the Week of Proper 6 / Ordinary 11
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American Standard Version
Genesis 42:10
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- BridgewayParallel Translations
They said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.
And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.
And they said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.
But his brothers said to him, "No, my master. We come as your servants just to buy food.
But they exclaimed, "No, my lord! Your servants have come to buy grain for food!
But they said to him, "No, my lord, for your servants have [only] come to buy food.
And they said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.
But they sayde vnto him, Nay, my lorde, but to bye vitayle thy seruants are come.
Then they said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.
"No sir," they replied. "We're your servants, and we have only come to buy grain.
"No, my lord," they replied, "your servants have come to buy food.
And they said to him, No, my lord; but to buy food are thy servants come.
But the brothers said to him, "No, sir, we come as your servants. We have come only to buy food.
They said to him, "No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food.
And they said to him, No, our lord, but to buy grain your servants have come.
"No, sir," they answered. "We have come as your slaves, to buy food.
“No, my lord. Your servants have come to buy food,” they said.
And they said to him, No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.
They answered him: No my lorde, thy seruauntes are come to bye vytayle:
And they said to him, Not so, my lord: your servants have come with money to get food.
And they sayde vnto hym: nay my Lord, but to bye vitayle thy seruauntes are come.
And they said unto him: 'Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.
And they said vnto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy seruants come.
But they said, Nay, Sir, we thy servants are come to buy food;
And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.
"Not so, my lord," they replied. "Your servants have come to buy food.
Whiche seiden, Lord, it is not so, but thi seruauntis camen to bie metis;
And they say unto him, `No, my lord, but thy servants have come to buy food;
And they said to him, No, my lord, but to buy food have your slaves come.
And they said to him, No, my lord, but to buy food have thy servants come.
They said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.
And they said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.
"No, my lord!" they exclaimed. "Your servants have simply come to buy food.
They said to him, "No, my lord. Your servants have come to buy food.
They said to him, "No, my lord; your servants have come to buy food.
And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, - but, thy servants, are come to buy food.
But they said: It is not so, my lord; but thy servants are come to buy food.
They said to him, "No, my lord, but to buy food have your servants come.
"No, master," they said. "We've only come to buy food. We're all the sons of the same man; we're honest men; we'd never think of spying."
Then they said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Genesis 27:29, Genesis 27:37, Genesis 37:8, Genesis 44:9, 1 Samuel 26:17, 1 Kings 18:7
Reciprocal: Genesis 23:6 - my lord Genesis 43:20 - we came indeed down
Cross-References
Let peoples serve thee, And nations bow down to thee: Be lord over thy brethren, And let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: Cursed be every one that curseth thee, And blessed be every one that blesseth thee.
And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with grain and new wine have I sustained him: and what then shall I do for thee, my son?
And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, let him die, and we also will be my lord's bondmen.
And Saul knew David's voice, and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.
And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Is it thou, my lord Elijah?
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And they said unto him, nay, my lord,.... One in the name of the rest, or each in his turn, denying that they were spies, and addressing him with the greatest reverence and submission, calling him their lord, and thus further accomplishing his dreams:
but to buy food are thy servants come; that and no other was the errand they came upon.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- Joseph and Ten of His Brethren
1. ש××ר sheber, âfragment, crumb, hence, grain.â ×ר bar âpure,â âwinnowed,â hence, âcornâ (grain).
6. ש×××× shallıÌytÌ£, âruler, governor, hence,â Sultan. Not elsewhere found in the Pentateuch.
25. ××× kelıÌy, âvessel,â here any portable article in which grain may be conveyed. ש×ק sÌaq, âsack,â the very word which remains in our language to this day. ××ת×ת 'amtachath âbag.â
Twenty years, the period of Josephâs long and anxious waiting, have come to an end. The dreams of his boyhood are now at length to be fulfilled. The famine has reached the chosen family, and they look at one another perplexed and irresolute, not knowing what to do.
Genesis 42:1-5
The aged Jacob is the only man of counsel. âBehold, I have heard there is grain in Mizraim:â go down and buy. The ten brothers are sent, and Benjamin, the youngest, is retained, not merely because of his youth, for he was now twenty-four years of age, but because he was the son of his fatherâs old age, the only son of Rachel now with him, and the only full brother of the lost Joseph. âLest mischief befall him,â and so no child of Rachel would be left. âAmong those that went.â The dearth was widespread in the land of Kenaan.
Genesis 42:6-17
The ten brothers meet with a rough reception from the lord of the land. âThe governorâ - the sultan. This, we see, is a title of great antiquity in Egypt or Arabia. Joseph presided over the cornmarket of the kingdom. âBowed down to him with their faces to the earth.â Well might Joseph think of those never-to-be-forgotten dreams in which the sheaves and stars bowed down to him. âAnd knew them.â How could he fail to remember the ten full-grown men of his early days, when they came before him with all their peculiarities of feature, attitude, and mother tongue. âAnd he made himself strange unto them.â All that we know of Josephâs character heretofore, and throughout this whole affair, goes to prove that his object in all his seemingly harsh treatment was to get at their hearts, to test their affection toward Benjamin, and to bring them to repent of their unkindness to himself.
âThey knew not him.â Twenty years make a great change in a youth of seventeen. And besides, with his beard and head shaven, his Egyptian attire, his foreign tongue, and his exalted position, who could have recognized the stripling whom, twenty years ago, they had sold as a slave? âSpies are ye.â This was to put a color of justice on their detention. To see the nakedness of the land, not its unfortified frontier, which is a more recent idea, but its present impoverishment from the famine. âSons of one man are we.â It was not likely that ten sons of one man would be sent on the hazardous duty of spies. âAnd behold the youngest is with our father this day.â It is intensely interesting to Joseph to hear that his father and full brother are still living. âAnd one is not.â Time has assuaged all their bitter feelings, both of exasperation against Joseph and of remorse for their unbrotherly conduct. This little sentence, however, cannot be uttered by them, or heard by Joseph, without emotion. âBy the life of Pharaoh.â Joseph speaks in character, and uses an Egyptian asseveration. âSend one of you.â This proposal is enough to strike terror into their hearts. The return of one would be a heavy, perhaps a fatal blow to their father. And how can one brave the perils of the way? They cannot bring themselves to concur in this plan. Sooner will they all go to prison, as accordingly they do. Joseph is not without a strong conviction of incumbent duty in all this. He knows he has been put in the position of lord over his brethren in the foreordination of God, and he feels bound to make this authority a reality for their moral good.
Genesis 42:18-25
After three days, Joseph reverses the numbers, allowing nine to return home, and retaining one. âThis do and live.â Joseph, notwithstanding the arbitrary power which his office enabled him to exercise, proves himself to be free from caprice and unnecessary severity. He affords them a fair opportunity of proving their words true, before putting them to death on suspicion of espionage. âThe God do I fear.â A singular sentence from the lord paramount of Egypt! It implies that the true God was not yet unknown in Egypt. We have heard the confession of this great truth already from the lips of Pharaoh Genesis 41:38-39. But it intimates to the brothers the astonishing and hopeful fact that the grand vizier serves the same great Being whom they and their fathers have known and worshipped; and gives them a plain hint that they will be dealt with according to the just law of heaven.
âCarry grain for your houses.â The governor then is touched with some feeling for their famishing households. The brothers, though honoring their aged father as the patriarch of their race, had now their separate establishments. Twelve households had to be supplied with bread. The journey to Egypt was not to be undertaken more than once a year if possible, as the distance from Hebron was upwards of two hundred miles. Hence, the ten brothers had with them all their available beasts of burden, with the needful retinue of servants. We need not be surprised that these are not especially enumerated, as it is the manner of Scripture to leave the secondary matters to the intelligence and experience of the reader, unless, as in the case of Abrahamâs three hundred and eighteen trained servants, they happen to be of essential moment in the process of events. âYour youngest brother.â Joseph longs to see his full brother alive, whom he left at home a child of four summers. âVerily guilty are we concerning our brother.â
Their affliction is beginning to bear the fruit of repentance. âBecause we saw the distress of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear.â How vividly is the scene of Josephâs sale here brought before us. It now appears that he besought them to spare him, and they would not hear! âThis distress.â Retribution has come at last. âHis blood is required.â Reuben justly upbraids them with their hardness of heart. Their brotherâs blood is required; for murder was intended, and when he was sold his death was pretended. âThe interpreter was betwixt them.â The dragoman was employed in holding conversation with them. But Joseph heard the spontaneous expressions of remorse, coming unprompted from their lips. The fountain of affection is deeply stirred. He cannot repress the rising tear. He has to retire for a time to recover his composure. He now takes, not Reuben, who was not to blame, but Simon, the next oldest, and binds him before them: a speaking act. He then gives orders to supply them with corn (grain), deposit their money in their sacks without their knowledge, and furnish them with provision for the way. Joseph feels, perhaps, that he cannot take money from his father. He will pay for the corn out of his own funds. But he cannot openly return the money to his brothers without more explanation than he wishes at present to give.
Genesis 42:26-34
The nine brothers return home and record their wonderful adventure. âIn the inn;â the lodge or place where they stopped for the night. This place was not yet perhaps provided with even the shelter of a roof. It was merely the usual place of halting. They would probably occupy six or seven days on the journey. Apparently at the first stage one opened his sack to give provender to his ass. The discovery of the silver in its mouth strikes them with terror. In a strange land and with an uneasy conscience they are easily alarmed. It was not convenient or necessary to open all the bags on the way, and so they make no further discovery.
Genesis 42:35-38
Upon emptying the other sacks all the silver turns up, to their great amazement and consternation. Jacob laments the loss of his son. Reuben offers two of his sons to Jacob as pledges for Benjamin, to be slain if he did not bring him back in safety. The sorrowing parent cannot yet bring himself to consent to Benjaminâs departure on this hazardous journey. âAnd ye shall bring down.â Jacob either speaks here in the querulous tone of afflicted old age, or he had come to know or suspect that his brothers had some hand in the disappearance of Joseph.
