Genesis 43:1

Summary

The verse states that the famine was severe in the land, using a simple Hebrew verbless clause. The subject ra'av ("famine", H7458) is qualified by the adjective kaved ("heavy/severe", H3515), with no explicit verb "to be" present in the Hebrew.

Key words

• ra'av ("famine", H7458) — masculine singular noun, marked as definite by the article ha (H9009), referring back to the famine already mentioned earlier in the narrative.
• kaved ("heavy", H3515) — masculine singular adjective, functioning as the predicate of the clause; it describes the intensity of the famine rather than a physical weight.
• ba'aretz ("in the land", preposition H9003 + noun H0776G) — the noun aretz is feminine singular, definite, and marks the location where the famine's severity is stated.
• ve ("and", H9002) — conjunction opening the verse, linking it to the preceding narrative context.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause ve-ha-ra'av kaved ba'aretz has no finite verb. This is a common construction in Biblical Hebrew called a verbless (nominal) clause, where a definite noun (ha-ra'av, "the famine") is followed directly by an adjective (kaved, "heavy") that serves as the predicate. The verb "to be" is not present in the Hebrew text and must be supplied in translation ("was") based on context and tense inferred from the surrounding narrative.

The adjective kaved (H3515) is the same root used elsewhere for "heavy" in a physical sense, but here it modifies an abstract noun (famine) to indicate severity or intensity rather than literal weight. The prepositional phrase ba'aretz ("in the land") uses the definite article attached to aretz (H0776G), indicating a specific, previously identified land — consistent with the land already referenced in the surrounding narrative rather than a general or unspecified territory.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew adjectival clause with a finite verb, ἐνίσχυσεν ("strengthened" or "intensified"), giving the famine an active verbal force ("the famine grew strong") rather than the static descriptive adjective kaved found in the Hebrew.

The Vulgate expands the clause with vehementer premebat ("was vehemently pressing"), introducing a verb of pressure not present in the Hebrew, and adds omnem ("all/whole") before terram ("land"), a totalizing qualifier absent from the Hebrew ba'aretz ("in the land").

The Spanish SBLIBRE similarly adds "toda la región" ("the whole region"), reflecting the same expansion seen in the Vulgate rather than the more limited Hebrew phrase "in the land."