Genesis 43:20

20 "If you please, sir, we came here once before to buy food.

Genesis 43:20 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 43:20

And said, O sir
Or, "on me, my lord" ^F1, one said in the name of the rest, perhaps Judah, on me let the blame lie, if guilty of rudeness in making our address to thee; or as the Vulgate Latin version, "we pray, sir, that thou wouldest hear us"; and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra say the phrase is expressive of beseeching, entreating, and supplicating: we came indeed down at the first time to buy food;
not to spy the land but to buy corn, and not to get it by fraud or tricking but by paying for it the price that was required.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (ynda yb) "in me Domine mi", Montanus.

Genesis 43:20 In-Context

18 As they were being brought to the house, they were afraid and thought, "We are being brought here because of the money that was returned in our sacks the first time. They will suddenly attack us, take our donkeys, and make us his slaves."

19 So at the door of the house, they said to the servant in charge,

20 "If you please, sir, we came here once before to buy food.

21 When we set up camp on the way home, we opened our sacks, and each man found his money in the top of his sack - every bit of it. We have brought it back to you.

22 We have also brought some more money with us to buy more food. We do not know who put our money back in our sacks."