Genesischapter 42
38 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Now Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
The famine Joseph foretold now reaches Canaan, and the account turns from Joseph to his brothers. More than twenty years have passed since they sold him. Israel heard this chapter as the day a buried wrong came back into the light in a foreign room. Listen for what the brothers say to one another when they think no stranger understands them. Watch how Joseph tests them, and ask what he is trying to learn. The chapter asks whether guilty men can change.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, whose fathers once came to Egypt as hungry foreigners with silver
- What
- A narrative of the brothers' first visit to Egypt for grain, where Joseph knows them and they do not know him.
- Where
- Canaan under famine, and the hall in Egypt where grain was sold to foreigners.
- When
- The second year of the famine, about 1876 BC on the traditional chronology.
- Why
- To bring the brothers' old sin to light and to show the first stirring of their repentance.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to ten sons of Jacob who go down to buy food, and to the brother they sold, who is now the official they buy it from. The time is early in the famine, which 45:6 dates as its second year, and the place is the hall where foreigners were processed and grain was sold.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The occasion is documented history rather than a device. Egyptian tomb inscriptions and border reports describe Asiatics admitted through the eastern frontier forts to keep themselves alive. A state sitting on stored surplus while rain-fed Canaan failed was the region's granary of last resort, and sales were made for weighed silver.
A first hearer knew why the brothers were treated as a security matter. The charge that they came to see the nakedness of the land is the standing Egyptian anxiety about the north-eastern approach, which is the road every invader used. Unexplained silver in a foreigner's baggage after he leaves a state warehouse looks like theft.
The interpreter at verse 23 holds the whole chapter together. Joseph is clean shaven, dressed as an Egyptian and carrying an Egyptian name and office, and the brothers speak Hebrew in front of him because they take the wall to be real.
Significance
Ten men bowed to the ground in front of the brother they had sold, and the text says he remembered his dreams.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Their own conscience did the rest without prompting, and they said in front of him that they were guilty concerning their brother. Israel was shown that a buried sin keeps its own schedule and surfaces twenty years later in a foreign room.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi hears a prophecy in the word Jacob uses for going down to Egypt. He says the father did not tell them to go but to go down, "an allusion to the 210 years during which Israel was to be enslaved in Egypt", the number being the value of the letters (Rashi on Genesis 42:2:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain). He reads the brothers' hiding in the crowd as obedience to their father, who had told them not to enter the city all at one gate, and later as the ground of Joseph's charge against them (Rashi on Genesis 42:5:1 and 42:12:1). Jacob's fear for Benjamin at home as well as on the road he answers with a saying of Rabbi Eliezer the son of Jacob: "We may infer from this that Satan accuses a man at the time of danger" (Rashi on Genesis 42:4:1). Joseph's disguise he puts in his speech, that he made himself "a stranger to them in his conversation, speaking harshly", on Genesis Rabbah 91:7 (Rashi on Genesis 42:7:1), and the reason he knew them while they did not know him he takes from Yevamot 88a: "because, when he left them they were full-bearded" when he last saw them (Rashi on Genesis 42:8:1). Joseph's oath he reads as a form of words rather than an oath: "Whenever he swore for the sake of appearance (literally, falsely) he swore by Pharaoh's life" (Rashi on Genesis 42:15:1). When the brothers say they are all one man's sons he finds more in it than they meant, "The Holy Spirit was enkindled in them and they included him with themselves", so that the missing brother was counted in (Rashi on Genesis 42:11:1). At the weeping he keeps the detail plain: "He moved some distance away from them so that they should not see him weeping" (Rashi on Genesis 42:24:1). Radak reads Joseph's change of plan as a mercy with a purpose: he will not hold them all while their families starve, "I will only detain one of you in order to put your claim to the test" (Radak on Genesis 42:18:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY). Every one of the twenty-four commentaries the corpus holds for this chapter carries its English, so no classical comment on it stands here as a bare citation.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-seven of them Midrash and three Talmud. Aggadat Bereshit is the densest work here, cited at 65:3, 69:2, 70:1, 73:1, 73:2, 73:3, 76:1, 76:3, 76:4 and 79:6, and its run covers the going down, the accusation and the brothers' words about their own guilt. Bereshit Rabbah stands at 44:6, 91:3, 91:8, 92:9 and 95:1, Midrash Sekhel Tov at Bereshit 42:20:1, 42:26:1, 42:31:1, 42:32:1 and 42:33:1, Bereshit Rabbati at Parashat Miketz 15, 18, 19, 40 and 41, and Midrash Aggadah at Genesis 42:2:1, 42:22:1, 42:23:1 and 42:29:1. Bamidbar Rabbah is cited at 13:18, 13:20, 14:3, 14:6 and 20:23, and Midrash Lekach Tov at Genesis 42:12:1, 42:16:1 and 42:35:1. The three Talmud locators are Avot DeRabbi Natan 37:13 at the going down, Bava Metzia 39b:8 at the recognition, and Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 40:7 at Reuben's offer of his own sons. Rashi hands on further sayings with their locators, among them Genesis Rabbah 91:7 and 91:8, Yevamot 88a and the saying of Rabbi Eliezer the son of Jacob.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 42:1:1, 42:2:1, 42:3:1, 42:4:1, 42:5:1, 42:6:1, 42:7:1, 42:8:1, 42:9:1, 42:10:1, 42:11:1, 42:12:1, 42:13:1, 42:14:1, 42:15:1, 42:16:1, 42:17:1, 42:19:1, 42:20:1, 42:21:1, 42:22:1, 42:23:1 and 42:24:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Radak, Radak on Genesis 42:18:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Rabbi Eliezer the son of Jacob, the saying on Satan and the hour of danger, as Rashi cites it at Rashi on Genesis 42:4:1; Midrash, Aggadat Bereshit 65:3, 69:2, 70:1, 73:1, 73:2, 73:3, 76:1, 76:3, 76:4 and 79:6; Bereshit Rabbah 44:6, 91:3, 91:8, 92:9 and 95:1; Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 42:20:1, 42:26:1, 42:31:1, 42:32:1 and 42:33:1; Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 15, 18, 19, 40 and 41; Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 42:2:1, 42:22:1, 42:23:1 and 42:29:1; Bamidbar Rabbah 13:18, 13:20, 14:3, 14:6 and 20:23; Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 42:12:1, 42:16:1 and 42:35:1; Genesis Rabbah 91:7 as Rashi cites it; Babylonian Talmud, Bava Metzia 39b:8; Yevamot 88a as Rashi cites it; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Avot DeRabbi Natan 37:13; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 40:7.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Ten Brothers Bow in Egypt
Genesis 42:1-2
Famine drives this family toward Egypt for the third time in three generations. Abraham went down in Genesis 12, and Isaac was kept from going down in Genesis 26. Jacob tells his sons to buy grain there, that we may live and not die. Matthew Henry notes all three met famine in the promised land.
Genesis 42:1
And Jacob said to his sons, "Why are you idle? Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy food for us." This is not something Jacob said one time; he says it daily to his sons who come to Christ's grace too late, "Why are you idle? Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt." From this grain there comes the grain that rises again. And so whoever suffers famine ought to attribute it to his own laziness. "Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Joseph the Patriarchpatristic
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Genesis 42:1
“Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt--learned from common rumor. It is evident from Jacob's language that his own and his sons' families had suffered greatly from the scarcity; and through the increasing severity of the scourge, those men, who had formerly shown both activity and spirit, were sinking into despondency.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 42:1
“Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt,.... That is, to be sold there, or otherwise it being there, unless it could be bought, would have been of no avail to foreigners; wherefore the Septuagint version is, that there was a sale (w) there, a sale of corn; the word has the signification of "breaking" (x) in it, because that bread corn is broke in the mill, or is broken from the heap when sold or distributed, or because when eaten it breaks the fast.”
Genesis 42:1
“The famine was grievous in the land of Canaan. It is observable that all the three patriarchs, to whom Canaan was the land of promise, met with famine in that land, which was not only to try their faith, whether they could trust God though he should slay them, though he should starve them, but to teach them to seek the better country, that is, the heavenly, Heb. xi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The verb go down marks every trip into Egypt in Genesis, from Abram at 12:10 to God's word to Jacob at 46:3. Jacob puts the errand as life or death for the whole house. Judah repeats that line at 43:8 when he asks for Benjamin.
Genesis 42:2
“GOD in his wisdom hath so made the outward world, that it is a strange and wonderful picture of the inner world. Nature has an analogy with grace. The wonders that God does in the heart of man, each of them finds a parallel, a picture, a metaphor, an illustration, in the wonders which God performs in providence. It is the duty of the minister always to look for these analogies. Our Saviour did so. He is the model preacher: his preaching was made up of parables, pictures from the outer world, accommodated to teach great and mighty truths.”
Genesis 42:3-5
ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain: Ten of Joseph's brothers go down for grain, and the text counts them by the brother they sold. John Gill notes that they go to Egypt for bread from the man they had sold into it. Jacob holds Benjamin back, afraid that harm might befall him. The famine had spread to Canaan, so the sons of Israel travelled with the crowds who came to buy.
Genesis 42:3
“And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. They obeyed their father's orders, and immediately set out for Egypt; "ten" of them went down in a body together, all but Benjamin, so that it is easily reckoned who they were, and they are called not Jacob's sons, as they were; but Joseph's brethren, whom they had sold into Egypt, and to whom now they were going, though they knew it not, to buy corn of him in their necessity, and to whom they would be obliged to yield obeisance, as they did.”
Benjamin is the one son of Rachel left at home, and Jacob keeps him back as he once sent Joseph out alone at 37:13. Harm is ason in Hebrew. The word returns in Jacob's refusal at 42:38 and in Judah's plea at 44:29.
Genesis 42:4
“Nor does everyone undertake this business matter, but only the sons of Jacob and only those sons of more mature age. Thus ten sons go, whereas the youngest son does not go. The father did not send him; else "infirmity may befall him." Benjamin, the youngest, was still subject to infirmity. Granted, [in] the name Benjamin the patriarch is read, but Paul, who was of the tribe of Benjamin, was being prefigured. Jacob was right to hesitate over his infirmity. Indeed, he was made infirm so that he could be healed.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Joseph the Patriarchpatristic
the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain: The text calls them the sons of Israel here, the name God gave Jacob at 32:28. The family that will become a nation goes down to Egypt among the crowds. Genesis 41:57 said every nation came to Joseph to buy grain.
Genesis 42:6-8
Joseph was the ruler of the land: His brothers bow to the ground in front of him, and the sheaves of his first dream are standing up. He recognized them, he spoke harshly to them, and he treated them as strangers. Jacob had fooled a blind father with his brother's clothing, these men had fooled Jacob with a coat and goat's blood, and now the brother they sold speaks to them through an Egyptian face. Spurgeon read the harsh speech as kindness at work.
Genesis 42:6
“Let it be, moreover, understood, that the corn was sold by Joseph, not as if he measured it out with his own hands, or himself received the money for it, seeing that it was set to sale in many parts of the kingdom, and he could scarcely have attended to one single storehouse: but that the whole of the stores were under his power.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 42:6
“Joseph was the governor - שליט shallit, an intendant, a protector, from שלט skalat, to be over as a protector; hence שלטים shelatim, shields, or arms for protection and defense, 2Sa 8:7; and שלטון shilton, power and authority, Ecc 8:4, Ecc 8:8; and hence the Arabic sultan, a lord, prince, or king, from salata, he obtained and exercised dominion, he ruled. Was it not from this very circumstance, Joseph being shallit, that all the Mohammedan governors of Egypt, etc., took the title of sultan?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
he treated them as strangers and spoke harshly to them: Recognized and treated them as strangers come from one Hebrew root, nakar, set side by side in this verse. The same root ran through 37:32 and 38:25, where a robe and a seal were held up to be recognized. He already knows his brothers come from Canaan.
Genesis 42:7
“AN immense number of persons came down into Egypt from all parts of the world to buy corn. Many of these Joseph never saw. Many others came into his presence. I do not find that of all who came, he treated any of them roughly, except his own brothers. "Strange!" you will say, and if you did not know the sequel of the story, it would not only seem strange, but cruel. You would not know how to account for such a thing. Very like this is the manner of God's Providence.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3379: “Rough, But Friendly” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
they did not recognize him: Joseph was seventeen when they sold him at 37:2 and is now close to forty. He is shaved in the Egyptian way of 41:14 and speaks to them through an interpreter. They last saw a boy in a robe.
Genesis 42:8
“And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.”
Joseph remembered his dreams about them: More than twenty years on, the dreams are the first thing the text names about Joseph. Ten men are on the ground, and both Benjamin and their father are missing, so the second dream of the sun, moon and eleven stars still waits. Genesis gave the rule at 41:32, that a dream doubled is a matter decreed by God, who will carry it out shortly. Joseph told Pharaoh so, and now he watches it happen.
Genesis 42:9
“Ye are spies - מרגלים אתם meraggelim attem, ye are footmen, trampers about, footpads, vagabonds, lying in wait for the property of others; persons who, under the pretense of wishing to buy corn, desire only to find out whether the land be so defenceless that the tribes to which ye belong (see Gen 42:11) may attack it successfully, drive out the inhabitants, and settle in it themselves; or, having plundered it, retire to their deserts. This is a frequent custom among the Arabs to the present day.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 42:9
“Ye are spies--This is a suspicion entertained regarding strangers in all Eastern countries down to the present day. Joseph, however, who was well aware that his brethren were not spies, has been charged with cruel dissimulation, with a deliberate violation of what he knew to be the truth, in imputing to them such a character.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 42:10-13
Under pressure they hand over the family register, twelve brothers, the sons of one man in Canaan, and they tell the lord of the land that one brother is no more. John Gill notes that their first answer had sounded as if there were no other sons, so the fuller count reads like a story adjusted under test. The brother they call no more is listening.
Genesis 42:10
“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.”
We are all sons of one man: The brothers offer the line as proof, since one father would hardly risk ten sons on a spying trip. It also tells Joseph that his father is alive. Honest men is the word they use for themselves five times in this chapter.
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 42:11
“They answered and said, "We do not even know the Egyptian language so that, by speaking Egyptian, we might escape notice and deceive the Egyptians. That we dwell in the land of Canaan you can learn from our offering.”
Ephrem the Syrian · written before 373 · COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 36:4patristic
Vulnerable renders a Hebrew word for nakedness, the unguarded places of a country. Egypt lay most open on the northeast, the road from Canaan, so ten men from that quarter could pass for scouts. Joseph repeats the charge to keep them talking.
Genesis 42:12
“And he said unto them, nay,.... This argument will not do, I am not to be put off with such words as these; if you can produce no better proof of your being honest men than this, or give no better account of yourselves, I must abide by it, that: to see the nakedness of the land ye are come; this he urged in order to get a further account from them of their family and the state of it, which he was anxious to know.”
Their phrase for Joseph never says what happened to him. The same Hebrew word stands behind Reuben's cry at the empty pit in 37:30, and Jacob uses it of Simeon at verse 36. The youngest at home is the brother Joseph most wants to see.
Genesis 42:13
“One is not - An elliptical sentence, One is not alive.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 42:14-17
The test he sets has one aim, getting Benjamin down to Egypt. As surely as Pharaoh lives is the oath of the country he governs, and Adam Clarke reads it as the speech of the Egyptian they take him to be. Then he holds all ten in custody for three days. In chapter 37 they threw their brother into a pit and sat down to eat.
Genesis 42:14
“And Joseph said unto them, that is it that I spake unto you, saying, ye are spies. This proves it, at least gives strong suspicion of it; since at first they seemed to speak of themselves, as if they were the only sons of one man and there were no more, now they speak of twelve, and make mention of one being at home with his father; but seeing he sent so many of them, why not all? why should one only be left at home?”
you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here: The test is built so the only proof of their story is Benjamin in person. Joseph has no other way to learn whether they have harmed Rachel's second son as they harmed him. The demand puts their father's favourite in their hands.
Genesis 42:15
“By the life of Pharaoh - חי פרעה chey Pharaoh, Pharaoh liveth. As if he had said, As surely as the king of Egypt lives, so surely shall ye not go hence unless your brother come hither.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Send one of your number to get your brother: Under these first terms nine men sit in custody while one goes home, and the households in Canaan go hungry. Three days later Joseph reverses the numbers at verse 19. The change comes with his words about fearing God.
Genesis 42:16
“When Peter would prove himself no disciple of Christ, he cursed and swore. Now why was Joseph thus hard upon his brethren? We may be sure it was not from a spirit of revenge, that he might now trample upon those who had formerly trampled upon him; he was not a man of that temper.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
So Joseph imprisoned them for three days: Custody here is mishmar in Hebrew, the word for the guard house of 40:3 where Joseph spent his own years beside Pharaoh's officials. He gives them three days of what he had for years. The third day brings release, as it did for the cupbearer at 40:20.
Genesis 42:17
“And he put them all together into ward three days. In order to consult together, and agree who should be sent to fetch their brother; and which it seems probable in this length of time they could not agree upon, no one caring to be the bringer of such evil tidings to their father.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 42:17
“He concluded with them, at last, that one of them should be left as a hostage, and the rest should go home and fetch Benjamin.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Simeon Kept Behind as Hostage
Genesis 42:18-20
On the third day the terms turn around, one brother held and nine sent home with grain. Joseph gives his reason in three words, I fear God, and it is the first word about God these men have heard in Egypt. Adam Clarke notes the definite article in the Hebrew, ha-Elohim, which sets the God Joseph fears apart from the gods of the land he governs. The brothers hear it and consent.
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
leave one of your brothers in custody: The new terms keep one brother in custody and send nine home with grain for their hungry households. The brothers once showed no such care for Joseph. The one held back tests whether the others will return for a brother.
so that your words can be verified: Verified translates aman, the root behind Abram believed the LORD at 15:6 and behind the word amen. Their words will stand as true only when Benjamin stands before Joseph. They consent, with Simeon's binding still ahead.
Genesis 42:21-22
In front of him they name the thing at last, that they are being punished for their brother. Chapter 37 never reported that Joseph pleaded with them, and the reader learns it here from the men who would not listen. Reuben tells them they must now account for his blood. Genesis first made a brother answer for blood in chapter 4, where Abel's blood cried out from the ground.
Genesis 42:21
“We are very guilty concerning our brother - We do not read that they said this during their three days imprisonment; but now when the matter was come to some issue, and they saw themselves still embarrassed, they began to relent.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 42:21
“We are verily guilty - How finely are the office and influence of conscience exemplified in these words! It was about twenty-two years since they had sold their brother, and probably their conscience had been lulled asleep to the present hour. God combines and brings about those favorable circumstances which produce attention and reflection, and give weight to the expostulations of conscience.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 42:21
“They talked the matter over in the Hebrew tongue, not suspecting that Joseph, whom they took for a native of Egypt, understood them, much less that he was the person they spoke of. They remembered with regret the barbarous cruelty wherewith they persecuted him: We are verily guilty concerning our brother.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Reuben goes back to 37:21 and 37:22, where he talked the others out of killing Joseph and planned to return him to his father. He was away when the sale was made at 37:29. The demand for his blood uses the verb God used in 9:5 for requiring a life.
Genesis 42:23-24
They did not realize that Joseph understood them: The interpreter between them is the wall Joseph keeps up while he listens to a confession meant for no Egyptian. He turns away from them and weeps, the first of the times he weeps over these men. Then he takes Simeon and has him bound before their eyes. Adam Clarke reports the old rabbinic reading that Simeon was the brother who bound Joseph.
Genesis 42:23
“For he spake unto them by an interpreter - Either there was a very great difference between the two languages as then spoken, or Joseph, to prevent all suspicion, might affect to be ignorant of both. We have many evidences in this book that the Egyptians, Hebrews, Canaanites, and Syrians, could understand each other in a general way, though there are also proofs that there was a considerable difference between their dialects.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
he took Simeon from them and had him bound: Joseph passes over Reuben the firstborn, whom he has just heard argue for his life, and takes Simeon, the second son. Simeon and Levi had shown their violence at Shechem in chapter 34. The other nine carry the sight of his chains home.
Genesis 42:24
“Took - Simeon and bound him before their eyes - This was retaliation, if, as the rabbins suppose, it was Simeon who bound Joseph, and put him into the pit. A recollection of this circumstance must exceedingly deepen the sense he had of his guilt.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 42:24
“Though his reason directed that he should still carry himself as a stranger to them, because they were not as yet humbled enough, yet natural affection could not but work, for he was a man of a tender spirit. This represents the tender mercies of our God towards repenting sinners. 20 , Since I spoke against him I do earnestly remember him still.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Money Found in the Sacks
Genesis 42:25-26
to return each man’s silver to his sack: They came to buy, and they leave with the grain and with the silver still in their sacks. Joseph also orders provisions for the road home. Matthew Henry read the returned silver as a picture of Christ, who gives out supplies without money and without price. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the grain was Joseph's to dispose of, so returning the silver cost the treasury nothing.
Genesis 42:25
“Commanded to fill their sacks - כליהם keleyhem, their vessels; probably large woolen bags, or baskets lined with leather, which, as Sir John Chardin says, are still in use through all Asia, and are called tambellet; they are covered with leather, the better to resist the wet, and to prevent dirt and sand from mixing with the grain.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 42:25
“They came for corn, and corn they had; and not only so, but every man had his money restored in his sack's mouth. Thus Christ, our Joseph, gives out supplies without money and without price. Therefore the poor are invited to buy, Rev. iii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 42:25
“Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money--This private generosity was not an infringement of his duty--a defrauding of the revenue. He would have a discretionary power--he was daily enriching the king's exchequer--and he might have paid the sum from his own purse.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
they loaded the grain on their donkeys: Nine men leave where ten had come, and the gap in the line is Simeon's. The silver rides home in the sacks unseen. It comes to light at the first night's stop in verse 27.
Genesis 42:26
“And they laded their asses with the corn,.... Cattle very fit to carry burdens, and no doubt they had each of them one at least: and departed thence; from the place where Joseph was, and from the land of Egypt.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 42:26
“They laded their asses - Amounting, no doubt, to several scores, if not hundreds, else they could not have brought a sufficiency of corn for the support of so large a family as that of Jacob.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 42:27-28
he saw his silver in the mouth of the sack: One sack is opened at the lodging place for donkey feed, and the silver is lying in its mouth. Their hearts sank, and the question they ask is what God has done to us. This is the first time these men name God in what is happening to them. A kindness frightened them worse than the accusation had.
Genesis 42:27
“One of them opened his sack - From Gen 42:35 we learn that each of the ten brethren on emptying his sack when he returned found his money in it; can we suppose that this was not discovered by them all before?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 42:27
“If they had been congratulating themselves on escaping from the ruthless governor, they perceived that now he would have a handle against them; and it is observable that they looked upon this as a judgment of heaven. Thus one leading design of Joseph was gained in their consciences being roused to a sense of guilt.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Their hearts sank, and trembling: Their hearts sank renders a Hebrew phrase for the heart going out of a man. The returned silver could make them look like thieves before a ruler who already calls them spies. They trace it to God, with verse 21 still in their minds.
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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 42:28
"There is grain in Egypt"; that is, where the famine is greater, the abundance is greater. There is much grain in Egypt. Surely, and God the Father says, "Out of Egypt I called my son!" Such is the fecundity of that grain, for there could not have been a harvest unless the Egyptians had sown the grain earlier. There is then grain that no one earlier believed to exist. The patriarchs engaged in negotiations in regard to this grain. And they indeed brought money, but the good Joseph gave them the grain and gave them back the money.
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Joseph the Patriarchpatristic
Genesis 42:29-34
When they reached their father Jacob in the land of Canaan: The report they give Jacob follows the meeting closely, with one thing left out and one thing added. They leave out what they had said to one another in custody, that they were being punished for their brother. John Gill notes that the trade in the land was never offered them, and they add it to the ending. Jacob hears the kinder version.
Genesis 42:29
“And they came unto Jacob their father, unto the land of Canaan,.... Without being pursued and fetched back, or retarded in their journey as they might fear: and told him all that befell unto them; chiefly what befell them while in Egypt: saying, as follows.”
The brothers call Joseph lord of the land twice in this report, here and at verse 33. They have no name for him. Jacob hears of a ruler over his sons and has no idea it is the dreamer of chapter 37.
They repeat the defence of verse 11 to their father. These same men had let Jacob believe a lie about his son's robe for more than twenty years. Their honesty before an Egyptian is reported to the man they deceived.
Genesis 42:31
“And we said unto him, we are true men,.... Honest, upright men, not given to treacherous and treasonable practices, either in the country where they lived, or any other; they came to Egypt with no ill design upon the country, only to buy corn for the relief of their families in necessity: we are no spies; or never were (e): they had never been guilty of such practices, and never charged with anything of that kind; they denied the charge, and detested the character. (e) לא היינו "non fuimus", Montanus; "nunquam fuimus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt.”
We are twelve brothers, sons of one father: Twelve is still the count they give, with Joseph included as the one who is no more. The number of the tribes of 49:28 stands whole in their mouths while the family is broken. Jacob hears his lost son counted again.
Genesis 42:32
“We be twelve brethren, sons of our father,.... All brethren by the father's side, though not by the mother's, and by one father; they had been twelve, and were so now, though they knew it not, supposing that one was dead, as is next observed: one is not; is not alive, but dead; the Targum of Jonathan is,"what is become of one we know not" and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan; see Gen 42:13.”
The report keeps the ruler's words about food for hungry households, the one kindness of the meeting. It leaves out the three days in custody and the binding of Simeon before their eyes. Jacob learns of Simeon only as a term of the deal.
The verb for trade is sachar, to travel about as a merchant. The Midianite merchants who carried Joseph off at 37:28 are named with a word from the same root. The brothers now hope to buy where their brother was sold.
Genesis 42:35-36
there in each man’s sack was his bag of silver!: This time the father is standing there when the bags of silver come out, and they are dismayed together. Jacob counts his losses and says everything is going against him. Joseph is alive and governing Egypt, Simeon is the pledge that will bring them back, and Benjamin is the one condition of the meeting. Spurgeon preached on that line that men magnify the hosts of their troubles and undervalue the armies of their mercies.
Genesis 42:35
“As they emptied their sacks - See Clarke on Gen 42:27 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deprived translates shakal, the Hebrew for losing children. Jacob repeats it at 43:14 as he lets Benjamin go. His charge that his sons robbed him of Joseph is truer than he knows, and Simeon, counted as lost, is alive in Egypt.
Genesis 42:36
“The language does not imply that his missing sons had got foul play from the hands of the rest, but he looks upon Simeon as lost, as well as Joseph, and he insinuates it was by some imprudent statements of theirs that he was exposed to the risk of losing Benjamin also.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
3 more voices on this verse
Genesis 42:36
“Note, Through our ignorance and mistake, and the weakness of our faith, we often apprehend that to be against us which is really for us. We are afflicted in body, estate, name, and relations; and we think all these things are against us, whereas these are really working for us the weight of glory.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 42:36
“THE Patriarch must use the expression, "ALL THESE THINGS." He had gone through the catalog—there were but three items at the most, and yet nothing narrower than, "All these things are against me" will suit him. Our notation of our trials is very apt to present them in exaggerated number, but when we come to count our mercies, as a usual rule our tendency is to diminish them. We magnify the hosts of our troubles and underestimate the armies of our benefits.”
Genesis 42:36
“All these things are against me - עלי היו כלנה alai hayu cullanah; literally, All these things are upon me. Not badly translated by the Vulgate, In me haec omnia mala reciderunt, “All these evils fall back upon me.” They lie upon me as heavy loads, hastening my death; they are more than I can bear.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 42:37-38
Reuben offers his father the lives of two grandsons, and Jacob gives him no answer. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the offer as a clumsy way of promising the greatest care he could. Jacob answers that Benjamin alone is left to him. Jacob closes on his own death, his gray hair going down to Sheol in sorrow.
Genesis 42:37
“Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee - What a strange proposal made by a son to his father, concerning his grandchildren! But they show the honesty and affection of Reuben’s heart; he felt deeply for his father’s distress, and was determined to risk and hazard every thing in order to relieve and comfort him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 42:37
“Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee--This was a thoughtless and unwarrantable condition--one that he never seriously expected his father would accept. It was designed only to give assurance of the greatest care being taken of Benjamin.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
he alone is left: In Jacob's words Benjamin alone is left, as if Rachel's son were the only one who counts. Ten sons stand listening. The favour that once gave Joseph the robe has passed to the younger boy, and Sheol is the word Jacob first used at 37:35.
Genesis 42:38
“He is left alone - That is, Benjamin is the only remaining son of Rachel; for he supposed Joseph, who was the other son, to be dead. Shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow - Here he keeps up the idea of the oppressive burden mentioned Gen 42:36, to which every occurrence was adding an additional weight, so that he felt it impossible to support it any longer.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 42:38
“My son shall not go down with you - He plainly intimates a distrust of them, remembering that he never saw Joseph since he had been with them; therefore Benjamin shall not go with you.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, the first of the two visits, built as a test with a hostage and a condition, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Spies, and honest men | The charge stands six times in the chapter, at verses 9, 11, 14, 16, 31 and 34, and the denial that they are honest men answers it each time, counted in the Berean text in the store. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record that suspicion of strangers on that charge was common across the East, and Adam Clarke gives the Hebrew word as men who tramp about and lie in wait for the property of others.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 42:9. | Genesis 42:9, Genesis 42:11, Genesis 42:14, Genesis 42:16, Genesis 42:31, Genesis 42:34 |
| One is no more | The brothers say it twice, at verses 13 and 32, to the brother they are speaking of. Adam Clarke reads the Hebrew as an elliptical sentence meaning one is not alive. Jacob uses the same form of words at verse 36 over Simeon, who is alive and held in Egypt, so the chapter says it three times and is wrong all three.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 42:13. | Genesis 42:13, Genesis 42:32, Genesis 42:36 |
| The family register, given twice | Under pressure at verse 13 the brothers hand over the whole family, twelve brothers, the sons of one man in Canaan, the youngest at home and one no more, and they repeat the list to Jacob at verse 32. John Gill points out that their first answer had sounded as though there were no other sons, so the fuller count reads as a story adjusted under test, which is the ground Joseph stands on when he says it proves them spies.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Genesis 42:14. | Genesis 42:11, Genesis 42:13, Genesis 42:32 |
| As surely as Pharaoh lives, and I fear God | Joseph swears by the king at verses 15 and 16 in the manner of the country he governs, which Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record as the common oath of Western Asia and Clarke reads as the speech of the Egyptian they take him for. At verse 18 he gives his reason in three words, I fear God, and Clarke notes the definite article in the Hebrew, ha-Elohim, which marks off the God he fears from the gods of Egypt.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 42:15 and 42:18. | Genesis 42:15, Genesis 42:16, Genesis 42:18 |
| The sheaves standing up | Genesis 37:7 had eleven sheaves gathering round and bowing to one, and Genesis 42:6 has the brothers bowing to the ground before the governor of the land. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown put the two verses together and observe that the cruelty of the brothers was the means of bringing about the very thing the dream showed. Verse 9 says that Joseph remembered his dreams at the moment they bowed.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 42:6. | Genesis 42:6, Genesis 42:9, Genesis 37:7 |
How the rest of Scripture reads this chapter
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
Stephen gives the chapter one line at Acts 7:12, that when Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt he sent our fathers on their first visit, and he calls it the first of two visits, which is how Genesis itself divides chapters 42 and 43 to 45.
The debated concept
Whether Joseph's harshness can be defended is the question the chapter has always raised. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report the charge directly, that Joseph has been accused of cruel dissimulation, since he knew perfectly well that his brothers were not spies. They answer that the severity was a means to an end that the rest of the account discloses. Matthew Henry states plainly that it was not revenge, and reads the whole handling as the wisdom needed to bring men to repentance. Charles Spurgeon takes verse 7 and argues from the crowds that came to buy that this roughness was reserved for the men it was meant to save.
The interpreter at verse 23 is a second question. Adam Clarke allows two readings, either the two languages had drawn far enough apart to need one, or Joseph kept an interpreter between himself and his brothers to prevent any suspicion that he understood Hebrew. The text gives the fact and no reason, and the confession at verses 21 and 22 is made because the brothers believe the wall is real.
The returned silver raises a third. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown consider whether putting each man's money back in his sack defrauded the revenue and answer that the grain was Joseph's to dispose of and that he had a discretionary power over it. Matthew Henry reads the same verse as a picture of supply given without money and without price.
The divine connection
Verse 9 is the chapter's own statement of what is happening: Joseph remembered his dreams about them at the moment they bowed. The dream of the sheaves at 37:7 is standing in front of him and the dream of the sun, moon and eleven stars at 37:9 is not, because Benjamin and Jacob are still in Canaan. Joseph had told Pharaoh at 41:32 that a doubled dream is a matter decreed by God and carried out shortly, and the rule he gave the king is working on his own two dreams while he applies the test that will bring the rest of the family down.
The brothers reach the same conclusion from the other side. At verse 28 they find the silver and ask what God has done to them, which is the first time in the account these men name God in what is happening to them. Adam Clarke reads their conscience as waking after about twenty-two years of quiet.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, sermon 'Rough, But Friendly', on Genesis 42:7; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 42:6; John Calvin, Commentaries, 1554, on Genesis 42:1 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 42:1.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Charles Spurgeon; Chuck Missler, The Book of Genesis; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.