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Genesis 42:3

in Genesis 42

So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Joseph’s ten brethren went down to buy grain from Egypt.

KJV

And Joseph’s ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt.

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This verse in Genesis 42

Commentary

3 notes on this verse
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.

This site's exposition

ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain

on Genesis 42:3-5

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Let none think themselves too great nor too good to take pains. Masters of families should see with their own eyes, and take heed of leaving too much to servants. Only Benjamin went not with them, for he was his father's darling.

The words behind it

7 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֵּרְד֥וּand they went down

    vaiyereduH3381 →381 times

  • אֲחֵֽי־[the] brothers of

    ʾachei-H251 →630 times

  • יוֹסֵ֖ףJoseph

    yosefH3130 →213 times

  • עֲשָׂרָ֑הten

    ʾasarahH6235 →176 times

  • לִשְׁבֹּ֥רto buy grain

    lishborH7666 →21 times

  • בָּ֖רgrain

    barH1250 →14 times

  • מִמִּצְרָֽיִם׃from Egypt

    mimitzrayimH4714 →641 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 42:13

    But they answered, “Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.”

    it leads to

    • Genesis 37:30

      returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?”

    • Genesis 44:20

      And we answered, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and…

    • Genesis 42:32

      We are twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan.’

    • Genesis 43:7

      They replied, “The man questioned us in detail about ourselves and our family: ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How could we possibly know that…

  • Through

    Genesis 42:5

    So the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, since the famine had also spread to the land of Canaan.

    it leads to

    • Genesis 41:57

      And every nation came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.

    • Acts 7:11

      Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food.

    • Genesis 12:10

      Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

    • Genesis 26:1

      Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

Where this verse is studied

About Genesis

The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563. Public domain.
The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563. Public domain.
Genesis: the study guide →Read Genesis 42 →

This page draws on Chuck Missler, The Book of Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Genesis 42 →