Genesis 43:20
18 But the brothers were frightened that they had been taken to Joseph’s house. “We have been brought here because of the silver that was returned in our bags the first time,” they said. “They intend to overpower us and take us as slaves, along with our donkeys.”
19 So they approached Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house.
“Please, sir,” they said, “we really did come down here the first time to buy food.
21 But when we came to the place we lodged for the night, we opened our sacks and, behold, each of us found his silver in the mouth of his sack! It was the full amount of our silver, and we have brought it back with us.
22 We have brought additional silver with us to buy food. We do not know who put our silver in our sacks.”
Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- “Please, sir,” they said, “we really did come down here the first time to buy food.
- KJV
- And said, O sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food:
- WEB
- and said, “Oh, my lord, we indeed came down the first time to buy food.
- ASV
- and said, Oh, my lord, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food:
- DARBY
- and said, Ah! my lord, we came indeed down at the first to buy food.
- BLB
- and they said, “Please, my lord, we surely came down the first time to buy food.
- ÅB
- men da vi kom til herberget og åpnet våre sekker, se, da lå enhvers penger øverst i hans sekk, våre penger med sin fulle vekt, og nå har vi dem med oss igjen,
- OTB
- De sa: «Unnskyld oss, min herre, vi kom virkelig ned hit første gang for å kjøpe mat.
- B1930
- men da vi kom til herberget og åpnet våre sekker, se, da lå enhvers penger øverst i hans sekk, våre penger med sin fulle vekt, og nu har vi dem med oss igjen,
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Genesis 42:3
So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
Read in contextGenesis 42:10
“Not so, my lord,” they replied. “Your servants have come to buy food.
Read in contextGenesis 43:3
But Judah replied, “The man solemnly warned us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’
Read in contextGenesis 42:35
As they began emptying their sacks, there in each man’s sack was his bag of silver! And when they and their father saw the bags of silver, they were dismayed.
Read in contextGenesis 43:7
They replied, “The man questioned us in detail about ourselves and our family: ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How could we possibly know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?”
Read in contextGenesis 42:27
At the place where they lodged for the night, one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his silver in the mouth of the sack.
Read in context