If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
Parallel Translations
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If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
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If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
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if ye be upright men, let one of your brethren be bound in your prison-house; but go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses;
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Genesis 42:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 40:3 He put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
- Genesis 41:56 The famine was over all the surface of the earth. Joseph opened all the store houses, and sold to the Egyptians. The famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
- Genesis 42:1-2 Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.”
- Genesis 42:26 They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there.
- Genesis 43:1-2 The famine was severe in the land. When they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little more food.”
- Genesis 45:23 He sent the following to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and provision for his father by the way.
- Isaiah 42:7 to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
- Isaiah 42:22 But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers, and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’
- Jeremiah 37:15 The princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (5 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 42:19 If ye [be] true [men], let one…
Gen 42:19 If ye [be] true [men], let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
Ver. 19. Let one of your brethren be bound.] By binding Simeon, he brought down Benjamin to himself. So doth God, by chastening our bodies, save our souls.
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 Your prison, in which you are now imprisoned, and…
Your prison, in which you are now imprisoned, and are still like to be so, if you accept not this condition.
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 knew not that Joseph understood them,.... For…
And they knew not that Joseph understood them,.... For what is above related they spoke in his presence and hearing; but speaking to one another in the Hebrew language, and he being an Egyptian, as they took him to be, they did not imagine that he could understand them, and therefore were not at all upon their guard in what they said: and what confirmed them in this was:
for he spake unto them by an interpreter; which he the rather chose to do, that they might have no suspicion of him; and which shows, that though there was a likeness between the Hebrew language and the Egyptian in many things, yet in some they differed, and the difference was such that there was need of an interpreter, where the parties did not understand both languages: this interpreter between Joseph and his brethren, according to the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, was Manasseh, the eldest son of Joseph, and so Jarchi; which is very improbable, he being but a child at this time, if not an infant; see Gen 41:50.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 19. let one of your brethren] Joseph’s previous sentence…
19. let one of your brethren] Joseph’s previous sentence in Gen_42:16, by which one brother should be sent back, while the remainder should be kept in prison, is here reversed. The three days’ interval had moderated Joseph’s threat and his first appearance of indignation. The change to a more generous treatment is part of his whole policy: see note on Gen_42:6.
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.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Let one of your brethren be bound
Gen_42:19-20
Let one of your brethren be bound
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Lessons
1.
To prove truth among national parties, it is not unequal to give hostages.
2. Hostages being taken it is but equal that parties have liberty to manifest truth.
3. Nature will not, much less grace, dispatch hungry men without food.
4. Bread-corn is the break-neck of hunger (Gen_42:19).
5. Reasonable testimonies of truth may be peremptorily demanded of suspected persons.
6. Justification and security are to be afforded to men of truth.
7. It is reasonable for men under trials to yield to just terms for deliverance (Gen_42:20). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.