So if the boy is not with us when I return to your servant, and if my father, whose life is wrapped up in the boy’s life,
Parallel translations
- WEB Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; since his life is bound up in the boy’s life;
- KJV Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad’s life;
- NKJV “Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life,
- NASB So now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us—since our father’s life is so attached to the boy’s life—
- NLT “And now, my lord, I cannot go back to my father without the boy. Our father’s life is bound up in the boy’s life.
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
Judah explains that Jacob's very life is bound up in the boy's life. Father and son are so joined that one cannot survive the other's loss.
Overview
Judah describes the inseparable bond between Jacob and Benjamin, whose lives are knit together. Returning without the boy would therefore be unthinkable. This intimate portrait of a father's love prepares Joseph's heart and ours for the self-sacrifice Judah is about to offer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- 1 Sam 18:1After David had finished speaking with Saul, the souls of Jonathan and David were knit together, and Jonathan loved him as himself.
- 2 Sam 18:33The king was shaken and went up to the gate chamber and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
- Gen 44:34For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm him.”
- 1 Sam 25:29And should someone pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my lord will be bound securely by the LORD your God in the bundle of the living. But He shall fling away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.
- 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.
- Gen 44:17But Joseph replied, “Far be it from me to do this. The man who was found with the cup will be my slave. The rest of you may return to your father in peace.”
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 44:30 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.