Now if you also take this one from me and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’
Parallel translations
- WEB If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.’
- KJV And if ye take this also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
- NKJV But if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.’
- NASB If you also take this one from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’
- NLT Now if you take his brother away from me, and any harm comes to him, you will send this grieving, white-haired man to his grave.’
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
Jacob feared that losing Benjamin too would bring his gray hairs to the grave in sorrow. The threat of the father's death anchors Judah's appeal.
Overview
Judah relays Jacob's dread that harm to Benjamin would send him grieving to Sheol. This warning lays before Joseph the deadly consequence of keeping the boy. The pathos of an aged father's grief presses toward Judah's climactic offer of himself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Gen 42:38But Jacob replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If any harm comes to him on your journey, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”
- Gen 43:14May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother along with Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”
- Gen 44:31sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.
- Deut 31:17On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’
- Gen 42:36Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my sons. Joseph is gone and Simeon is no more. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is going against me!”
- Ps 88:3–4For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 44:29 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.