Genesis 42:1-8 WEB

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:3

And Joseph's ten brethren went down —either it was for safety that all the ten went, or because, the corn being sold to individuals, the quantity received would depend on their numbers (Lange)— to buy corn —the word for corn, בָּר , if not a primitive, like the Latin far (Furst), may be derived from בָּרַר , to separate, sever, choose out, hence purify (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Gesenius), and may describe grain as that which has been cleaned from chaff, as in Jeremiah 4:11 — in ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:4

But (literally, and) Benjamin, Joseph's brother ( vide Genesis 35:18 ), Jacob sent not with his brethren . Not because of his youth (Patrick, Lange), since he was now upwards of twenty years of age, but because he was Joseph's brother, and had taken Joseph's place in his father's affections (Lawson, Lange, Murphy, &c.;), causing the old man to cherish him with tender solicitude. For he said (to, or within, himself, perhaps recalling the fate of Joseph), Lest peradventure... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:5

And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came —literally, in the midst of the comers ; not as being desirous to lose themselves in the multitudes, as if troubled by an alarming presentiment (Lange), which is forced and unnatural; but either as forming a part of a caravan of Canaanites (Lawson), or simply as arriving among ethers who came from the same necessity (Keil). For the famine was in the land of Canaan. The statements in this verse concerning the descent of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:6

And Joseph was the governor over the land. The word שָׁלִּיט from שָׁלַט , to rule, describes one invested with despotic authority, or a sultan (Gesenius), in which character the early Shemites appear to have regarded Joseph (Keil). It is probably the same idea which recurs in the name Salatis, which, according to Manetho, belonged to the first of the shepherd kings (Josephus, 'Contra Apionem,' 1.14). Occurring nowhere else in the Pentateuch, it reappears in the later writings of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:7

And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but (literally, and) made himself strange unto them . The root נָכַר , to be marked, signed, by indentation, hence to be foreign (Furst), or simply to be strange (Gesenius), in the Hiphil signifies to press strongly into a thing (Furst), to look at a thing as strange (Gesenius), or to recognize, and in the Hithpael has the sense of representing one's self as strange, i.e. of feigning one's self to be a foreigner. And spake roughly unto... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:8

And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him . The lapse of time since the tragedy of Dothan, twenty years before, the high position occupied by Joseph, the Egyptian manners he had by this time assumed, and the strange tongue m which he conversed with them, all conspired to prevent Jacob's sons from recognizing their younger brother; while the facts that Joseph's brethren were all grown men when he had last looked upon them, that he was quite familiar with their appearances, and that... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Genesis 42:1-38

- Joseph and Ten of His Brethren1. שׁבר sheber, “fragment, crumb, hence, grain.” בר bar “pure,” “winnowed,” hence, “corn” (grain).6. שׁליט shallı̂yṭ, “ruler, governor, hence,” Sultan. Not elsewhere found in the Pentateuch.25. כלי kelı̂y, “vessel,” here any portable article in which grain may be conveyed. שׂק śaq, “sack,” the very word which remains in our language to this day. אמתחת 'amtachath “bag.”Twenty years, the period of Joseph’s long and anxious waiting, have come to an end. The dreams... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 42:1-2

Genesis 42:1-2 . When Jacob saw That is, heard, as the word is used, Exodus 20:18; or saw the corn which his neighbours had bought there and brought home. Why look ye one upon another? As careless and helpless persons, each one expecting relief from the other; but none offering either counsel or help for the subsistence of all. Go down thither Masters of families must not only pray for daily bread for their families, but must, with care and industry, endeavour to provide it. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 42:6

Genesis 42:6. Joseph’s brethren came and bowed themselves before him Some have inferred from this that the names of all the strangers that came to buy corn in Egypt were brought to Joseph and registered; and such persons or families as were any way remarkable, were brought before him. Thus his brethren would of course be introduced to him: but, in general, he undoubtedly sold the corn by deputies. With their faces to the earth The common method of salutation in the eastern nations. Thus... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 42:7

Genesis 42:7. We may well wonder that Joseph, during the twenty years he had been in Egypt, especially during the last seven years that he had been in power there, never sent to his father to acquaint him with his circumstances; nay, it is strange that he, who so oft went through all the land of Egypt, never made a step to Canaan, to visit his aged father. When he was in the borders of Egypt that lay next to Canaan, perhaps it would not have been above three or four days’ journey for him in... read more

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:3

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:4

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:5

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:6

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:7

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 42:8

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Genesis 42:1-38

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 42:1-2

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 42:6

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Genesis 42:7

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