Theologische Nuggets IV (Genesis 34 - 44:26)

Genesis 42:1-2

Als aber Jakob sah, dass Getreide in Ägypten zu haben war, sprach er zu seinen Söhnen: Was seht ihr euch lange an?

Deswegen ist die Situation in Ägypten vom vorherigen Kapitel so relevant, denn die Hungersnot betraf alle Länder drum herum und alle tun klug darin nach Ägypten zu ziehen um sich dort Essen einzukaufen. Wir wissen, dass Josef dafür verantwortlich ist, der Sohn von Jakob, der die anderen Söhne zur Verantwortung zieht und sie auffordert eine Lösung zu finden für ihre Hungersnot. Und die Lösung heißt Ägypten. 

It is evident from Jacob's language that his own and his sons' families had suffered greatly from the scarcity; and through the increasing severity of the scourge, those men, who had formerly shown both activity and spirit, were sinking into despondency. God would not interpose miraculously when natural means of preservation were within reach.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, und David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 42.

Siehe, ich höre, es sei in Ägypten Getreide zu haben; zieht hinab und kauft uns Getreide, dass wir leben und nicht sterben.

Das "hören" ist entweder bezogen auf Gerüchte die er im Gespräch mit anderen aufgeschnappt hat oder er hat tatsächlich jemanden losgeschickt gehabt um rauszufinden wo man noch Getreide kaufen kann. 

Allein hier gehen schon die Alarmglocken los, denn die Brüder müssen dorthin gehen, wo sie ihren jüngsten Bruder verkauft haben. 

That Jacob did not, like Abraham (ch. 12:10) and Isaac (ch. 26:2), propose to remove his family to Egypt, may be explained either by the length of the journey, which was too great for so large a household, or by the circumstance that the famine prevailed in Egypt as well as Canaan (Gerlach). That he intrusted his sons, and not his servants, with the mission, though perhaps dictated by a sense of its importance (Lawson), was clearly of Divine arrangement for the further accomplishment of the Divine plan concerning Joseph and his brethren. And buy (i. e. buy corn, the verb being a denominative from שֶׁבֶר, corn) for us from thence. From this it is apparent that the hitherto abundant flocks and herds of the patriarchal family had been greatly reduced by the long-continued and severe drought, thus requiring them to obtain food from Egypt, if either any portion of their flocks were to be saved, or themselves to escape starvation, as the patriarch explained to his sons.

H. D. M. Spence-Jones, Hrsg., Genesis, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 474.