He returned to his brothers, and said, “The child is no more; and I, where will I go?”
Parallel Translations
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He returned to his brothers, and said, “The child is no more; and I, where will I go?”
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And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?
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And he returned unto his brethren, and said: 'The child is not; and as for me, whither shall I go?'
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to Genesis 37:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 42:13 They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is today with our father, and one is no more.”
- Genesis 42:32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.’
- Jeremiah 31:15 Yahweh says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
- Genesis 37:20 Come now therefore, and let’s kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, ‘An evil animal has devoured him.’ We will see what will become of his dreams.”
- Genesis 42:35-36 As they emptied their sacks, behold, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (8 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 30. And he returned. We may hence gather that…
30. And he returned. We may hence gather that Reuben, under pretense of some other business, stole away from his brethren, that, unknown to them all, he might restore his brother, drawn out of the pit, to his father; and that therefore he was absent at the time when Joseph was sold. And there is no wonder that he was anticipated, when he had taken his course in a different direction from theirs, intending to reach the pit by a circuitous path. But now at length Reuben having lost all hope, unfolds to his brethren the intention which before he dared not confess, lest the boy should be immediately murdered.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 37:30 And he returned unto his brethren, and…
Gen 37:30 And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child [is] not; and I, whither shall I go?
Ver. 30. The child is not; and I, &c.] In an old manuscript, I met with these words thus pathetically rendered: -
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“Heu quid agam! periit puer ille, puer puer ille.”
Reuben was the oldest, and therefore thought he should be most blamed. Besides, he had not forgot how highly his father had been lately offended with him, for his detestable incest.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain He calls him
He calls him
the child comparatively to his brethren, though he was seventeen years old, Gen 37:2.
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The child is not, i.e. is not in the land of the living, or is dead, as that phrase is commonly used, as Gen 42:13,36, compared with Gen 44:20; Job 7:21; Jer 31:15; Lam 5:7; Mat 2:18.
I, whither shall I go, either to find the child, or to flee from our father? He is more solicitous than the rest, because he being the eldest brother, his father would require Joseph at his hand; and being so highly incensed against him for his former crime, would be the more apt to suspect him, and deal more severely with him.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And they took Joseph's coat,.... After they had told…
And they took Joseph's coat,.... After they had told Reuben what they had done with him, who being willing to make the best of things as it was, joined with them in the following scheme: by this it appears, that when they took Joseph out of the pit they did not put his coat on him, but sold him naked, or almost so, to the merchants:
and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; that being, as the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi observe, most like to human blood.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 30. The child is not; and I, whither…
Verse 30. The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?] The words in the original are very plaintive, הילד איננו ואני אנה אני בא haiyeled einennu, vaani anah, ani ba!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain I go to seek for him. His brethren inform…
I go to seek for him. His brethren inform him of what they had done, and he consents to keep it a secret from his father. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 30. Whither shall I go — “It is a…
30. Whither shall I go — “It is a cry of distracting anxiety, which sounds touchingly mournful and pathetic in the Hebrew, from the repetition and alliteration. Reuben afterwards reminds his brethren, in the day of their distress, of the earnestness with which he had pleaded for Joseph. Gen_42:22. Only Reuben and Judah show any trace of humanity in this dark transaction, and they seem, on their return to their father, to be bound by the ban of silence. It is Reuben and Judah, also, that are afterwards foremost to take responsibility, and bear the blame, when they all stand before Joseph the judge. Chapters 42 and 44.” — Newhall.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 30. The child is not] Cf. Gen_42:13; Gen_42:32; Gen_42:36,…
30. The child is not] Cf. Gen_42:13; Gen_42:32; Gen_42:36, Gen_44:31; Jer_31:15; Lam_5:7. The word “child,” yeled, is appropriate for a small boy: see Gen_21:8; Gen_21:14.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.