1 Now Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, said to his sons, Why are you looking at one another?
But Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, sent out our fathers the first time.
Then came the first of the seven years of need as Joseph had said: and in every other land they were short of food; but in the land of Egypt there was bread.
And he said, I have had news that there is grain in Egypt: go down there and get grain for us, so that life and not death may be ours.
Then the responsible men of the children of Israel saw that they were purposing evil when they said, The number of bricks which you have to make every day will be no less than before.
Then the Lord said to Joshua, Get up; what are you doing with your face to the earth?
And he got up, fearing for his life, and went in flight, and came to Beer-sheba in Judah, parting there from his servant;
And when the seven years were ended, the woman came back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king with a request for her house and her land. Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Now, give me an account of all the great things Elisha has done.
Up, now! for this is your business, and we are with you; take heart and do it.
Why are we seated doing nothing? come together, and let us go to the walled towns, and let destruction overtake us there, for the Lord our God has sent destruction on us, and given us bitter water for our drink, because we have done evil against the Lord.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 42
Commentary on Genesis 42 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 42
We had, in the foregoing chapter, the fulfilling of the dreams which Joseph had interpreted: in this and the following chapters we have the fulfilling of the dreams which Joseph himself had dreamed, that his father's family should do homage to him. The story is very largely and particularly related of what passed between Joseph and his brethren, not only because it is an entertaining story, and probably was much talked of, both among the Israelites and among the Egyptians, but because it is very instructive, and it gave occasion for the removal of Jacob's family into Egypt, on which so many great events afterwards depended. We have, in this chapter,
Gen 42:1-6
Though Jacob's sons were all married, and had families of their own, yet, it should seem, they were still incorporated in one society, under the conduct and presidency of their father Jacob. We have here,
Gen 42:7-20
We may well wonder that Joseph, during the twenty years that he had now been in Egypt, especially during the last seven years that he had been in power there, never sent to his father to acquaint him with his circumstances; nay, it is strange that he who so often went throughout all the land of Egypt (ch. 41:45, 46) never made an excursion to Canaan, to visit his aged father, when he was in the borders of Egypt, that lay next to Canaan. Perhaps it would not have been above three or four days' journey for him in his chariot. It is a probable conjecture that his whole management of himself in this affair was by special direction from Heaven, that the purpose of God concerning Jacob and his family might be accomplished. When Joseph's brethren came, he knew them by many a satisfactory token, but they knew not him, little thinking to find him there, v. 8. He remembered the dreams (v. 9), but they had forgotten them. The laying up of God's oracles in our hearts will be of excellent use to us in all our conduct. Joseph had an eye to his dreams, which he knew to be divine, in his carriage towards his brethren, and aimed at the accomplishment of them and the bringing of his brethren to repentance for their former sins; and both these points were gained.
Gen 42:21-28
Here is,
Gen 42:29-38
Here is,