If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
Parallel translations
- WEB If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
- BSB If you are honest, leave one of your brothers in custody while the rest of you go and take back grain to relieve the hunger of your households.
- NKJV If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house; but you, go and carry grain for the famine of your houses.
- NASB if you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in your prison; but as for the rest of you, go, carry grain for the famine of your households,
- NLT If you really are honest men, choose one of your brothers to remain in prison. The rest of you may go home with grain for your starving families.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Joseph relents, requiring only one brother to remain while the others carry grain home. Mercy now tempers the test.
Overview
Instead of holding nine and sending one, Joseph reverses the plan so that the famine-stricken households are relieved. His provision of grain shows genuine care beneath the stern exterior. The arrangement still secures the return with Benjamin, advancing the reconciliation God is orchestrating.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Gen 42:1–2Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?
- Isa 42:22But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.
- Gen 42:26And they laded their asses with the corn, and departed thence.
- Gen 43:1–2And the famine was sore in the land.
- Gen 40:3And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
- Isa 42:7To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
- Gen 45:23And to his father he sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.
- Jer 37:15Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.
- Gen 41:56And the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 42:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.