Genesis 42:19

Then Joseph said to them, “You told me that you are good men, and you don’t tell lies. So listen, this is what you have to do. Pick one man from your mob, and I will keep that man here in jail. The rest of you mob, you can go back to your home country. You can take food with you, and you can give that food to your families, because they are really hungry.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:

In Context

18At the end of those 3 days, Joseph talked to his brothers again. He said to them, “You know, I respect God and I want to do the right thing. So if you do what I say, I will not kill you.”

20Then get your youngest brother, and bring him here to me. Then I will know that you told me the true story, and I will not kill you.” So Joseph’s brothers agreed to do what he said. But they still didn’t know that he was their brother Joseph. They still thought he was an Egypt man.

Read all of Genesis 42

Cross References

Genesis 42:26Then Joseph’s brothers put their food bags on their donkeys, and they left that place and started to go back towards Canaan country.

Genesis 45:23Joseph wanted to send some presents to his father too. So he got 10 male donkeys, and he got some really good things from Egypt country, and he put those good things into bags, and he put those bags on the donkeys to send them to his father. Joseph also got 10 female donkeys to send to his father, and he got wheat seeds, and bread, and lots of other food, and he put all that food into bags, and he put those bags on those 10 female donkeys. Joseph wanted to send that food to his father, so that his father could eat it on the way back to Egypt.

Matthew Henry on Genesis 42:8-21

Joseph Speaks Roughly to His Brethren. ( b. c. 1706.) 7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food. 8 And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. 10 And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Genesis 42:19