World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 42
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Now saw that there was grain in , and said to his sons, "Why do you look at one another?" He said, "Behold, I have heard that there is grain in . Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not ." ten brothers went down to buy grain from . But didn't send , brother, with his brothers; for he said, "Lest perhaps harm happen to him." The came to buy among those who came, for the was in the land of . was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth. saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, "Where did you come from?" They said, "From the land of , to buy food." recognized his brothers, but they didn't recognize him. remembered the which he dreamed about them, and said to them, "You are spies! You have come to see the the land." They said to him, "No, my , but your servants have come to buy food. We are all one man's sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies." 12He said to them, "No, but you have come to see the the land!" They said, "We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of ; and behold, the youngest is today with , and one is no more." said to them, "It is like I told you, saying, 'You are spies!' By this you shall be . By the life of , you shall not go out from here, unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be , whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of surely you are spies." He put them all together into custody for three days. said to them the third day, "Do this, and live, for I . If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the of your houses. Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won't ." They did so. They said to one another, "We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his , when he begged us, and we wouldn't listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us." answered them, saying, "Didn't I tell you, saying, 'Don't against the child,' and you wouldn't listen? Therefore also, behold, his is required." They didn't know that understood them; for there was an interpreter between them. He turned himself away from them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took from among them, and bound him before their eyes. Then gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to restore each man's money into his sack, and to give them food for . So it was done to them. 26They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there. As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the of his sack. He said to his brothers, "My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!" Their failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that has done to us?" 29They came to their , to the land of , and told him all that had happened to them, saying, "The man, of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country. We said to him, 'We are honest men. We are no spies. 32We are twelve brothers, sons of ; one is no more, and the youngest is today with in the land of .' The man, of the land, said to us, 'By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the of your houses, and go your way. Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So I will your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.'" As they emptied their sacks, behold, each man's bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. , their , said to them, "You have bereaved me of my children! is no more, is no more, and you want to take away. All these things are against me." spoke to his , saying, "Kill my two sons, if I don't bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again." He said, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is , and he only is left. If harm happens to him along in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to ."
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis