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.”
Parallel Translations
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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.”
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And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.
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And he said: 'Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.'
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Genesis 42:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 43:8 Judah said to Israel, his father, “Send the boy with me, and we’ll get up and go, so that we may live, and not die, both we, and you, and also our little ones.
- Genesis 43:2 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 43:4 If you’ll send our brother with us, we’ll go down and buy you food;
- Genesis 45:9 Hurry, and go up to my father, and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says, “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Don’t wait.
- Psalms 118:17 I will not die, but live, and declare Yah’s works.
- Isaiah 38:1 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’ ”
- Matthew 4:4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth.’ ”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (6 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 42:2 And he said, Behold, I have heard…
Gen 42:2 And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.
Ver. 2. Get you down thither,] Here the divine decree of Israel’s sojourning and suffering in Egypt begins to be fulfilled, by a wonderful providence. The ruinous of Joseph’s barns invites Jacob, first to send, and then to go thither himself for relief. Shall not the fulness that is in Christ {Joh 1:16} incite and entice us to come to him; as bees to a meadow full of flowers; as merchants to the Indies full of spices and othex riches; as the Queen of Sheba to Solomon full of wisdom; as Jacob’s sons to Egypt full of corn, in that extreme famine; that we may return full fraught with treasures of truth and grace? "It pleased God, that in him should all fulness dwell." {Col 1:19} And his fulnees is not only repletive, but diffusive; a fuiness of plenty and abundance, but of bounty also and redundance. He was "anointed with the oil of gladness," not only "above," but for "his fellows." {Heb 1:9}
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That we may live, and not die.] Saints have their share in common calamities. Jacob tasted of the famine, as well as his neighbonrs the Canaanites; so had Abraham and Isaac done before him. Both the good figs and bad figs were carried captive; {Jer 24:5} the corn as well as the weeds is cut down at harvest, &c.
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 I have heard: this word explains the word saw,…
I have heard: this word explains the word saw, Gen 42:1.
Get you down; for Egypt was lower than Canaan; whence, on the contrary, they are said to go up to Canaan, Gen 45:9.
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That we may live, and not die; an emphatical repetition of the same thing, used here to make them more sensible of their danger.
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 he said, behold, I have heard that there…
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, Gen 45:25,
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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 corn from Egypt they could not live, but must die.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Get you down thither - Masters of families must…
Get you down thither - Masters of families must not only pray for daily bread for their families, but must with care and industry provide it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. down thither] Egypt being regarded as on the…
2. down thither] Egypt being regarded as on the low ground, in comparison with Palestine; cf. Gen_12:10, Gen_13:1, Gen_43:4; Gen_43:15, Gen_46:3-4.
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 Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And he said, Behold, I have heard (this does…
And he said, Behold, I have heard (this does not imply that the rumor had not also reached Jacob"s sons, but only that the proposal to visit Egypt did not originate with them) that there is corn rb,v, ut supra, sitov (LXX.), triticum (Vulgate)in Egypt: get you down thither. That Jacob did not, like Abraham (Gen_12:10) and Isaac, (Gen_26:2) propose to remove his family to Egypt, may be explained either by the length of the journey, which was too great for so large a household, or by the circumstance that the famine prevailed in Egypt as well as Canaan (Gerlach). That he entrusted his sons, and not his servants, with the mission, though perhaps dictated by a sense of its importance (Lawson), was clearly of Divine arrangement for the further accomplishment of the Divine plan concerning Joseph and his brethren. And buy (i.e. buy corn, the verb being a denominative from rb,v, corn) for us from thence. From this it is apparent that the hitherto abundant flocks and herds of the patriarchal family had been greatly reduced by the long-continued and severe drought, thus requiring them to obtain food from Egypt, if either any portion of their flocks were to be saved, or themselves to escape starvation, as the patriarch explained to his sons. That we may (literally, and we shall) live, and not die.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.