Genesis 42:6

6 Joseph was running the country; he was the one who gave out rations to all the people. When Joseph's brothers arrived, they treated him with honor, bowing to him.

Genesis 42:6 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 42:6

And Joseph [was] the governor over the land
Not the land of Canaan last mentioned, but the land of Egypt; under Pharaoh, he had the chief and sole authority, and especially in the affair of the corn, and the disposal of that; [and] he [it was] that sold to all the people of the land:
of Egypt, and also to all that came out of other lands; not that he in person could do all this, but by those that acted under him: and Joseph's brethren came;
to Joseph to buy corn of him: and bowed down themselves before him, [with] their faces to the earth;
not only bowed the knee as the Egyptians did, but prostrated their whole bodies, stretching out their hands and feet, and touching the ground with their faces, as was the manner of the eastern countries, at least some of them; and so of Canaan; and thus did they submit themselves to him in the most humble manner, and thereby, though without their knowledge, fulfilled his dream of their sheaves making obeisance to his sheaf, ( Genesis 37:7 ) .

Genesis 42:6 In-Context

4 Jacob didn't send Joseph's brother Benjamin with them; he was afraid that something bad might happen to him.

5 So Israel's sons joined everyone else that was going to Egypt to buy food, for Canaan, too, was hit hard by the famine.

6 Joseph was running the country; he was the one who gave out rations to all the people. When Joseph's brothers arrived, they treated him with honor, bowing to him.

7 Joseph recognized them immediately, but treated them as strangers and spoke roughly to them. He said, "Where do you come from?" "From Canaan," they said. "We've come to buy food."

8 Joseph knew who they were, but they didn't know who he was.