Genesis 43:9

9 I will be responsible for him. You can hold me personally accountable!^[a] If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, I will be guilty before you forever.

Genesis 43:9 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 43:9

I will be surety for him
Engage for his safe return: of my hand shall thou require him;
I will be answerable for him: if I bring him not to thee, and set him before thee:
do not return him from Egypt, and bring him to Canaan, into his father's house and presence safe, and sound: then let me bear the blame for ever;
of persuading his father to let him go with him; all this he said, to show what care he would take of him, and what confidence he had that no evil would befall him, that he would be returned with them in safety; which he might ground upon the assurance that Joseph had given, that they should not die if they brought their brother with them, ( Genesis 42:20 ) ; and perhaps Judah, as Schmidt thinks, might be under a special instinct of divine Providence, which directed him to say these things: and it may be added, that Jacob also might be under a divine impulse, which influenced him to regard what Judah said, or otherwise his suretyship was but a poor security, and of little avail.

Genesis 43:9 In-Context

7 They answered, "The man kept asking about us and our family: 'Is your father still alive? Do you have [another] brother?' And we answered him accordingly. How could we know that he would say, 'Bring your brother here'?"

8 Then Judah said to his father Israel, "Send the boy with me. We will be on our way so that we may live, and not die-neither we, nor you, nor our children.

9 I will be responsible for him. You can hold me personally accountable! If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, I will be guilty before you forever.

10 If we had not wasted time, we could have come back twice by now."

11 Then their father Israel said to them, "If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and take them down to the man as a gift-some balsam and some honey, aromatic gum and resin, pistachios and almonds.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit can seek him from my hand