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,
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.
- KJV 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:
- 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.
- 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 Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”
- Isa 42:22But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers; and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’
- Gen 42:26They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there.
- Gen 43:1–2The famine was severe in the land.
- Gen 40:3He put them in custody 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 the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
- Gen 45:23He sent the following to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and provision for his father by the way.
- Jer 37:15The princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.
- Gen 41:56The famine was over all the surface of the earth. Joseph opened all the store houses, and sold to the Egyptians. The famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
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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
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