Font Size
Genesis 42:22-24
New English Translation
Genesis 42:22-24
New English Translation
22 Reuben said to them, “Didn’t I say to you, ‘Don’t sin against the boy,’ but you wouldn’t listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!”[a] 23 (Now[b] they did not know that Joseph could understand them,[c] for he was speaking through an interpreter.)[d] 24 He turned away from them and wept. When he turned around and spoke to them again,[e] he had Simeon taken[f] from them and tied up[g] before their eyes.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Genesis 42:22 tn Heb “and also his blood, look, it is required.” God requires compensation, as it were, from those who shed innocent blood (see Gen 9:6). In other words, God exacts punishment for the crime of murder.
- Genesis 42:23 tn The disjunctive clause provides supplemental information that is important to the story.
- Genesis 42:23 tn “was listening.” The brothers were not aware that Joseph could understand them as they spoke the preceding words in their native language.
- Genesis 42:23 tn Heb “for [there was] an interpreter between them.” On the meaning of the word here translated “interpreter” see HALOT 590 s.v. מֵלִיץ and M. A. Canney, “The Hebrew melis (Prov IX 12; Gen XLII 2-3),” AJSL 40 (1923/24): 135-37.
- Genesis 42:24 tn Heb “and he turned to them and spoke to them.”
- Genesis 42:24 tn Heb “took Simeon.” This was probably done at Joseph’s command, however; the grand vizier of Egypt would not have personally seized a prisoner.
- Genesis 42:24 tn Heb “and he bound him.” See the note on the preceding verb “taken.”
New English Translation (NET)
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.