Hebrew Folk Tales and Legends

There had been no rain in Canaan in several months.  The land was dry, the grass had withered and the crops had failed.  There was widespread famine and both people and animals were starving.  When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, "Why do you keep looking at one another helplessly?    I have heard," he said, "that there is grain in Egypt; go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die." Ten of Joseph's brothers went on the long trip down to Egypt to buy grain. Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his other brothers, for he feared that harm might come to the brothers on their journey, and then he would be alone, with no sons left.   Joseph was governor over all the land of Egypt and he was in charge of food sales to the population. When Joseph's brothers arrived in Egypt they went to Joseph and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.   Joseph recognized his brother...

Canaan was hot, dry and arid.  Very little rain fell in the best of years and some years there was no rain  at all.  Consequently when crops did not grow and there was little grass in the pastures to feed the flocks, which was a pretty common occurrence in Canaan, there was widespread famine and both people and animals starved.  One such famine occurred during the days of Isaac.  Isaac was considering moving his flocks south to greener pastures, but the Lord Yahweh appeared to Isaac suddenly one day and told him not to go to Egypt, as his father Abraham had done, but instead to go to the Philistine city of Gerar and reside there as an undocumented alien.  Yahweh told Isaac:  “If you remain at Gerar and settle there, I will give you Gerar and all the surrounding land.  Even though you are a foreigner and an alien, I will give you and your descendants all the lands as far as the eye can see.  I will make your descendants as numerous as the st...