Genesis 43:2 | 81 place un less your youn gest broth er comes here.
16
Send one of your num ber to get your broth er; the rest of you will be kept in pris on, so that your words may be test ed to see if you are tell ing the truth. If you are not, then as sure ly as Phar aoh lives, you are spies!” 17 And he put them all in custo dy for three days.
18
On the third day, Jo seph said to them,“ Do this and you will live, for I fear God: 19 If you are hon est men, let one of your broth ers stay here in pris on, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starv ing house holds. 20 But you must bring your youn gest broth er to me, so that your words may be ver i fied and that you may not die.” This they pro ceed ed to do.
21
They said to one an oth er,“ Sure ly we are be ing pun ished be cause of our broth er. We saw how dis tressed he was when he plead ed with us for his life, but we would not lis ten; that’ s why this dis tress has come on us.”
22
Reu ben re plied,“ Didn’ t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’ t lis ten! Now we must give an ac count ing for his blood.” 23 They did not re al ize that Jo seph could un der stand them, since he was us ing an in ter pret er.
24
He turned away from them and be gan to weep, but then came back and spoke to them again. He had Sim e on tak en from them and bound be fore their eyes.
25
Jo seph gave or ders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man’ s sil ver back in his sack, and to give them pro vi sions for their jour ney. Af ter this was done for them, 26 they load ed their grain on their don keys and left.
27
At the place where they stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to get feed for his don key, and he saw his sil ver in the mouth of his sack. 28“ My sil ver has been re turned,” he said to his broth ers.“ Here it is in my sack.”
Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trem bling and said,“ What is this that God has done to us?”
29
When they came to their fa ther Ja cob in the land of Ca naan, they told him all that had hap pened to them. They said, 30“ The man who is lord over the land spoke harsh ly to us and treat ed us as though we were spy ing on the land. 31 But we said to him,‘ We are hon est men; we are not spies. 32 We were twelve broth ers, sons of one fa ther. One is no more, and the youn gest is now with our fa ther in Ca naan.’
33
“ Then the man who is lord over the land said to us,‘ This is how I will know wheth er you are hon est men: Leave one of your broth ers here with me, and take food for your starv ing house holds and go. 34 But bring your youn gest broth er to me so I will know that you are not spies but hon est men. Then I will give your broth er back to you, and you can trade a in the land.’”
35
As they were emp ty ing their sacks, there in each man’ s sack was his pouch of sil ver! When they and their fa ther saw the mon ey pouch es, they were fright ened. 36 Their fa ther Ja cob said to them,“ You have de prived me of my chil dren. Jo seph is no more and Sim e on is no more, and now you want to take Ben ja min. Ev ery thing is against me!”
37
Then Reu ben said to his fa ther,“ You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. En trust him to my care, and I will bring him back.”
38
But Ja cob said,“ My son will not go down there with you; his broth er is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the jour ney you are tak ing, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sor row.”
The Second Journey to Egypt
Now the fam ine was still se vere in the land.
43
2
So when they had eat en all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their fa ther said to them,“ Go back and buy us a lit tle more food.”
a
34 Or move about freely kind of oath appears in an Egyptian inscription from the twentieth century BC. 42:22 not to sin against the boy This indicates that all ten of Joseph’ s older brothers are morally at fault for what happened to him. we must give an accounting for his blood This could indicate that the brothers never told Reuben what they actually did to Joseph— he seems to think Joseph is dead. 42:24 Simeon The second oldest brother, who was a son of Leah( Ge 29:33), and one of the two brothers who slaughtered the men of Shechem( ch. 34). 42:27 place where they stopped for the night This refers to a temporary encampment, not an inn.
42:29 – 34 Joseph’ s ten older brothers recount the misfortunes of their trip to their father Jacob. Perhaps sensing that Jacob does not trust them to take care of Benjamin, they spin the story as positively as they can. They seem to believe that if Jacob will allow Benjamin to accompany them to Egypt, then all tensions will be resolved. Although Jacob is silent during this discussion, the outlook seems favorable until v. 36.
42:37 You may put both of my sons to death Since Reuben had four sons( 46:9), the text likely refers to two of his sons. 42:38 to the grave The Hebrew text here uses the word she’ ol( see note on 37:35).
43:1 – 34 When the famine grows more severe and food supplies run low, Jacob must send his sons back to Egypt for additional grain. But they refuse to go without Benjamin. Judah— acting as the firstborn in place of Reuben, Simeon and Levi( see note on 49:8)— agrees to take responsibility for Benjamin’ s safety, and Jacob reluctantly allows Benjamin to travel with him( compare 37:25 – 28). Once the brothers present Benjamin to Joseph, Simeon is restored to them( compare 42:24). Joseph also prepares a feast and tests them further to see whether they have changed( see 42:11).