Verse 31 parallels verse 30 by announcing again that the famine will be so severe that the years of plenty will be forgotten.

The plenty will be unknown: unknown in this context has the sense that the famine will cause the evidence of the plentiful years to disappear. This is expressed by Speiser as “No trace will be left in it of the abundance.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy says “There will be left no signs of the abundance,” Revised English Bible “The good years will leave no trace in the land….”

By reason of that famine which will follow is literally “in the face of the famine that follows.”

For it will be very grievous: it refers to the famine. Grievous translates the Hebrew for “heavy,” which here has the sense of “severe,” “terrible,” “painful.”

In some languages it will be more natural to reverse the order of clauses and say, for example, “The famine will be so severe that nothing will be seen of the years when the crops were good” or “The famine … so bad that no sign of the years of good crops will be seen.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .