CHAPTER 42

(1707 B.C.)

JOSEPHS BRETHREN

¹Now when Jacob saw that there was corn (grain) in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do you look one upon another? (In other words, go down into Egypt and buy grain!)

²And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn (grain) in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die (evidently, the famine was severe in Canaan).

³And Josephs ten brethren went down to buy corn (grain) in Egypt (a group of this nature was much safer than one or two making the trip).

⁴But Benjamin, Josephs brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure mischief befall him (not only did Jacob love this boy, and because he was the son of Rachel, but, as well, he no doubt felt, Joseph now being lost, that the Lord would place the mantel on Benjamin).

⁵And the sons of Israel came to buy corn (grain) among those who came (many others from Canaan and other parts of the Middle East were in Egypt, as well, in order to buy grain): for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

⁶And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was who sold to all the people of the land: and Josephs brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth (Josephs dream concerning the sheaves bowing down to him [37:7] is now fulfilled).

⁷And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spoke roughly unto them; and he said unto them, From where do you come? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food. (Had Joseph thought of his own dignity and of his own affection, he would have revealed himself at once to his brothers. Such a revelation, however, would have produced only confusion, but not repentance. He loved them and, therefore, sought their spiritual welfare; consequently, he acted so as to bring their sin to remembrance, to make them confess it with their own lips, and not just to him and in his presence, for he still concealed himself from them, but to God and in His Presence Williams.)

⁸And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.

⁹and Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, You are spies; to see the nakedness of the land you are come (this accusation was morally true; for the men who were guilty of the treachery, cruelty, and stupidity of 34:25-29 would have acted similarly in Egypt, if they had had the power; however, as events will prove, they were not the same men they had been those many years before).

¹⁰And they said unto him, No, my lord, but to buy food are your servants come.

¹¹We are all one mans sons; we are true men, your servants are no spies.

¹²And he said unto them, No, but to see the nakedness of the land you are come.

¹³And they said, Your servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not.

¹⁴And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spoke unto you, saying, You are spies:

¹⁵Hereby you shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh you shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither. (Reasoning that Jacob had probably transferred the birthright to Benjamin, he wanted to know the attitude of these men toward Benjamin. So he proves them.)

THE BROTHERS

¹⁶Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and you shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.

¹⁷And he put them all together into ward three days. (Likewise, Israel will be under tremendous pressure by the Antichrist for a little over three years.)

¹⁸And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God (what must these men have thought when Joseph mentions Elohim, the God of the Hebrews? All of this had to be extremely strange to them, because they knew that Elohim was little known, if at all, outside of their respective family):

¹⁹If you be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go you, carry corn (grain) for the famine of your houses (Joseph now softens his demands, in that he at first stated that nine of the brothers would remain in Egypt, while one was sent to fetch Benjamin; but now he limits that to just one remaining in Egypt, while the nine go back home):

²⁰But bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and you shall not die. And they did so (when they return, Benjamin must come with them).

²¹And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us (as Israel in a coming sad day, of which they are a type, the brothers of Joseph are called to pass through deep and searching trial, through intensely painful exercises of conscience).

²²And Reuben answered them, saying, Did I not speak unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and you would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required (after all of these years, their consciences still bother them, and rightly so! Sin can only be forgotten when it is properly forgiven by the Lord. And it cannot be properly forgiven until one properly confesses such to the Lord).

²³And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spoke unto them by an interpreter (but he did understand them).

SIMEON

²⁴And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes (why Simeon was chosen, we arent told; he could have been the ringleader in the terrible sin that had been committed against Joseph those long years earlier).

²⁵Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn (grain), and to restore every mans money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus did he unto them (this coincides with the sustenance that the Lord will give Israel during the Great Tribulation [Rev. 12:6]).

²⁶And they loaded their asses with the corn (grain), and departed thence.

²⁷And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied (found) his money; for, behold, it was in his sacks mouth (easily found).

²⁸And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God has done unto us? (Actually, they were right! It was God Who was guiding these events, giving Joseph instructions all along the way as to how he could handle the situation; however, because of their sin, a sin committed about 20 years before, they were thinking of God in a very negative way. It is no different presently.)

JACOB

²⁹And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them; saying,

³⁰The man, who is the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country.

³¹And we said unto him, We are true men; we are no spies:

³²We be twelve brethren, sons of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.

³³And the man, the lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that you are true men; leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone:

³⁴And bring your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that you are no spies, but that you are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and you shall traffick in the land.

³⁵And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every mans bundle of money was in his sack: and when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. (From the terminology used by these men at this present time, it is obvious that a change has taken place in their lives; however, it is a change that is not quite yet complete.)

SORROW

³⁶And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have you bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and you will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me. (Jacob thinks that Joseph is dead; and likewise, Israel thinks that Jesus is dead, denying that He rose from the dead.)

³⁷And Reuben spoke unto his father, saying, Kill my two sons, if I bring him (Benjamin) not to you: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to you again.

³⁸And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which you go, then shall you bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. (This Verse speaks of Jacobs great sorrow. The Great Tribulation Period is called the time of Jacobs trouble. But then it says, but he shall be saved out of it [Jer. 30:7]. Likewise, Jacob will be saved out of this sorrow.)