With whomever of your servants it is found, he shall die, and we also shall be my lord’s slaves.”
Parallel translations
- WEB With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”
- KJV With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my lord’s bondmen.
- BSB If any of your servants is found to have it, he must die, and the rest will become slaves of my lord.”
- NKJV With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”
- NLT If you find his cup with any one of us, let that man die. And all the rest of us, my lord, will be your slaves.”
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
So sure of their innocence, the brothers rashly offer the death of the guilty one and slavery for the rest. Their overconfident vow nearly seals Benjamin's doom.
Overview
Echoing Jacob's earlier rash oath, the brothers pronounce a sentence far harsher than warranted, certain none of them is guilty. Their words recall the dangers of presumptuous vows seen elsewhere in Scripture. The steward will soften the terms, but the brothers' offer reveals how unaware they are of the trap closing around them.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Gen 31:32Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.
- Acts 25:11For if I have done wrong, and have committed anything worthy of death, I don’t refuse to die; but if none of those things is true that they accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!”
- Ps 7:3–5Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,
- Gen 43:18The men were afraid, because they were brought to Joseph’s house; and they said, “Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time, we’re brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, attack us, and seize us as slaves, along with our donkeys.”
- Job 31:38–40If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;
- Gen 44:16Judah said, “What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? Or how will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord’s slaves, both we, and he also in whose hand the cup is found.”
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 44:9 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.