Genesis 41:57

Summary

The verse states that people from "all the earth/land" came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine had become severe throughout "all the earth/land." The Hebrew uses the same phrase khol ha'aretz ("all the land/earth") at both the beginning and end of the verse, framing the report.

Key words

• 'Eretz ("earth/land", H0776G) — feminine singular noun, repeated twice (lines 4 and 19), each time governed by khol ("all", H3605) in construct form, producing the phrase "all the land/earth."
• Ba'u ("they came", H0935G) — qal perfect, third person plural, indicating a completed collective action of arrival.
• Shvor ("buy grain", H7666) — qal infinitive, expressing purpose ("to buy grain"), dependent on the preceding verb of motion.
• Chazaq ("it was severe/strong", H2388G) — qal perfect, third person masculine singular, describing the intensification of the famine as a completed state.
• Ra'av ("famine", H7458) — masculine singular noun, the subject of chazaq, definite through the article ha (H9009).

What the text says

The verse is built in two clauses joined by the causal particle ki ("for", H3588A). The first clause states that khol ha'aretz ("all the land," H3605+H0776G) ba'u ("came," H0935G, qal perfect) to Mitzrayma ("Egypt," H4714G) with the directional he suffix indicating motion toward a place. The purpose of this movement is expressed by the infinitive lishvor ("to buy grain," H7666), followed by 'el-Yosef ("to Joseph," H3130G), showing that the grain acquisition is tied specifically to Joseph as the administrator.

The second clause explains the cause: ki-chazaq ha-ra'av ("for the famine was severe," H2388G+H7458), using a qal perfect verb that presents the famine's severity as an established fact rather than an ongoing process. The phrase b'khol ha'aretz ("in all the land," H3605+H0776G) repeats the same construct pattern from the verse's opening, creating a structural echo: the totality of the land is mentioned both as the source of those who came and as the extent of the famine's reach. This repetition in the Hebrew text ties the movement of people directly to the geographic scope of the crisis.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders khol ha'aretz ("all the land") as pasai hai chōrai ("all the countries/regions"), shifting from a singular collective term to a plural noun referring to distinct territories. The Vulgate similarly uses omnes provinciae ("all the provinces"), also plural, diverging from the Hebrew's singular 'eretz. Additionally, the LXX and Vulgate specify the purpose of the journey as obtaining food generally (ut emerent escas, "to buy food") rather than the more specific Hebrew infinitive lishvor ("to buy grain"), and the LXX does not explicitly retain the phrase "to Joseph" in the same construction as the Hebrew 'el-Yosef.