Genesis 42:19

19 If you [are] honest, let one of your brothers be kept in prison {where you are now being kept}, but [the rest of] you go, carry grain for the famine for your households.

Genesis 42:19 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 42:19

If ye [be] true [men]
As you say you are: let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison;
agree among yourselves which of you (for one of you must) remain in prison where you are: and the rest being set at liberty, go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses;
Joseph, though he dealt with them after this manner to get what knowledge he could of his family, and to get sight of his brother, yet was concerned for the good of them and theirs, lest they should be in extreme want through the famine, and that they might have a speedy supply of corn, was not willing to detain them any longer.

Genesis 42:19 In-Context

17 Then he gathered them into the prison for three days.

18 On the third day Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live; I fear God.

19 If you [are] honest, let one of your brothers be kept in prison {where you are now being kept}, but [the rest of] you go, carry grain for the famine for your households.

20 You must bring your youngest brother to me, and then your words will be confirmed and you will not die." And they did so.

21 Then each said to his brother, "Surely we [are] guilty on account of our brother when we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded for mercy to us and we would not listen. Therefore this trouble has come to us."

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "in the house of your custody"