Genesis 42:23

They did not realize that Joseph understood them, since there was an interpreter between them.

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.

ASV

And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them.

YLT

And they have not known that Joseph understandeth, for the interpreter is between them;

DBT

And they did not know that Joseph understood, for the interpreter was between them.

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On this verse

And they knew not that Joseph understood them,....

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

Related commentary

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, 1832evangelical

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Cross-references

7 linked verses

The verses this one reaches7

Genesis 45:12
Behold! You and my brother Benjamin can see that I, Joseph, am the one speaking with you.
Psalms 114:1
When Israel departed from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
Genesis 11:7
Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
1 Corinthians 14:2
For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
John 16:13–14
However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.
2 Corinthians 5:20
Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.
Haggai 2:17
I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.

Cross-references

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The quotation web

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Original language

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Around this verse

Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

H3130yosefJoseph213×

Who & where

PersonPatriarchsJosephThe rejected-then-exalted son — Genesis's great Christ-type; preserver of his family and of Egypt; the bridge into Exodus.

About this book

The Creation of Light — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Genesis — The book of beginnings. Creation, fall, flood, covenant, election, providence — eleven generational seams stitch one unbroken story from heaven-and-earth to a coffin in Egypt.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Moses — by traditional attribution; the book is the first of the Pentateuch
Date: Composed c. 15th–13th century BC; draws on older patriarchal sources (the toledoth framework is internal)

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
2 Corinthians 5:20
Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.
leads to
- Ephesians 6:20
  for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it fearlessly, as I should.
- Luke 14:23
  So the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
- Malachi 2:7
  For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.
- Ezekiel 18:31–32
  Cast away from yourselves all the transgressions you have committed, and fashion for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?
- Isaiah 55:6–7
  Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

Where the connections lead

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Continue: Genesis 42 →