Genesis 42:18

Easy-to-Read Version

After three days Joseph said to them, "I am a God-fearing man. Do this, and I will let you live.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Yosef said to them the third day, "Do this, and live, for I fear God.

King James Version
And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:

Lexham English Bible
On the third day Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live; I fear God.

New Century Version
On the third day Joseph said to them, "I am a God-fearing man. Do this and I will let you live:

New English Translation
On the third day Joseph said to them, "Do as I say and you will live, for I fear God.

Amplified Bible
Now Joseph said to them on the third day, "Do this and [you may] live, for I fear God:

New American Standard Bible
Now Joseph said to them on the third day, "Do this and live, for I fear God:

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then Ioseph said vnto them the third day, This do, and liue: for I feare God.

Legacy Standard Bible
And Joseph said to them on the third day, "Do this and live, for I fear God:

Contemporary English Version
before saying to them: Since I respect God, I'll give you a chance to save your lives.

Complete Jewish Bible
On the third day, Yosef said to them, "Do what I say, and stay alive, for I fear God.

Darby Translation
And Joseph said to them the third day, This do, that ye may live: I fear God.

English Standard Version
On the third day Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God:

George Lamsa Translation
And on the third day Joseph said to them, Do this, and live; for I worship God;

Good News Translation
On the third day Joseph said to them, "I am a God-fearing man, and I will spare your lives on one condition.

Christian Standard Bible®
On the third day Joseph said to them, “I fear God—do this and you will live.

Literal Translation
And on the third day Joseph said to them, Do this and live. I fear God.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Vpon the thirde daye he sayde vnto the: Yf ye wil lyue, the do thus, for I feare God:

American Standard Version
And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:

Bible in Basic English
And on the third day Joseph said to them, Do this, if you would keep your lives: for I am a god-fearing man:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And Ioseph said vnto them the thirde day: this do & liue, [for] I feare God.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Joseph said unto them the third day. 'This do, and live; for I fear God:

King James Version (1611)
And Ioseph said vnto them the third day, This doe, and liue: for I feare God.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he said to them on the third day, This do, and ye shall live, for I fear God.

English Revised Version
And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:

Berean Standard Bible
and on the third day he said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
whanne thei weren led out of prisoun, he seide, Do ye that that Y seide, and ye schulen lyue, for Y drede God;

Young's Literal Translation
And Joseph saith unto them on the third day, `This do and live; God I fear!

Update Bible Version
And Joseph said to them the third day, Do this, and live: for I fear God:

Webster's Bible Translation
And Joseph said to them the third day, This do, and live; [for] I fear God:

World English Bible
Joseph said to them the third day, "Do this, and live, for I fear God.

New King James Version
Then Joseph said to them the third day, "Do this and live, for I fear God:

New Living Translation
On the third day Joseph said to them, "I am a God-fearing man. If you do as I say, you will live.

New Life Bible
Then Joseph said to them on the third day, "Do this and live, for I fear God.

New Revised Standard
On the third day Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God:

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And Joseph said unto them on the third day, This, do and live, - God himself, do, I, revere.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the third day he brought them out of prison, and said: Do as I have said, and you shall live: for I fear God.

Revised Standard Version
On the third day Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God:

THE MESSAGE
On the third day, Joseph spoke to them. "Do this and you'll live. I'm a God-fearing man. If you're as honest as you say you are, one of your brothers will stay here in jail while the rest of you take the food back to your hungry families. But you have to bring your youngest brother back to me, confirming the truth of your speech—and not one of you will die." They agreed.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Now Joseph said to them on the third day, "Do this and live, for I fear God:

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

I fear God: Genesis 20:11, Leviticus 25:43, Nehemiah 5:9, Nehemiah 5:15, Luke 18:2, Luke 18:4

Reciprocal: Genesis 22:12 - now Genesis 39:9 - sin Genesis 44:17 - God forbid Exodus 1:17 - feared God Exodus 18:21 - such as Leviticus 19:14 - fear Leviticus 25:17 - fear 1 Kings 18:3 - feared the Lord 2 Chronicles 19:7 - let the Nehemiah 7:2 - feared God Psalms 19:9 - The fear Psalms 119:161 - my heart Proverbs 14:16 - feareth Malachi 3:5 - fear Colossians 3:22 - fearing 1 Peter 2:17 - Fear

Cross-References

Genesis 20:11
Then Abraham said, "I thought no one in this place respected God. I thought someone would kill me to get Sarah.

Leviticus 25:43
You must not be a cruel master to them. You must respect your God.

Nehemiah 5:9
So I continued speaking. I said, "What you people are doing is not right! You know that you should fear and respect our God. You should not do the shameful things other people do!

Nehemiah 5:15
But the governors who ruled before me made life hard for the people. The governors forced everyone to pay 1 pound of silver. They also made the people give them food and wine. The leaders under these governors also ruled over the people and made life even harder. But I respected and feared God, so I didn't do things like that.

Luke 18:2
"Once there was a judge in a town. He did not care about God. He also did not care what people thought about him.

Luke 18:4
But the judge did not want to help the woman. After a long time, the judge thought to himself, ‘I don't care about God. And I don't care about what people think.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Joseph said unto them the third day,.... His heart yearning towards them, though he put on such an appearance; finding they could not come to an agreement among themselves who should go on the errand, he thought fit to recede from his former order, and to give them another:

this do, and live: meaning what he was about to say to them, which if they punctually observed and performed, it would be the means of saving their lives:

[for] I fear God; and therefore would not do either an unjust or cruel thing. This might have given them an him who he was: but there being among the Gentiles, in all nations, some few that feared God, they took no further notice of it than this, that they might expect just and equitable dealings by him; since, though he was in such an high place, he knew and owned there was one higher than he, to whom he was accountable.

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 42:18. I fear God — את האלהים אני ירא eth haelohim ani yare, literally translated the passage runs thus, I also fear the gods; but the emphatic ה ha is probably added by Joseph, both here and in his conversation with Pharaoh, the more particularly to point out the eminence and perfection of the Supreme Being as contradistinguished from the gods of Egypt. He seems to say to his brethren, I am a worshipper of the true God, and ye have nothing to fear.