If you also take this one from me, and harm happens 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.
- BSB 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.’
- 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.’
- 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 42:38He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”
- Gen 43:14May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”
- Gen 44:31it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol.
- Deut 31:17Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come on them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Haven’t these evils come on us because our God is not among us?’
- Gen 42:36Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”
- Ps 88:3–4For my soul is full of troubles. 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.