King James Version · The patriarchs
Genesis 43
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And the was sore in the land. And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of , their said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see , except your brother be with you. 4If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food: But if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down: for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see , except your brother be with you. 6And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother? And they said, The man asked us straitly of our state, and of our kindred, saying, Is your yet alive? have ye another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these words: could we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down? And Judah said unto Israel his , Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not , both we, and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever: For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time. And their Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds: And take double money in your hand; and the money that was brought again in the of your sacks, carry it again in your hand; peradventure it was an oversight: Take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man: And give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and . If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. 15And the men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and ; and rose up, and went down to , and stood before . And when saw with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home, and , and make ready; for these men shall dine with me at noon. 17And the man did as bade; and the man brought the men into ’s house. And the men were afraid, because they were brought into ’s house; and they said, Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses. 19And they came near to the steward of ’s house, and they communed with him at the door of the house, And said, O sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food: And it came to pass, when we came to the inn, that we opened our sacks, and, behold, every man’s money was in the of his sack, our money in full weight: and we have brought it again in our hand. 22And other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food: we cannot tell who put our money in our sacks. And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your , and the of your , hath given you in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought out unto them. And the man brought the men into ’s house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet; and he gave their asses provender. And they made ready the present against came at noon: for they heard that they should eat bread there. And when came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth. And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? And they answered, Thy servant is in good health, he is yet alive. And they their heads, and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother , his mother’s son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, be unto thee, my son. And made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there. And he washed , and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread. And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the , which did eat with him, by themselves: because the might not eat bread with the ; for that is an unto the . 33And they sat before him, according to his , and the youngest according to his youth: and the men marvelled one at another. And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but ’s mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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