Genesis 43: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The famine goes on, and Jacob tells his sons to go back to Egypt for more food; Judah says they cannot go unless Benjamin comes, and offers himself as the guarantee for the boy. Israel sends them with a gift, double the silver, and Benjamin. In Egypt Joseph has them brought to his house, where the steward tells them not to be afraid and brings Simeon out to them. Joseph asks about their father, sees Benjamin and goes out to weep, then returns and eats with them, seating them by age and giving Benjamin five times as much food as the others.

Claim by Claim

1. 43:1
   • The famine was severe in the land.
2. 43:2
   • They finished eating the grain they had brought from Egypt.
   • Their father said to them, Go back and buy us a little food.
3. 43:3
   • Judah spoke to his father.
   • Judah said the man had solemnly warned them.
   • Judah reported the man's words: You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.
4. 43:4
   • Judah said that if his father would send their brother with them, they would go down and buy food for him.
5. 43:5
   • Judah said that if his father would not send him, they would not go down.
   • Judah gave as the reason that the man had told them, You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.
6. 43:6
   • Israel asked why they had dealt so badly with him.
   • Israel said the harm was in telling the man that they had another brother.
7. 43:7
   • They said the man questioned them closely about themselves and their kindred.
   • They reported the man asked whether their father was still alive.
   • They reported the man asked whether they had another brother.
   • They said they told him in accordance with these questions.
   • They asked how they could possibly have known that he would say, Bring your brother down.
8. 43:8
   • Judah spoke to Israel his father.
   • Judah said, Send the boy with me.
   • Judah said they would arise and go.
   • Judah said this was so that they might live and not die.
   • Judah said this applied to them, to his father, and to their little ones.
9. 43:9
   • Judah said he would be surety for the boy.
   • Judah said his father could require the boy from his hand.
   • Judah said that if he did not bring the boy back to his father and set him before him, he would be guilty before his father forever.
10. 43:10
    • Judah said that if they had not delayed, they would already have returned twice by now.
11. 43:11
    • Israel their father spoke to them.
    • Israel said, If it must be so, then do this.
    • Israel told them to take some of the choice produce of the land in their vessels.
    • Israel told them to carry down a gift to the man.
    • The gift was to include a little balm.
    • The gift was to include a little honey.
    • The gift was to include gum resin.
    • The gift was to include ladanum.
    • The gift was to include pistachio nuts.
    • The gift was to include almonds.
12. 43:12
    • Israel told them to take double silver in their hand.
    • Israel told them to carry back in their hand the silver that had been returned in the mouth of their sacks.
    • Israel said perhaps it was a mistake.
13. 43:13
    • Israel told them to take their brother also.
    • Israel told them to arise and return to the man.
14. 43:14
    • Israel said, May God Almighty give you mercy before the man.
    • Israel said this was so that the man would release their other brother and Benjamin.
    • Israel said that as for himself, if he was bereaved of his children, he was bereaved.
15. 43:15
    • The men took that gift.
    • They took double silver in their hand.
    • They took Benjamin.
    • They rose up and went down to Egypt.
    • They stood before Joseph.
16. 43:16
    • Joseph saw Benjamin with them.
    • Joseph spoke to the man in charge of his house.
    • Joseph said, Bring these men into the house.
    • Joseph said to slaughter an animal and prepare it.
    • Joseph said the men would eat with him at noon.
17. 43:17
    • The man did as Joseph had said.
    • The man brought the men to Joseph's house.
18. 43:18
    • The men were afraid because they had been brought to Joseph's house.
    • They said they were brought in because of the silver that was returned in their sacks the first time.
    • They said the purpose was to assault them and fall upon them.
    • They said the purpose was to take them as slaves.
    • They said their donkeys would also be taken.
19. 43:19
    • They came near to the man in charge of Joseph's house.
    • They spoke to him at the entrance of the house.
20. 43:20
    • They said, Please, my lord.
    • They said they had indeed come down the first time to buy food.
21. 43:21
    • They said that when they came to the lodging place, they opened their sacks.
    • They said each man's silver was in the mouth of his sack.
    • They said it was their silver in its full weight.
    • They said they had brought it back in their hand.
22. 43:22
    • They said they had brought down other silver in their hand to buy food.
    • They said they did not know who put their silver in their sacks.
23. 43:23
    • The steward said, Peace to you.
    • The steward said, Do not be afraid.
    • The steward said their God and the God of their father had given them treasure in their sacks.
    • The steward said their silver had come to him.
    • The steward brought Simeon out to them.
24. 43:24
    • The man brought the men into Joseph's house.
    • He gave them water.
    • They washed their feet.
    • He gave fodder to their donkeys.
25. 43:25
    • They prepared the gift for Joseph's coming at noon.
    • They had heard that they would eat a meal there.
26. 43:26
    • Joseph came into the house.
    • They brought him into the house the gift that was in their hand.
    • They bowed down to him to the ground.
27. 43:27
    • Joseph asked them about their welfare.
    • Joseph asked whether their old father, of whom they had spoken, was well.
    • Joseph asked whether he was still alive.
28. 43:28
    • They said their father, his servant, was well.
    • They said he was still alive.
    • They bowed their heads and prostrated themselves.
29. 43:29
    • Joseph lifted up his eyes.
    • Joseph saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother's son.
    • Joseph asked whether this was their youngest brother, of whom they had spoken to him.
    • Joseph said, May God be gracious to you, my son.
30. 43:30
    • Joseph hurried away.
    • Joseph's compassion grew warm toward his brother.
    • Joseph sought a place to weep.
    • Joseph entered the inner chamber.
    • Joseph wept there.
31. 43:31
    • He washed his face.
    • He came out.
    • He restrained himself.
    • He said, Serve the food.
32. 43:32
    • They served Joseph by himself.
    • They served the brothers by themselves.
    • They served the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves.
    • The Egyptians could not eat food with the Hebrews.
    • Eating with Hebrews was an abomination to the Egyptians.
33. 43:33
    • They sat before Joseph.
    • The firstborn was seated according to his birthright.
    • The youngest was seated according to his youth.
    • The men looked at one another in astonishment.
34. 43:34
    • Joseph sent portions to them from before him.
    • Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs.
    • They drank and became drunk with him.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

43:1

Famine here means a prolonged failure of the harvest across a whole region. Canaan depended on seasonal rain, while Egypt was watered by the annual flooding of the Nile, so Egypt could still have grain in storage when the surrounding lands had none.

43:2

"Corn" in the King James simply means grain, usually wheat or barley. Maize, the crop Americans call corn, came from the Americas and was unknown in this world.

43:3

"The man" is the Egyptian official who controls the sale of grain. He is in fact Joseph, the brother these men sold into slavery years earlier, but they do not recognize him. "You will not see my face" is court language: to see a ruler's face is to be granted an audience with him.

43:6

Israel and Jacob are the same person, the father of these men. The narrative uses both names for him, sometimes within a few verses.

43:7

"Asked us straitly" in the King James means questioned us strictly and in detail. "According to the tenor of these words" means we answered in line with what he was asking.

43:8

The word translated "boy" covers anyone from a child to a young man still under his father's authority. Benjamin is the youngest son, but by this point he is a grown man with children of his own.

43:9

Judah is offering himself as legal security for Benjamin, the way a person could stand as guarantor for another's debt. "You may hold me responsible" means Jacob can demand Benjamin back from Judah personally, and if Judah fails, the liability is his permanently.

43:11

These are the luxury products of Canaan, valuable because they were light, kept well, and were not grown in Egypt. Balm and myrrh are fragrant tree resins used in medicine, perfume and embalming; the "honey" may be bee honey or a thick syrup boiled down from dates or grapes; the nuts are pistachios. Bringing a gift was the normal way to approach a powerful official: it acknowledged his rank and asked for his goodwill.

43:12

There was no coined money in this period. Payment was made in silver weighed out on scales, which is why the amount can be described as being of "full weight." "Double the silver" means enough to pay for the new grain plus the silver they found in their sacks after the first trip.

43:14

"God Almighty" translates the Hebrew title El Shaddai, an ancient name for God used especially in the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; its exact original sense is uncertain. "If I am robbed of my children, then I am robbed of them" is a formula of resignation, Jacob is saying he has given up trying to control the outcome.

43:16

The "man in charge of his house" is the steward: the chief servant who ran a great household's staff, stores and accounts, and who could act with his master's authority. Killing an animal signals a formal meal; meat was eaten rarely and marked an occasion. Noon was the time of the main meal of the day.

43:18

Their fear is specific and realistic. A person accused of theft who could not repay could be seized as a slave in settlement, and their donkeys (the pack animals that were their livelihood and their means of getting home) would be taken as well.

43:19

A steward was the head servant who ran a rich man's whole household: his money, his food, his stores, and the other servants.

43:21

The King James "inn" does not mean a hotel. It is a lodging place on the road, often just a recognized campsite with water where travelers stopped for the night.

43:23

"Peace be with you" is the ordinary Hebrew greeting, shalom, used here to mean "all is well, nothing is wrong." Simeon is the brother the official kept in custody on their first visit as a guarantee that they would return with Benjamin.

43:24

Washing a guest's feet was standard hospitality. People walked dusty roads in open sandals, and providing water for the feet, along with fodder for the animals, was how a host signaled that visitors were received as guests rather than held as suspects.

43:26

Bowing to the ground was the customary way to greet a high official in Egypt and the surrounding world. It was a gesture of political respect for someone's rank, not necessarily an act of worship.

43:28

"Made obeisance" in the King James means bowed low as a formal act of respect to a superior.

43:29

Jacob had children by four women. Benjamin is the only one of the brothers who shares both parents with Joseph, both were sons of Rachel. The rest are half-brothers, which is why Benjamin is singled out as "his own mother's son."

43:30

The King James Version says his "bowels did yearn." Hebrew locates strong feeling in the inner organs rather than in the heart, so the phrase describes a physical surge of emotion, the way English might say something turned his stomach or gripped him inside.

43:31

"Refrained himself" means held himself in, got his composure back. "Set on bread" uses bread to mean food in general, so it is an order to serve the meal.

43:32

Egyptians observed strict rules about ritual purity, including who could share a table. Foreigners were considered unclean by those rules, so eating with them would defile an Egyptian. "Hebrews" is the term outsiders used for Jacob's family and people like them. "Disgusting" here is a word for what is ritually offensive and forbidden, not merely distasteful.

43:33

They are seated in exact order of birth, from oldest to youngest. Seating by rank was normal at a formal meal, and the firstborn held first place; what astonishes the brothers is that a foreign official could not possibly have known their birth order.

43:34

A host honored a guest by sending him portions from his own table, and the size of the portion showed the degree of honor. Five times as much is a strikingly public singling-out of Benjamin, and a test of whether the older brothers will resent the favoritism shown to Rachel's remaining son. The Hebrew verb here plainly means to become drunk; "were merry" is the King James softening it. It is the one moment of ease in the story, and it comes just before Joseph springs his test.