Kommentar zu Bereschit 12:10

רעב בארץ A FAMINE IN THE LAND — in that land only to test him whether he would take exception to God’s commands in that He had bidden him to go to the land of Canaan and now forced him to leave it (Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer 26).

AND THERE WAS A FAMINE IN THE LAND. Now Abraham went down to Egypt on account of the famine to dwell there in order to keep himself alive in the days of the drought, but the Egyptians oppressed him for no reason [and attempted] to take his wife. The Holy One, blessed be He, avenged their cause with great plagues, and brought him forth from there with cattle, with silver, and with gold,⁶⁹Genesis 13:2. and Pharaoh even commanded his men to escort them from the land.⁷⁰Verse 20 here. He thereby alluded to Abraham that his children would go down to Egypt on account of the famine to dwell there in the land, and the Egyptians would do them evil and take the women⁷¹Shemoth Rabbah 1:22. See also following note. from them, just as Pharaoh said, And every daughter ye shall save alive,⁷²Exodus 1:22. They were to be saved alive for unchaste purposes. but the Holy One, blessed be He, would avenge their cause with great plagues until He would bring them forth with silver and gold, sheep and oxen, very rich in cattle, with the Egyptians pressuring to send them out of the land.⁷³Ibid., 12:33. Nothing was lacking in all the events that happened to the patriarch that would not occur to the children.
The Rabbis have explained this subject in Bereshith Rabbah:⁷⁴40:8. “Rabbi Pinchas said in the name of Rabbi Oshaya that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham, ‘Go forth and tread out a path for your children!’ Thus you find that whatever is written concerning Abraham is also written concerning his children. In connection with Abraham it is written, And there was a famine in the land; in connection with Israel, it is written For these two years hath the famine been in the land.”⁷⁵Genesis 45:6.
Know that Abraham our father unintentionally committed a great sin by bringing his righteous wife to a stumbling-block of sin on account of his fear for his life. He should have trusted that G-d would save him and his wife and all his belongings for G-d surely has the power to help and to save. His leaving the Land, concerning which he had been commanded from the beginning, on account of the famine, was also a sin he committed, for in famine G-d would redeem him from death.⁷⁶See Job 5:20. It was because of this deed that the exile in the land of Egypt at the hand of Pharaoh was decreed for his children.⁷⁷See my Hebrew commentary, pp. 79-80, for sources and differing opinions on the view of Ramban expressed in this paragraph. In the place of justice, there is wickedness⁷⁸See Ecclesiastes 3:16. and sin.

לגור שם, not to settle there permanently.