Genesis 42:16-26

16 Send one of you, and let him bring your brother. Meanwhile, you will be kept in custody. This will prove whether there is any truth in what you say. Otherwise, as Pharaoh lives, you are certainly spies."

17 Then he put all of them together in prison for three days.

18 On the third day, Yosef said to them, "Do what I say, and stay alive, for I fear God.

19 If you are upright men, let one of your brothers remain incarcerated in the prison you're being kept in, while you go and carry grain back to relieve the famine in your homes.

20 But bring your youngest brother to me. In this way your statements will be verified, and you won't die." So they did it.

21 They said to each other, "We are in fact guilty concerning our brother. He was in distress and pleaded with us; we saw it and wouldn't listen. That's why this distress has come upon us now."

22 Re'uven answered them, "Didn't I tell you, 'Don't wrong the boy'? But you wouldn't hear of it. Now comes the reckoning for his blood!"

23 They had no idea that Yosef understood them, since an interpreter was translating for them.

24 Yosef turned away from them and wept; then he returned and spoke to them. He took Shim'on from among them and put him in prison before their eyes.

25 Next he ordered that their containers be filled with grain, that every man's money be put back in his pack and that they be given provisions for the journey. When these things had been done for them,

26 they loaded their grain on their donkeys and departed.

Genesis 42:16-26 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 42

This chapter relates how that Jacob having heard there was corn in Egypt, sent all his sons but Benjamin thither to buy corn, Ge 42:1-5; and coming before Joseph, they bowed to him, and he knowing them, though they knew not him, spoke roughly to them, and charged them with being spies, Ge 42:6-9; they in their defence urged that they were the sons of one man in Canaan, with whom their youngest brother was left, on which Joseph ordered them to send for him, to prove them true men, Ge 42:10-16; and put them all into prison for three days, and then released them, and sent them away to fetch their brother, Ge 42:17-20; this brought to mind their treatment of Joseph, and they confessed their guilt to each other, which Joseph heard, and greatly affected him, they supposing he understood them not, and before he dismissed them bound Simeon before their eyes, whom he retained till they returned, Ge 42:21-24; then he ordered his servants to fill their sacks with corn, and put each man's money in his sack, which one of them on the road found, opening his sack for provender, filled them all with great surprise and fear, Ge 42:25-28; upon their return to Jacob they related all that had befallen them, and particularly that the governor insisted on having Benjamin brought to him, Ge 42:29-34; their sacks being opened, all their money was found in them, which greatly distressed them and Jacob also, who was very unwilling to let Benjamin go, though Reuben offered his two sons as pledges for him, and himself to be a surety, Ge 42:35-38.