earth.

7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and knew them; but he made himself strange to them, and spoke roughly to them, and said to them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food.