Genesis 42:37

_AND REUBEN SPAKE UNTO HIS FATHER, SAYING, SLAY MY TWO SONS, IF I BRING HIM NOT TO THEE: DELIVER HIM INTO MY HAND, AND I WILL BRING HIM TO THEE AGAIN._ Reuben ... Slay my two sons - (see the note at Genesis 37:22; Genesis 37:30.) This was a thoughtless and unwarrantable condition-one that he never seriously expected his father would accept. It was designed only to give assurance of the greatest care being taken of Benjamin. But unforeseen circumstances might arise to render it impossible for all of them to preserve that young lad (James 4:14); and Jacob was much pained by the prospect. Little did he know that God was dealing with him severely, but in kindness ...

29-38 Here is the report Jacob's sons made to their father. It troubled the good man. Even the bundles of money Joseph returned, in kindness, to his father, frightened him. He laid the fault upon his sons; knowing them, he feared they had provoked the Egyptians, and wrongfully brought home their money. Jacob plainly distrusted his sons, remembering that he never saw Joseph since he had been with them. It is bad with a family, when children behave so ill that their parents know not how to trust them. Jacob gives up Joseph for gone, and Simeon and Benjamin as in danger; and concludes, All these things are against me. It proved otherwise, that all these things were for him, were working together for his good, and the good of his family. We often think that to be against us, which is really for us. We are afflicted in body, estate, name, and in our relations; and think all these things are...

Verse Genesis 42:37. _SLAY MY TWO SONS, IF I BRING HIM NOT TO THEE_] What a strange proposal made by a _son_ to his _father_, concerning his _grandchildren_! But they show the honesty and affection of Reuben's heart; he felt deeply for his father's distress, and was determined to risk and hazard every thing in order to relieve and comfort him. There is scarcely a transaction in which Reuben is concerned that does not serve to set his character in an amiable point of view, except the single instance mentioned Genesis 35:22, and which for the sake of decency and piety we should wish to understand as the Targumists have explained it. See the notes....

- 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 SPOKE UNTO HIS FATHER,.... Being the eldest son, it most property lay upon him to make answer to his father in the name of his brethren, and to offer a word of comfort to him: SAYING, SLAY MY TWO SONS, IF I BRING HIM NOT TO THEE; meaning not Simeon, who was in Egypt, but Benjamin, whom it was proposed to take thither, and whom Jacob was very loath to part with; and to persuade him to it Reuben offers to him, and gives him leave to slay his two sons, or rather two of his sons g, since he had four, Genesis 46:9; if he did not bring Benjamin again to him: this was a strange proposal, for what were two sons of his to his own son, so exceedingly beloved by him? besides, to lose his own son, and to have two of his grandchildren slain, would have been an increase of his sorrow and grief, instead of being an alleviation of it; but Reuben's meaning was, not that his child

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 Return to Canaan 27. _one of them_ Anticipating Genesis 42:35. Lit. "the one," i.e. the others followed. This verse and Genesis 42:28 are from J, according to which the money is found in the sacks at their first lodging place; see Genesis 43:21. According to E, the money is found in their sacks, when they reach their home (see Genesis 42:35). A word for "sack,"  _"amtâhath_, a very unusual one, occurs twice in Genesis 42:27 (end), 28, and thirteen times in chs. 43, 44 (J), but not in...

REUBEN SPAKE UNTO HIS FATHER— Reuben's expressions seem to denote a suspicion of his sons in Jacob; and, however rapid and passionate they may be, they indicate, at least, something good in Reuben; a sanguine and earnest disposition to please his father; a just confidence in his own intentions, as well as in Joseph....