Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, Why do you look one on another?
Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, Why do you look one on another?
Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?
Now Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, said to his sons, Why are you looking at one another?
Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?
Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, "Why do you look at one another?"
Now Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, and Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?
Jacob saw that there was corn - That is, Jacob heard from the report of others that there was plenty in Egypt. The operations of one sense, in Hebrew, are often put for those of another. Before agriculture was properly known and practiced, famines were frequent; Canaan seems to have been peculiarly vexed by them. There was one in this land in the time of Abraham, Genesis 12:10; another in the days of Isaac, Genesis 26:1; and now a third in the time of Jacob. To this St. Stephen alludes, Acts 7:11 : there was great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance.
The aged Jacob is the only man of counsel. "Behold, I have heard there is grain in Mizraim:" go down and buy. The ten brothers are sent, and Benjamin, the youngest, is retained, not merely because of his youth, for he was now twenty-four years of age, but because he was the son of his father's old age, the only son of Rachel now with him, and the only full brother of the lost Joseph. "Lest mischief befall him," and so no child of Rachel would be left. "Among those that went." The dearth was widespread in the land of Kenaan.
42:1 Jacob saw that there was corn - That is, he saw the corn that his neighbours had bought there and brought home.