“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,
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;
- BSB 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,
- 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 18:1When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
- 2 Sam 18:33The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son!”
- Gen 44:34For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me? — lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”
- 1 Sam 25:29Though men may rise up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God. He will sling out the souls of your enemies, as from the hollow of a sling.
- 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.
- Gen 44:17He said, “Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
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 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.