Genesis 42:7

As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them. But he pretended that he did not know them. He spoke harshly to them, saying, “Where do you come from?” One of them replied, “We have come from Canaan, to buy some grain.”

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

6At that time Joseph was the governor of Egypt. He was the one who sold grain to people who came from all over Egypt and from many other countries [HYP] to buy grain. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they were told that it was necessary for them to talk with Joseph. So they went to him and prostrated themselves before him with their faces to the ground.

8Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.

Read all of Genesis 42

Cross References

Genesis 42:9And then Joseph remembered what he had dreamed about them many years previously. But he decided not to tell them yet that he was their younger brother. He said to them, “You are spies! You have come to find out whether we will be able to defend ourselves if you attack us!”

Genesis 42:19If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison, and the rest of you can take some grain back to your families who are very hungry because of the famine.

Matthew 15:23But Jesus did not answer her at all. We disciples came to him, and knowing that the woman was not a Jew, we said to him, “Tell her to leave, because she keeps bothering us by yelling behind us!”

Matthew Henry on Genesis 42:2-7

Jacob Sends to Egypt to Buy Corn. ( b. c. 1706.) 1 Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another? 2 And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die. 3 And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. 4 But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure mischief befal him. 5 And the sons of Israel came to… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Genesis 42:7