1
R. Simeon said:
2
When God resolves to punish the world with famine, He makes the proclamation Himself, and not by the hand of a herald, as in the case of all other punishments.1v. T. B. Taanith, 2a.
3
From that moment it is forbidden to a man who still has plenty to make a show of it, since in so doing he defies the word of the King and, as it were, drives the emissaries of the King from their place. Therefore it was that Jacob said to his sons when the famine came, “Do not show yourselves off’, as much as to say: Why do you cause blemish both above and below, and belie the word of the king and all his emissaries?
4
For Jacob still had much corn, and yet he only desired to “buy among those that came”, so that no blame should attach to his actions.