Genesis 42:11

_AND JOSEPH REMEMBERED THE DREAMS WHICH HE DREAMED OF THEM, AND SAID UNTO THEM, YE ARE SPIES; TO SEE THE NAKEDNESS OF THE LAND YE ARE COME._ Ye are spies, х_ MªRAGªLIYM_ (H7270)] - ye are footing it; ye are traversing the country. The Egyptians, like Orientals generally, are not accustomed to walk much, and consequently suspect that travelers have some concealed object in view. This is a suspicion entertained regarding strangers in all Eastern countries down to the present day. Joseph, however, who was well aware that his brethren were not spies, has been charged with cruel dissimulation-with a deliberate violation of what he knew to be the truth-in imputing to them such a character. But it must be remembered that he was sustaining the part of a ruler, and, in fact, acting on the very principle sanctioned by many of the sacred writers, and our Lord himself, who spoke parables (fictitiou...

7-20 Joseph was hard upon his brethren, not from a spirit of revenge, but to bring them to repentance. Not seeing his brother Benjamin, he suspected that they had made away with him, and he gave them occasion to speak of their father and brother. God, in his providence, sometimes seems harsh with those he loves, and speaks roughly to those for whom yet he has great mercy in store. Joseph settled at last, that one of them should be left, and the rest go home and fetch Benjamin. It was a very encouraging word he said to them, "I fear God;" as if he had said, You may be assured I will do you no wrong; I dare not, for I know there is one higher than I. With those that fear God, we may expect fair dealing....

Verse Genesis 42:11. _WE_ ARE _ALL ONE MAN'S SONS_] We do not belong to _different tribes_, and it is not likely that _one family_ would make a hostile attempt upon a whole kingdom. This seems to be the very ground that Joseph took, _viz._, that they were persons belonging to different tribes. Against this particularly they set up their defence, asserting that they all belonged to one family; and it is on the _proof_ of this that Joseph puts them, Genesis 42:15, in obliging them to leave one as a hostage, and insisting on their bringing their remaining brother; so that he took exactly the same precautions to detect them as if he had had no acquaintance with them, and had every reason to be suspicious....

- Joseph and Ten of His Brethren 1. שׁבר _sheber_, “fragment, crumb, hence, grain.” בר _bar_ “pure,” “winnowed,” hence, “corn” (grain). 6. שׁליט _shallı̂yṭ_, “ruler, governor, hence,” Sultan. Not elsewhere found in the Pentateuch. 25. כלי _k__e__lı̂y_, “vessel,” here any portable article in which grain may be conveyed. שׂק _śaq_, “sack,” the very word which remains in our language to this day. אמתחת _'amtachath_ “bag.” Twenty years, the period of Joseph’s long and anxious waiting, have come to an end. The dreams of his boyhood are now at length to be fulfilled. The famine has reached

EXPOSITION GENESIS 42:1 NOW WHEN JACOB SAW—literally, _and Jacob saw, i.e._ perceived by the preparations of others for buying corn in Egypt (Lange), but more probably learnt by the report which others brought from. Egypt (Genesis 42:2)—THAT THERE WAS CORN—שֶׁבֶר, either that which is broken, e.g. ground as in a mill, from שָׁבַר, to break in pieces, to shiver (Gesenius), or that which breaks forth, hence sprouts or geminates, from an unused root, שָׁבַר, to press out, to break forth (Furst), is here employed to denote not simply grain, but a supply of it, _frumenti cumulus, _for sale and purchase. The LXX. render by πρᾶσις, and the Vulgate by _quod alimenta venderentur_—IN EGYPT (vid

WE [ARE] ALL ONE MAN'S SONS,.... Therefore not likely to be spies; it could hardly be thought that a single family should engage in such an affair; or that one man would, send his sons as spies, and especially all of them, it being a dangerous affair, and they being liable to be taken up and put to death; and as more families than one must be concerned in such an enterprise, it is reasonable to suppose, that if they had been spies they would have been of different families, and also not together, but in different parts of the kingdom, to observe the fittest place to enter in at and execute their design: WE [ARE] TRUE [MEN]: that spoke truth when they said they came to buy corn; were honest, upright, and sincere in what they said, nor would they, nor durst they, tell a lie: THY SERVANTS ARE NO SPIES; this they expressed in the strongest terms, and with the fullest assurance they could,...

CHAPTER 42 THE FIRST VISIT OF JOSEPH'S BRETHREN _ 1. Joseph's brethren sent to Egypt (Genesis 42:1)_ 2. Joseph meets his brethren (Genesis 42:6) 3. Put in prison for three days (Genesis 42:17) 4. Joseph's demand (Genesis 42:18) 5. The accusing conscience (Genesis 42:21) 6. Joseph weeps and Simeon bound (Genesis 42:24) 7. The return of the nine ...

GENESIS 42. JOSEPH'S BROTHERS COME TO EGYPT TO BUY CORN, AND UNWITTINGLY ENCOUNTER JOSEPH. The greater part is taken from E, but Genesis 42:2; Genesis 42:4_ b_, Genesis 42:5; Genesis 42:7; Genesis 42:9 _b_ - Genesis 42:11_ a_, Genesis 42:12; Genesis 42:27_ ab_,...

The first Interview with Joseph 6. _governor_ The late, and not very common, word here used in the Hebrew (_shâlît_) denotes the position of "Grand Vizier 1 [59] [59] On the "Grand Vizier" of Egypt, see Appendix E, The name of one of the Hyksos kings, Salatis, presents a resemblance to _shâlît_, which has been remarked upon (Budge, _Hist. Eg._iii. 146, note 1). ," "the _T'ate_," or chief officer of state: see note on Genesis 41:42. It is akin to our word "Sultan," and rendered "ruler" in Ecclesiastes 7:19; Ecclesiastes 10:5. _he it was that sold_ We need not suppose that Joseph in person always conducted the business transactions; but a group of fore

WE ARE ALL ONE MAN'S SONS— Their answer here was very pertinent; for it was not probable that a father would have sent his sons, and much less all of them, in one company, upon so dangerous an exploit; nor that one particular person, or family, would have formed a design against so capital a kingdom as that of AEgypt....