Genesis 44:28

28 One of them has already left me. He must have been torn to pieces by wild animals, because I have not seen him since he left.

Genesis 44:28 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 44:28

And the one went out from, me
Being sent by him to see how his brethren did, who were feeding his flocks at Shechem, and he had never returned to him to that day: and I said, surely he is torn in pieces;
by some wild beast; this he said on sight of his coat, being shown him all bloody: and I saw him not since;
now twenty two years ago; for though Joseph was not such a great way off his father, especially if he was at Memphis, as some think; yet what through his confinement as a servant in Potiphar's house, and then for some years in prison, and through the multiplicity of business when advanced in Pharaoh's court, he had no leisure and opportunity of visiting his father; and especially so it was ordered by the providence of God that he should not, that he might be made known at the most proper time for the glory of God, and the good of his family.

Genesis 44:28 In-Context

26 We answered, "We cannot go; we will not be admitted to the man's presence unless our youngest brother is with us. We can go only if our youngest brother goes also.'

27 Our father said to us, "You know that my wife Rachel bore me only two sons.

28 One of them has already left me. He must have been torn to pieces by wild animals, because I have not seen him since he left.

29 If you take this one from me now and something happens to him, the sorrow you would cause me would kill me, as old as I am.'

30 "And now, sir," Judah continued, "if I go back to my father without the boy, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with me, he will die. His life is wrapped up with the life of the boy, and he is so old that the sorrow we would cause him would kill him.