Genesis 12:10

Summary

The verse reports a famine in the land, prompting Abram to go down to Egypt to sojourn there temporarily. The final clause gives the reason: the famine was heavy/severe in the land.

Key words

• ra'av ("famine", H7458) — masculine singular noun, repeated twice (lines 3 and 17), framing the whole verse as a famine narrative.
• yered ("he went down", H3381) — qal narrative verb; the narrative vav plus the verb form marks this as the next event in the story sequence, following the report of the famine.
• mitzrayma ("Egypt", H4714G) — proper name with a directional he suffix (line 10), which grammatically marks motion "toward" Egypt rather than simply naming it as a location.
• gur ("sojourn", H1481A) — qal infinitive with the preposition la ("to"), expressing purpose: Abram's going down has the specific goal of sojourning, not settling permanently.
• khaved ("heavy/severe", H3515) — masculine singular adjective describing ra'av, used with the causal particle ki ("for") to explain why Abram acted as he did.

What the text says

The verse is built as two narrative clauses joined by the narrative vav (va, H9001), each opening with a qal narrative verb: first y'hi ("it was", H1961) establishing the famine, then yered ("he went down", H3381) recording Abram's action. This vav-chain structure ties the famine directly to Abram's departure as cause and consequence within the story's forward movement, without needing an explicit connector between the two main clauses.

The purpose of the movement is marked by the infinitive construction la-gur ("to sojourn", H1481A + H9005), which specifies that Abram's intention was temporary residence (gur) rather than permanent settlement — a nuance carried by the specific verb choice rather than by any added modifier. The directional he attached to mitzrayma (H9011) reinforces the sense of movement "toward" Egypt, a grammatical feature embedded in the noun itself rather than expressed by a separate preposition.

The final clause, introduced by ki ("for", H3588A), restates the famine using the same noun ra'av but now qualified by the adjective khaved ("heavy", H3515) with the definite article ha-ra'av ("the famine"). This repetition of ra'av — first indefinite as the report, then definite with a qualifying adjective as the explanation — creates a frame in which the famine both opens and explains the verse's action.