Genesis 44:28

28 One went out from me, and I said, "Surely he must have been torn to pieces," and I have never 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 then we said, 'We cannot go down. If our youngest brother [is] with us, then we shall go down. For we will not be able to see the face of the man unless our youngest brother [is] with us.'

27 Then your servant, my father, said to us, 'You yourselves know that my wife bore two sons to me.

28 One went out from me, and I said, "Surely he must have been torn to pieces," and I have never seen him since.

29 And if you take this one also from me, and he encounters harm, you will bring down my gray head in sorrow to Sheol.'

30 So now, when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us--now his life is bound up with his life--