Genesis 42:22

_AND HE PUT THEM ALL TOGETHER INTO WARD THREE DAYS._ Put them all together into ward three days. Their confinement had been designed to bring them to salutary reflection. And this object was attained; because they looked upon the retributive justice of God as now pursuing them in that foreign land. The drift of their conversation is one of the most striking instances of the power of conscience on record. AND LIVE - literally, you shall live. Their conscience being awakened by the sudden perils in which they were involved, brought to their remembrance their relentless cruelty toward their brother; the recollection of what they had done filled them with remorse, while they saw and confessed the equity of Providence in measuring to them according to the measure they meted to him. Strauss pronounces the alleged affinity between sin and its punishment a 'common, Hebrew notion;' but a convic...

22._And Reuben answered them_. Because he had attempted to deliver Joseph out of the hands of his brethren, in order to restore him in safety to his father, he magnifies their fault, in not having, at that time, listened to any prudent counsel: and I understand his words as conveying a reproof for their too late repentance. Whereas Joseph was not yet satisfied with this confession, but retained Simeon in bonds, (165) and dismissed the rest in suspense and perplexity, this was not done from malevolence, but because he was not certain about the safety of his brother Benjamin, and the state of his father’s house. For he might justly fear lest, when they found that their wicked contrivance of putting their brother to death, was discovered, they might again attempt some horrible crime, as desperate men are wont to do; or, at least, might desert their father, and flee to some other country. Ne...

21-24 The office of conscience is to bring to mind things long since said and done. When the guilt of this sin of Joseph's brethren was fresh, they made light of it, and sat down to eat bread; but now, long afterward, their consciences accused them of it. See the good of afflictions; they often prove the happy means of awakening conscience, and bringing sin to our remembrance. Also, the evil of guilt as to our brethren. Conscience now reproached them for it. Whenever we think we have wrong done us, we ought to remember the wrong we have done to others. Reuben alone remembered with comfort, that he had done what he could to prevent the mischief. When we share with others in their sufferings, it will be a comfort if we have the testimony of our consciences for us, that we did not share in their evil deeds, but in our places witnessed against them. Joseph retired to weep. Though his reason...

- 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

AND REUBEN ANSWERED THEM,.... Being the eldest, and who had been most concerned for the life of Joseph, and most tender and careful of him: SAYING, SPAKE I NOT UNTO YOU, SAYING, DO NOT SIN AGAINST THE CHILD, AND YE WOULD NOT HEAR? it seems by this that Reuben endeavoured to dissuade his brethren from selling Joseph, when they first proposed it, to which they would not attend; since it is certain they did hearken to him as not to kill him directly, as they first consulted, and they hearkened to him to cast him into a pit, where he did not intend he should continue, but till he had an opportunity of taking him out, and returning him to his father: but it seems probable that Reuben was with them when they first spied the Ishmaelites, and proposed to sell Joseph to them, which he objected to, and entreated they would not do it; and perhaps he went out from them, and took a circuit, with a...

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 second Interview 18. _for I fear God_ See notes on Genesis 20:3; Genesis 20:11; Genesis 22:12; Genesis 39:9. Cf. Leviticus 25:43; Nehemiah 5:15. Joseph reassures his brethren by representing to them that the potentate of Egypt is one who recognizes the universal Divine law of right and wrong. He fears God, who protects the stranger and the defenceless. Perhaps there is a reference to his brothers" disregard of this fear of God in their former treatmen

3. _Joseph as Prime Minister of Egypt_ (Genesis 41:46 to Genesis 47:31) 46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. 47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. 48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. 49 And Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left off numbering; for it was without number. 50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On, bare unto him. 51 And Joseph called the name