44:33 “So now, please let your servant remain as my lord’s slave instead of the boy. As for the boy, let him go back with his brothers. 44:34 For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn’t bear to see 1 my father’s pain.” 2
1 tn The Hebrew text has “lest I see,” which expresses a negative purpose – “I cannot go up lest I see.”
2 tn Heb “the calamity which would find my father.”
3 tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express Joseph’s instructions.
4 tn Heb “and he did according to the word of Joseph which he spoke.”
5 tn Or “Goyim.” See the note on the word “nations” in 14:1.
6 tn The Hebrew text has simply “against.” The word “fought” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 tn Grk “charge it to me.”
8 tn Grk “I wrote” Here ἔγραψα (egraya) is functioning as an epistolary aorist. Paul puts it in the past tense because from Philemon’s perspective when he reads the letter it will, of course, already have been written.
9 tn The phrase “this letter” does not appear in the Greek text, but is supplied in the English translation to clarify the meaning.
10 sn With my own hand. Paul may have considered this letter so delicate that he wrote the letter himself as opposed to using an amanuensis or secretary.
11 sn The statement you owe me your very self means that Paul was responsible for some sort of blessing in the life of Philemon; though a monetary idea may be in mind, it is perhaps better to understand Paul as referring to the spiritual truth (i.e., the gospel) he had taught Philemon.