Genesis 42:5

5 And the sons of Israel came to buy 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 wheat in Egypt.

4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure disaster befall him.

5 And the sons of Israel came to buy among those that came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

6 And Joseph was the lord over the land, and he it was that sold the wheat to all the people of the land; and Joseph’s brethren came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.

7 And when Joseph saw his brethren, he knew them, but made himself strange unto them and spoke roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Where have you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.