Genesis 44:18-34

Judah appeals for Benjamin

18 Judah approached him and said, “Please, my master, allow your servant to say something to my master without getting angry with your servant since you are like Pharaoh himself.

19 My master asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or brother?'

20 And we said to my master, ‘Yes, we have an elderly father and a young brother, born when he was old. His brother is dead and he's his mother's only child. But his father loves him.'

21 You told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him.'

22 And we said to my master, ‘The young man can't leave his father. If he leaves, his father will die.'

23 You said to your servants, ‘If your youngest brother doesn't come down with you, you'll never see my face again.'

24 "When we went back to my father your servant, we told him what you said.

25 Our father told us, ‘Go back and buy for us a little food.'

26 But we said, ‘We can't go down. We will go down only if our youngest brother is with us. We won't be able to gain an audience with the man without our youngest brother with us.'

27 Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave birth to two sons for me.

28 One disappeared and I said, 'He must have been torn up by a wild animal,' and I haven't seen him since.

29 And if you take this one from me too, something terrible will happen to him, and you will send me—old as I am—to my grave in despair.'

30 When I now go back to your servant my father without the young man—whose life is so bound up with his—

31 and when he sees that the young man isn't with us, he will die, and your servants will have sent our father your servant—old as he is—to his grave in grief.

32 I, your servant, guaranteed the young man's safety to my father, telling him, ‘If I don't bring him back to you, it will be my fault forever.'

33 Now, please let your servant stay as your slave instead of the young man so that he can go back with his brothers.

34 How can I go back to my father without the young man? I couldn't bear to see how badly my father would be hurt."

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Genesis 44:18-34 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 44

This chapter relates the policy of Joseph in making an experiment of his brethren's regard and affection for Benjamin; he ordered his steward to put every man's money into his sack, and his silver cup in Benjamin's, and when they were got out of the city, to follow after them, and charge them with the theft, as he did; and having searched their sacks, as they desired he would, found the cup with Benjamin, which threw them into the utmost distress, and obliged them to return to Joseph, Ge 44:1-14; who charged them with their ill behaviour towards him; they acknowledge it, and propose to be his servants; but he orders them to depart to their father, retaining Benjamin in servitude, Ge 44:15-17; upon which Judah addressed him in a very polite and affectionate manner, and relates the whole story, both of what passed between Joseph and them, concerning Benjamin, the first time they were in Egypt, and between their father and them upon the same subject, when he directed them to go a second time thither to buy corn, and how he became a surety to his father for him, and therefore proposed to be his bondman now, not being able to see his father's face without Benjamin, Ge 44:18-34.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Footnotes 1

[a]. Sam, LXX; MT lacks with us.

Genesis 44:18-34

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Judah appeals for Benjamin

Genesis 44:18-34 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 44

Footnotes 1