Genesis 45:6

For these two years hath the famine been in the land.

The sons of Jacob bad probably made their first trip to Egypt about the close of the first year, and this second trip seems to have been at the close of the second year. Five years yet remained.

Neither be earing nor harvest.

The term "earing" once meant plowing, and such is the meaning of the Hebrew. There will neither be tillage nor harvest for five more years. The drought will so continue that the husbandman will not even plant his land. The famine in Egypt was doubtless caused by the failure of the Nile to overflow the land on account of the failure of rains on its upper waters. Without the overflow the land would be in no condition to sow.