Genesis 44:28

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

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 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—