Genesis 43:34 | 91
43:7 l ver 27 m Ge 42:13
43:8 n Ge 42:2; Ps 33:18‐19
43:9 o Ge 42:37; 44:32; Phm 1:18‐19
43:11 p Ge 32:20; Pr 18:16 q Ge 37:25; Jer 8:22 r 1Ki 10:2
43:12 s Ge 42:25
43:14 t Ge 17:1; 28:3; 35:11 u Ge 42:24 v Est 4:16
43:15 w Ge 45:9, 13 x Ge 47:2, 7
43:16 y Ge 44:1, 4, 12 z ver 31; Lk 15:23
43:18 a Ge 42:35 43:20 b Ge 42:3
43:21 c ver 15; Ge 42:27, 35
43:23 d Ge 42:28 e Ge 42:24
43:24 f ver 16 g Ge 18:4; 24:32
43:26 h Mt 2:11 i Ge 37:7, 10
43:27 j ver 7 43:28 k Ge 37:7
43:29 l Ge 42:13 m Nu 6:25; Ps 67:1
43:30 n Jn 11:33, 38 o Ge 42:24; 45:2,
14, 15; 46:29 43:31 p Ge 45:1
43:32 q Gal 2:12 r Ge 46:34; Ex 8:26
43:34 s Ge 37:3; 45:22
7 They re plied,“ The man ques tioned us closely about our selves and our fam ily.‘ Is your father still living?’ l he asked us.‘ Do you have an other brother?’ m We sim ply an swered his ques tions. How were we to know he would say,‘ Bring your brother down here’?”
8 Then Ju dah said to Is rael his fa ther,“ Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our chil dren may live and not die. n 9 I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me per son ally re spon si ble for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here be fore you, I will bear the blame be fore you all my life. o 10 As it is, if we had not de layed, we could have gone and re turned twice.”
11 Then their fa ther Is rael said to them,“ If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best prod ucts of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift p— a lit tle balm q and a lit tle honey, some spices r and myrrh, some pis ta chio nuts and al monds. 12 Take double the amount of sil ver with you, for you must re turn the sil ver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. s Per haps it was a mis take. 13 Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. 14 And may God Al mighty a t grant you mercy be fore the man so that he will let your other brother and Ben ja min come back with you. u As for me, if I am be reaved, I am bereaved.” v
15 So the men took the gifts and dou ble the amount of sil ver, and Ben ja min also. They hurried w down to Egypt and pre sented them selves x to Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the stew ard of his house, y“ Take these men to my house, slaughter an an i mal and pre pare a meal; z they are to eat with me at noon.”
17 The man did as Jo seph told him and took the men to Jo seph’ s house. 18 Now the men were frightened a when they were taken to his house. They thought,“ We were brought here be cause of the sil ver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to at tack us and over power us and seize us as slaves and take our don keys.”
19 So they went up to Jo seph’ s stew ard and spoke to him at the en trance to the house. 20“ We beg your par don, our lord,” they said,“ we came down here the first time to buy food. b 21 But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his sil ver— the ex act weight— in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. c 22 We have also brought ad di tional sil ver with us to buy food. We don’ t know who put our sil ver in our sacks.”
23“ It’ s all right,” he said.“ Don’ t be afraid. Your God, the God of your fa ther, has given you trea sure in your sacks; d I re ceived your sil ver.” Then he brought Sim eon out to them. e
24 The stew ard took the men into Jo seph’ s house, f gave them wa ter to wash their feet g and pro vided fod der for their don keys. 25 They pre pared their gifts for Jo seph’ s ar rival at noon, be cause they had heard that they were to eat there.
26 When Jo seph came home, they pre sented to him the gifts h they had brought into the house, and they bowed down be fore him to the ground. i 27 He asked them how they were, and then he said,“ How is your aged fa ther you told me about? Is he still liv ing?” j
28 They re plied,“ Your ser vant our fa ther is still alive and well.” And they bowed down, prostrating themselves before him. k
29 As he looked about and saw his brother Ben ja min, his own moth er’ s son, he asked,“ Is this your youn gest brother, the one you told me about?” l And he said,“ God be gra cious to you, m my son.” 30 Deeply moved n at the sight of his brother, Jo seph hur ried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his pri vate room and wept o there.
31 Af ter he had washed his face, he came out and, con trol ling him self, p said,“ Serve the food.”
32 They served him by him self, the broth ers by them selves, and the Egyp tians who ate with him by them selves, be cause Egyp tians could not eat with He brews, q for that is detestable to Egyptians. r
33 The men had been seated be fore him in the or der of their ages, from the first born to the youn gest; and they looked at each other in as ton ish ment. 34 When por tions were served to them from Jo seph’ s ta ble, Ben ja min’ s por tion was five times as much as any one else’ s. s So they feasted and drank freely with him.
a 14 Hebrew El-Shaddai
43:11 – 14 Without knowing Joseph’ s true identity, Jacob sends gifts to honor him. 43:14 may God Almighty grant you mercy. Conscious of the potential danger awaiting his sons in Egypt, Jacob prays that God will be merciful to them. God subsequently answers his prayer when Joseph forgives his brothers. 43:15 – 18 The unanticipated invitation to Joseph’ s house alarms his brothers. Ironically, they fear that Joseph, the one they sold into slavery, will enslave them.
43:19 – 22 Describing how they discovered the silver in their sacks, the brothers are openly honest with Joseph’ s steward. 43:23 The steward’ s reply attributes the silver in the sacks to divine intervention, probably knowing that Joseph was responsible for this( 42:25). 43:26 they bowed down. For a second time( see 42:6), Joseph’ s brothers fulfill his dreams( 37:5 – 11) by prostrating themselves before him.
43:30 Seeing Benjamin after 20 years apart, Joseph struggles to control his feelings. 43:32 – 34 For cultural reasons Egyptians and Hebrews did not eat together. However, Joseph ensures that his younger brother Benjamin is especially privileged. Joseph may have done this to see how his brothers would react toward Benjamin. Would they be jealous of Benjamin as they had been jealous of him when their father had favored him( 37:4)?