Genesis Chapter 42

Famine drives ten brothers to Egypt, where they bow before Joseph unrecognized; he tests them, their consciences awaken, Simeon is held, and Jacob refuses Benjamin.

Genesis 42:1-5

Jacob Sends Ten Sons to Egypt

Genesis 42:6-17

The First Audience: Bowing and Accusation

Genesis 42:18-24

Conscience Awakened

Genesis 42:25-28

Silver in the Sacks

Genesis 42:29-38

Jacob Refuses to Send Benjamin

Genesis 42:1

The scene shifts from Pharaoh’s court back to Canaan, where the famine Joseph foretold has reached Jacob’s tents. “Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt” uses the ordinary verb for seeing, though Jacob has not travelled south; he “saw” in the sense of learning from reports and perhaps from caravans returning with grain. News of Egypt’s stores had spread through the region, for “all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn” (41:57).

Jacob’s question to his sons, “Why do ye look one upon another?”, catches a family frozen in helplessness. The ten sons stand staring at each other while their households go hungry. The men who once acted with such cunning against Joseph (37:18-20) and against Shechem (34:25-29) now seem paralysed. Some have suggested that the very name of Egypt touched a nerve, since it was to Egypt that they had sold their brother. The narrator does not say so, but the hesitation sits uneasily beside what follows.

The old patriarch is the one who acts. Though his grief over Joseph had never healed, he still bears responsibility for the clan and takes the initiative. Behind his decision lies a larger hand. The famine is the instrument by which God will bring the whole family to Joseph, fulfilling the dreams and preserving the line of promise (45:5-7). The psalmist puts it plainly: God “called for a famine upon the land” after he had “sent a man before them, even Joseph” (Psalm 105:16-17).

Study Links

Cross References

Genesis 41:57Genesis 12:10Genesis 45:5-7

Word / Phrase Notes

שֶׁבֶר (shever) — corn

The noun denotes grain offered for sale, and the related verb in verses 2-3 means “to buy grain.” It is a different word from the general term for food used in verse 7. The vocabulary is commercial: Egypt had become the region’s granary, and Jacob’s sons go as buyers, carrying silver (v. 25). The same word describes the grain Joseph sold to all lands (41:56-57), and Amos later pictures greedy merchants eager to sell it at inflated prices (Amos 8:5).

Genesis 41:56

תִּתְרָאוּ (titra’u) — look one upon another

A reflexive form of the verb “to see,” meaning to stare at one another. Here it portrays men who are idle and perplexed, each waiting for another to move. Elsewhere the same form describes kings who “look one another in the face” as they prepare to meet in battle (2 Kings 14:8), but in this setting the sense is passive bewilderment rather than challenge.