Genesis 42:11

Easy-to-Read Version

We are all brothers—we all have the same father. We are honest men. We have come only to buy food."

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
We are all one man's sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies."

King James Version
We are all one man's sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.

Lexham English Bible
We all are sons of one man. We are honest men. We, your servants, are not spies."

New Century Version
We are all sons of the same father. We are honest men, not spies."

New English Translation
We are all the sons of one man; we are honest men! Your servants are not spies."

Amplified Bible
"We are all the sons of one man; we are honest men, your servants are not spies."

New American Standard Bible
"We are all sons of one man; we are honest men, your servants are not spies."

Geneva Bible (1587)
Wee are all one mans sonnes: wee meane truely, and thy seruants are no spies.

Legacy Standard Bible
We are all sons of one man; we are honest men; your servants are not spies."

Contemporary English Version
We're honest men, and we come from the same family—we're not spies."

Complete Jewish Bible
We're all the sons of one man, we're upright men; your servants aren't spies."

Darby Translation
We are all one man's sons; we are honest: thy servants are not spies.

English Standard Version
We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies."

George Lamsa Translation
We are all one mans sons; we are pious men; your servants are not spies.

Good News Translation
We are all brothers. We are not spies, sir, we are honest men."

Christian Standard Bible®
“We are all sons of one man. We are honest; your servants are not spies.”

Literal Translation
We are all of us sons of one man; we are honest; your servants are not spies.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
we are all one mans sonnes, we are vnfayned, and thy seruauntes were neuer spyes.

American Standard Version
We are all one man's sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.

Bible in Basic English
We are all one man's sons, we are true men; we have not come with any secret purpose.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
We are all one mans sonnes, and meane truely, and thy seruauntes are no spyes.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
We are all one man's sons; we are upright men, thy servants are no spies.'

King James Version (1611)
We are all one mans sonnes, we are true men: thy seruants are no spies.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
we are all sons of one man; we are peaceable, thy servants are not spies.

English Revised Version
We are all one man's sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.

Berean Standard Bible
We are all sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
alle we ben the sones of o man, we comen pesible, and thi seruauntis ymaginen not ony yuel.

Young's Literal Translation
we [are] all of us sons of one man, we [are] right men; thy servants have not been spies;'

Update Bible Version
We are all sons of one man; we are true men, your slaves are no spies.

Webster's Bible Translation
We [are] all one man's sons; we [are] true [men]; thy servants are no spies.

World English Bible
We are all one man's sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies."

New King James Version
We are all one man's sons; we are honest men; your servants are not spies."

New Living Translation
We are all brothers—members of the same family. We are honest men, sir! We are not spies!"

New Life Bible
We are all sons of one man. We do not lie. Your servants are not working against you in secret."

New Revised Standard
We are all sons of one man; we are honest men; your servants have never been spies."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
All of us, are, sons of one man, - honest men, are we: thy servants are not, spies.

Douay-Rheims Bible
We are all the sons of one man: we are come as peaceable men, neither do thy servants go about any evil.

Revised Standard Version
We are all sons of one man, we are honest men, your servants are not spies."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"We are all sons of one man; we are honest men, your servants are not spies."

Contextual Overview

⁷ Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted like he didn't know them. He was rude when he spoke to them. He said, "Where do you come from?" The brothers answered, "We have come from the land of Canaan to buy food." ⁸ Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not know who he was. ⁹ Then Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about his brothers. Joseph said to his brothers, "You have not come to buy food! You are spies. You came to learn where we are weak." ¹⁰ But the brothers said to him, "No, sir, we come as your servants. We have come only to buy food. ¹¹ We are all brothers—we all have the same father. We are honest men. We have come only to buy food." ¹² Then Joseph said to them, "No, you have come to spy on us!" ¹³ And the brothers said, "No, sir, we come as servants from Canaan. We are all brothers, sons of the same father. There were twelve brothers in our family. Our youngest brother is still at home with our father, and the other brother died a long time ago." ¹⁴ But Joseph said to them, "No! I can see that I am right. You are spies. ¹⁵ But I will let you prove that you are telling the truth. In the name of Pharaoh, I swear that I will not let you go until your youngest brother comes here. ¹⁶ One of you must go back to get your youngest brother while the rest of you stay here in prison. Then we can prove whether you are telling the truth or not. If you are not telling the truth, then by Pharaoh, I swear that you are spies!"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

We are: etc. We do not belong to different tribes; and it is not likely that one family would make a hostile attempt upon a whole kingdom; nor, if any serious design had been intended, that one man would have sent his sons on so hazardous an expedition.

true men: Genesis 42:19, Genesis 42:33, Genesis 42:34, John 7:18, 2 Corinthians 6:4

Reciprocal: Genesis 42:13 - Thy servants Genesis 42:31 - true Genesis 43:27 - Is your father well Genesis 43:29 - of whom

Cross-References

Genesis 42:19
If you are honest men, one of your brothers can stay here in prison, and the others can go and carry grain back to your people.

Genesis 42:33
"Then the governor of that country said to us, ‘Here is a way to prove that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me. Take your grain back to your families.

Genesis 42:34
Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know if you are honest men or if you were sent from an army to destroy us. If you are telling the truth, I will give your brother back to you. I will give him to you, and you will be free to buy grain in our country.'"

John 7:18
If I taught my own ideas, I would just be trying to get honor for myself. But if I am trying to bring honor to the one who sent me, I can be trusted. Anyone doing that is not going to lie.

2 Corinthians 6:4
But in every way we show that we are servants of God. We never give up, even though we face troubles, difficulties, and problems of every kind.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

We [are] all one man's sons,.... Therefore not likely to be spies; it could hardly be thought that a single family should engage in such an affair; or that one man would, send his sons as spies, and especially all of them, it being a dangerous affair, and they being liable to be taken up and put to death; and as more families than one must be concerned in such an enterprise, it is reasonable to suppose, that if they had been spies they would have been of different families, and also not together, but in different parts of the kingdom, to observe the fittest place to enter in at and execute their design:

we [are] true [men]: that spoke truth when they said they came to buy corn; were honest, upright, and sincere in what they said, nor would they, nor durst they, tell a lie:

thy servants are no spies; this they expressed in the strongest terms, and with the fullest assurance they could, detesting the charge and character of being spies.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

- Joseph and Ten of His Brethren

1. שׁבר sheber, “fragment, crumb, hence, grain.” בר bar “pure,” “winnowed,” hence, “corn” (grain).

6. שׁליט shallı̂yṭ, “ruler, governor, hence,” Sultan. Not elsewhere found in the Pentateuch.

25. כלי k^elı̂y, “vessel,” here any portable article in which grain may be conveyed. שׂק śaq, “sack,” the very word which remains in our language to this day. אמתחת 'amtachath “bag.”

Twenty years, the period of Joseph’s 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. “Behold, I have heard there is grain in Mizraim:” 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 father’s old age, the only son of Rachel now with him, and the only full brother of the lost Joseph. “Lest mischief befall him,” and so no child of Rachel would be left. “Among those that went.” 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. “The governor” - the sultan. This, we see, is a title of great antiquity in Egypt or Arabia. Joseph presided over the cornmarket of the kingdom. “Bowed down to him with their faces to the earth.” Well might Joseph think of those never-to-be-forgotten dreams in which the sheaves and stars bowed down to him. “And knew them.” 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. “And he made himself strange unto them.” All that we know of Joseph’s 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.

“They knew not him.” 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? “Spies are ye.” 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. “Sons of one man are we.” It was not likely that ten sons of one man would be sent on the hazardous duty of spies. “And behold the youngest is with our father this day.” It is intensely interesting to Joseph to hear that his father and full brother are still living. “And one is not.” 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. “By the life of Pharaoh.” Joseph speaks in character, and uses an Egyptian asseveration. “Send one of you.” 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. “This do and live.” 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. “The God do I fear.” 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.

“Carry grain for your houses.” 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 Abraham’s three hundred and eighteen trained servants, they happen to be of essential moment in the process of events. “Your youngest brother.” Joseph longs to see his full brother alive, whom he left at home a child of four summers. “Verily guilty are we concerning our brother.”

Their affliction is beginning to bear the fruit of repentance. “Because we saw the distress of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear.” How vividly is the scene of Joseph’s sale here brought before us. It now appears that he besought them to spare him, and they would not hear! “This distress.” Retribution has come at last. “His blood is required.” Reuben justly upbraids them with their hardness of heart. Their brother’s blood is required; for murder was intended, and when he was sold his death was pretended. “The interpreter was betwixt them.” 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. “In the inn;” 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 Benjamin’s departure on this hazardous journey. “And ye shall bring down.” 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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Genesis 42:11. We are all one man's sons — We do not belong to different tribes, and it is not likely that one family would make a hostile attempt upon a whole kingdom. This seems to be the very ground that Joseph took, viz., that they were persons belonging to different tribes. Against this particularly they set up their defence, asserting that they all belonged to one family; and it is on the proof of this that Joseph puts them, Genesis 42:15, in obliging them to leave one as a hostage, and insisting on their bringing their remaining brother; so that he took exactly the same precautions to detect them as if he had had no acquaintance with them, and had every reason to be suspicious.