42:1).</b> Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: <i>He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him; but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it</i> (Prov. 11:26). <i>He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him</i> refers to Pharaoh, whom the people cursed for hiding the corn during the years of famine. <i>Blessings shall be upon the head of him that selleth it</i> alludes to Joseph, who fed the people during the years of famine. David said concerning him: <i>Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that art enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth</i> (Ps. 80:1). When a famine occurred during the lifetime of David, he pleaded to the Holy One, blessed be He, for mercy, saying: “Master of the Universe, tend your flock as did Joseph, who fed the world through years of famine.”
When the famine grew more serious in Egypt, the Egyptians assembled, and went to Joseph crying: “Give us bread!” He replied: “My God does not feed the uncircumcised; go circumcise yourselves and I will give you bread.” Whereupon they went to Pharaoh, crying and wailing, as it is said: <i>When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread; Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians: “Go unto Joseph”</i> (Gen. 41:55). They replied: “We have gone to Joseph, and he told us to do a ridiculous thing. He said: ‘Go circumcise yourselves.’” “You fools,” he retorted, “did I not advise you at the very outset to serve him and to accumulate grain for yourselves at the same time? Did he not warn you repeatedly, through the years of plenty, that the famine was coming? Since you have neglected your own welfare, why do you complain to me? Why did you not store up grain in your homes during the past two or three or four years?” “All the grain we had in our homes,” they replied, “has rotted away.” “Have you no flour left even from yesterday?” he asked. “Even the bread in our baskets has become moldy,” they answered. Thereupon he told them: <i>Go unto Joseph: what he saieth to you, do</i> (ibid.). “If he is able to decree that our grain should rot and it does rot, we may well fear that if he should decree that we die, we will all die.” Hence, <i>what he saith to you, do. And the famine was over all the face of the earth</i> (ibid., v. 56). Surely it would have been sufficient for Scripture to say “upon the earth”; why does it say <i>over all the face of the earth</i>? R. Samuel declared: This teaches us that the famine began among the wealthy, since the phrase <i>the face of the earth</i> alludes to the wealthy.<sup class="footnote-marker">5</sup><i class="footnote">In midrashic usage, the word <i>panim</i> (“face”) is a designation of wealth.</i> Thus it says: <i>He that withholdeth corn</i>.