Genesis 42:1-24

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 42:1-6

Though Jacob's sons were all married, and had families of their own, yet, it should seem, they were still incorporated in one society, under the conduct and presidency of their father Jacob. We have here, I. The orders he gave them to go and buy corn in Egypt, Gen. 42:1, 2. Observe, 1. The famine was grievous in the land of Canaan. It is observable that all the three patriarchs, to whom Canaan was the land of promise, met with famine in that land, which was not only to try their faith, whether... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 42:7-20

We may well wonder that Joseph, during the twenty years that he had now 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 often went throughout all the land of Egypt (Gen. 41:45, 46) never made an excursion 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?... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 42:21-28

Here is, I. The penitent reflection Joseph's brethren made upon the wrong they had formerly done to him, Gen. 42:21. They talked the matter over in the Hebrew tongue, not suspecting that Joseph, whom they took for a native of Egypt, understood them, much less that he was the person they spoke of. 1. They remembered with regret the barbarous cruelty wherewith they persecuted him: We are verily guilty concerning our brother. We do not read that they said this during their three days?... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 42:1

Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt ,.... That is, to be sold there, or otherwise it being there, unless it could be bought, would have been of no avail to foreigners; wherefore the Septuagint version is, that there was a sale F23 יבר πρασις Sept. "frumentum venale", Schmidt; so Ainsworth, and the Targum of Jonathan. there, a sale of corn; the word has the signification of "breaking" F24 "Fractio", Montanus, Munster, Piscator. in it, because that bread corn is... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 42:2

And he said, behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt ,.... This explains what is meant by the phrase he saw, one sense being put for another: get ye down thither ; as fast as you can without delay; Egypt lay lower than Canaan, and therefore they are bid to go down, as when they went from thence to Canaan they are said to go up, Genesis 45:25 , and buy for us from thence, that we may live, and not die ; which shows the famine was very pressing, since, unless they could buy... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 42:3

And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. They obeyed their father's orders, and immediately set out for Egypt; "ten" of them went down in a body together, all but Benjamin, so that it is easily reckoned who they were, and they are called not Jacob's sons, as they were; but Joseph's brethren, whom they had sold into Egypt, and to whom now they were going, though they knew it not, to buy corn of him in their necessity, and to whom they would be obliged to yield obeisance, as... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 42:4

But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren ,.... Benjamin is called Joseph's brother, because he was so both by father and mother's side, as the rest were not; him Jacob kept with him, being the youngest and his darling, the only son he had with him of his beloved wife Rachel; and was very probably the more beloved by him since he had been bereft of Joseph; and it was not only to keep him company that he retained him at home, but for the reason following: for he... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 42:5

And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came ,.... Either among the Egyptians that came to buy, or among those who came from different countries, or rather particularly among the Canaanites, as the Targum of Jonathan; with these they might join upon the road, and go together in a body where the market for corn was: for the famine was in the land of Canaan : which obliged the inhabitants of it as well as Jacob's family to seek for corn elsewhere, and confirms the sense... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 42:6

And Joseph was the governor over the land ,.... Not the land of Canaan last mentioned, but the land of Egypt; under Pharaoh, he had the chief and sole authority, and especially in the affair of the corn, and the disposal of that: and he it was that sold to all the people of the land : of Egypt, and also to all that came out of other lands; not that he in person could do all this, but by those that acted under him: and Joseph's brethren came ; to Joseph to buy corn of him: ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 42:7

And Joseph saw his brethren ,.... Among those that came to buy corn, and when they prostrated themselves before him: and he knew them ; some of them being at man's estate, and their beards grown when they sold him, and their habits and dress now being much the same it was then, and by them he knew the younger: but made himself strange unto them ; took no notice of them as his relations, but carried himself to them as he did to other foreigners, and yet more strangely: and spake... read more

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