Genesis 42:4

4 But Ya`akov didn't send Binyamin, Yosef's brother, with his brothers; for he said, "Lest perhaps harm befall him."

Genesis 42:4 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 42:4

But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his
brethren
Benjamin is called Joseph's brother, because he was so both by father and mother's side, as the rest were not; him Jacob kept with him, being the youngest and his darling, the only son he had with him of his beloved wife Rachel; and was very probably the more beloved by him since he had been bereft of Joseph; and it was not only to keep him company that he retained him at home, but for the reason following: for he said, lest peradventure mischief befall him;
as had to Joseph his brother, as he imagined; either that the journey would be too much for him, being young, or lest he should be seized with sickness on the road, or rather with death, as Aben Ezra interprets it according to the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan.

Genesis 42:4 In-Context

2 He said, "Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Mitzrayim. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die."

3 Yosef's ten brothers went down to buy grain from Mitzrayim.

4 But Ya`akov didn't send Binyamin, Yosef's brother, with his brothers; for he said, "Lest perhaps harm befall him."

5 The sons of Yisra'el came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Kana`an.

6 Yosef was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Yosef's brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the eretz.