Genesis 42:28

New American Standard Bible (1995)

Then he said to his brothers, "My money has been returned, and behold, it is even in my sack." And their hearts sank, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
He said to his brothers, "My money is restored! Behold, it is even in my sack." Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

King James Version
And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us?

Lexham English Bible
And he said to his brothers, "My money was returned and moreover, behold, it is in my sack!" Then their hearts failed them and each of them trembled and said, "What is this God has done to us?"

New Century Version
He said to the other brothers, "The money I paid for the grain has been put back. Here it is in my sack!" The brothers were very frightened. They said to each other, "What has God done to us?"

New English Translation
He said to his brothers, "My money was returned! Here it is in my sack!" They were dismayed; they turned trembling to one another and said, "What in the world has God done to us?"

Amplified Bible
And he said to his brothers, "My money has been returned! Here it is in my sack!" And their hearts sank, and they were afraid and turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

New American Standard Bible
So he said to his brothers, "My money has been returned, and look, it is right in my sack!" Then their hearts sank, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then he sayde vnto his brethren, My money is restored: for loe, it is euen in my sacke. And their heart fayled them, and they were astonished, and sayde one to another, What is this, that God hath done vnto vs?

Legacy Standard Bible
So he said to his brothers, "My money has been returned, and behold, it is even in my sack." And their hearts sank, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

Contemporary English Version
"Here's my money!" he told his brothers. "Right here in my sack." They were trembling with fear as they stared at one another and asked themselves, "What has God done to us?"

Complete Jewish Bible
He said to his brothers, "My money has been restored — there it is, right in my pack!" At that, their hearts sank; they turned, trembling, to one another and said, "What is this that God has done to us?"

Darby Translation
And he said to his brethren, My money is returned [to me], and behold, it is even in my sack. And their heart failed [them], and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this [that] God has done to us?

Easy-to-Read Version
He said to the other brothers, "Look! Here is the money I paid for the grain. Someone put the money back in my sack." The brothers were very afraid. They said to one another, "What is God doing to us?"

English Standard Version
He said to his brothers, "My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!" At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

George Lamsa Translation
And he said to his brothers, My money has been returned; and, lo, it is in the mouth of my sack; and their hearts failed them, and they were amazed, staring at one another, saying, What is this that God has done to us?

Good News Translation
"My money has been returned to me," he called to his brothers. "Here it is in my sack!" Their hearts sank, and in fear they asked one another, "What has God done to us?"

Christian Standard Bible®
He said to his brothers, “My silver has been returned! It’s here in my bag.” Their hearts sank. Trembling, they turned to one another and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”

Literal Translation
And he said to his brothers, My silver has been put back, and also look in my sack. And their hearts went out, and they were each terrified, saying to his brother, What is this God has done to us?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and sayde vnto his brethren: My money is restored me agayne: lo, it is in my sack. Then their hertes fayled them, and they were afrayed amonge them selues, and sayde: Wherfore hath God done this vnto vs?

American Standard Version
And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, What is this that God hath done unto us?

Bible in Basic English
And he said to his brothers, My money has been given back: it is in my bag; then their hearts became full of fear, and turning to one another they said, What is this which God has done to us?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he said vnto his brethren, my money is restored me agayne, for lo, it is euen in my sacke. And their heart fayled them, and they were astonyed, and sayd one to another, why hath God dealt thus with vs?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And he said unto his brethren: 'My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack.' And their heart failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying: 'What is this that God hath done unto us?'

King James Version (1611)
And he said vnto his brethren, My money is restored, and loe, it is euen in my sacke: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to an other, What is this that God hath done vnto vs?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he said to his brethren, My money has been restored to me, and behold this is in my sack. And their heart was wonder-struck, and they were troubled, saying one to another, What is this that God has done to us?

English Revised Version
And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, What is this that God hath done unto us?

Berean Standard Bible
"My money has been returned!" he said to his brothers. "It is here in my sack." Their hearts sank, and trembling, they turned to one another and said, "What is this that God has done to us?"

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and seide to his britheren, My monei is yoldun to me, lo! it is had in the bagge; and thei weren astonyed, and troblid, and seiden togidere, What thing is this that God hath doon to us.

Young's Literal Translation
and he saith unto his brethren, `My money hath been put back, and also, lo, in my bag:' and their heart goeth out, and they tremble, one to another saying, `What [is] this God hath done to us!'

Update Bible Version
And he said to his brothers, My money is restored; and, look, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, What is this that God has done to us?

Webster's Bible Translation
And he said to his brethren, My money is restored; and see [it is] even in my sack: and their heart failed [them], and they were afraid, saying one to another, What [is] this [that] God hath done to us?

World English Bible
He said to his brothers, "My money is restored! Behold, it is even in my sack." Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

New King James Version
So he said to his brothers, "My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!" Then their hearts failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another, "What is this that God has done to us?"

New Living Translation
"Look!" he exclaimed to his brothers. "My money has been returned; it's here in my sack!" Then their hearts sank. Trembling, they said to each other, "What has God done to us?"

New Life Bible
He said to his brothers, "My money has been returned! It is inside my bag!" Then their hearts became full of fear. They turned to each other, shaking in fear, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

New Revised Standard
He said to his brothers, "My money has been put back; here it is in my sack!" At this they lost heart and turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So he said unto his brethren My silver hath been returned, yea verily, there it is in my sack! Then went forth their heart and they turned trembling - each man unto his brother saying. Wharf is this that God hath done to us?

Douay-Rheims Bible
And said to his brethren: My money is given me again; behold it is in the sack. And they were astonished, and troubled, and said to one another: What is this that God hath done unto us?

Revised Standard Version
and he said to his brothers, "My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!" At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

Contextual Overview

²¹ Then they said to one another, "Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen; therefore this distress has come upon us." ²² Reuben answered them, saying, "Did I not tell you, 'Do not sin against the boy'; and you would not listen? Now comes the reckoning for his blood." ²³ They did not know, however, that Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter between them. ²⁴ He turned away from them and wept. But when he returned to them and spoke to them, he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. ²⁵ Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to restore every man's money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. And thus it was done for them. ²⁶ So they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed from there. ²⁷ As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money; and behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. ²⁸ Then he said to his brothers, "My money has been returned, and behold, it is even in my sack." And their hearts sank, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

their heart: Genesis 42:36, Genesis 27:33, Leviticus 26:36, Deuteronomy 28:65, 1 Kings 10:5, Psalms 61:2, Song of Solomon 5:6, Luke 21:26

failed them: Heb. went forth, This refers to the spasmodic affection which is felt in the breast at any sudden alarm or fright.

What is: Isaiah 45:7, Lamentations 2:17, Lamentations 3:37, Amos 3:6

Reciprocal: Genesis 42:35 - every man's Genesis 43:18 - the men Psalms 40:12 - heart

Cross-References

Genesis 27:33
Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, "Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed."

Genesis 42:36
Their father Jacob said to them, "You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin; all these things are against me."

Genesis 43:23
He said, "Be at ease, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks; I had your money." Then he brought Simeon out to them.

Leviticus 26:36
'As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall.

Deuteronomy 28:65
"Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.

1 Kings 10:5
the food of his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his waiters and their attire, his cupbearers, and his stairway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her.

Psalms 61:2
From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Song of Solomon 5:6
"I opened to my beloved, But my beloved had turned away and had gone! My heart went out to him as he spoke. I searched for him but I did not find him; I called him but he did not answer me.

Isaiah 45:7
The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.

Lamentations 2:17
The LORD has done what He purposed; He has accomplished His word Which He commanded from days of old. He has thrown down without sparing, And He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the might of your adversaries.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he said unto his brethren, my money is restored,.... The money paid for the corn is returned:

and, lo, [it is] even in my sack; this put them all upon opening their sacks, where every man found his money, though not expressed, see

Genesis 43:21:

and their heart failed [them]; through surprise and fear; or "went out" c front them, as it were, they were ready to faint and swoon away:

and they were afraid; their consciences being awakened, and loaded with the guilt of their former sins, they were afraid that more evil was coming upon them for them; and that this was a scheme laid to entrap them, and that they should be pursued and seized, and fetched back, and charged with a fraud and trick, as going off with their corn without paying for it:

saying one to another, what [is] this [that] God hath done unto us? for whoever was the instrument, they concluded the overruling hand of divine Providence was in it, for the further chastisement and correction of them for their iniquity: instead of being thus frightened and distressed, it is very much it did not give them suspicion of Joseph, that he was the person they had been conversing with, and that he had done this in kindness to them; but their minds were so pressed with the guilt of their sin, that they were possessed of nothing but fears and dreadful apprehensions of things, and put the worst construction upon them they could, as men in such circumstances usually do, even fear where no fear is, or no occasion for it.

c ויצא לבם "et exiit cor eorum", Montanus, Drusius, Piscator, Schmidt.

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 42:28. Their heart failed them — ויצא לבם valyetse libbam, their heart went out. This refers to that spasmodic affection which is felt in the breast at any sudden alarm or fright. Among the common people in our own country we find an expression exactly similar, "My heart was ready to leap out at my mouth," used on similar occasions.

What is this that God hath done unto us? — Their guilty consciences, now thoroughly awakened, were in continual alarms; they felt that they deserved God's curse, and every occurrence served to confirm and increase their suspicions.