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Genesis 42:11

in Genesis 42

We are all sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

We are all one man’s sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.

KJV

We are all one man’s sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.

This verse in Genesis 42

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Ephrem the Syrian

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 36:4 · Written before 373.

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.

This site's exposition

Your servants have come to buy food

on Genesis 42:10-13

Under pressure they hand over the family register, twelve brothers, and one brother is no more. John Gill notes their first answer 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.

This site's exposition

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

We are all one man's sons,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

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.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

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.

The words behind it

11 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.

  • כֻּלָּ֕נוּall of us

    kulanuH3605 →5413 times

  • בְּנֵ֥י[are] sons of

    beneiH1121 →4930 times

  • אִישׁ־a man

    ʾish-H376 →1663 times

  • אֶחָ֖דone

    ʾechadH259 →971 times

  • נָ֑חְנוּwe

    nachenuH5168 →

  • כֵּנִ֣ים[are] honest

    kenimH3651 →771 times

  • אֲנַ֔חְנוּwe

    ʾanachnuH587 →120 times

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • הָי֥וּthey are

    hayuH1961 →3559 times

  • עֲבָדֶ֖יךָservants your

    ʾavadeikhaH5650 →799 times

  • מְרַגְּלִֽים׃spies

    meragelimH7270 →25 times

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

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

    2 Corinthians 6:4

    Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities;

    it leads to

    • 2 Corinthians 12:10

      That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

    • 2 Corinthians 4:8

      We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;

    • 2 Corinthians 11:27

      in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.

    • 1 Corinthians 4:11–12

      To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.

  • Through

    John 7:18

    He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; in Him there is no falsehood.

    it leads to

    • John 5:41

      I do not accept glory from men,

    • John 13:31–32

      When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him.

    • 1 Corinthians 10:31–33

      So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

    • Philippians 2:3–5

      Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.

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.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 36:4; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).