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ותחילנה. על שם שהיו הבריות חולניות מפני הרעב. ותחילנה, “they commenced;” our author, following his interpretation of the expression ותכילנה, understands this word as derived from חולי, sickly, meaning that during the years of famine, the Egyptians began to look very sickly. (B’reshit Rabbah 90,6)