Genesis 42:7

42:7 When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger ¹  to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, “Where do you come from?” They answered, ²  “From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food.” ³ 

Deuteronomy 8:2

8:2 Remember the whole way by which he ⁴  has brought you these forty years through the desert ⁵  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

Psalms 28:1

Psalm 28 ⁶ 

By David.

28:1 To you, O Lord, I cry out!

My protector, ⁷  do not ignore me! ⁸ 

If you do not respond to me, ⁹ 

I will join ¹⁰  those who are descending into the grave. ¹¹ 

Lamentations 3:8

3:8 Also, when I cry out desperately ¹²  for help, ¹³ 

he has shut out my prayer. ¹⁴ 

¹ sn But pretended to be a stranger. Joseph intends to test his brothers to see if they have changed and have the integrity to be patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. He will do this by putting them in the same situations that they and he were in before. The first test will be to awaken their conscience.

² tn Heb “said.”

³ tn The verb is denominative, meaning “to buy grain”; the word “food” could simply be the direct object, but may also be an adverbial accusative.

⁴ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁵ tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.

⁶ sn Psalm 28. The author looks to the Lord for vindication, asks that the wicked be repaid in full for their evil deeds, and affirms his confidence that the Lord will protect his own.

⁷ tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The Lord is compared to a rocky summit where one can find protection from enemies. See Ps 18:2.

⁸ tn Heb “do not be deaf from me.”

⁹ tn Heb “lest [if] you are silent from me.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “I will be equal with.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit, cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.

¹² tn Heb “I call and I cry out.” The verbs אֶזְעַק וַאֲשַׁוֵּעַ (’ez’aq va’asha’vvea’, “I call and I cry out”) form a verbal hendiadys: the second retains its full verbal sense, while the first functions adverbially: “I cry out desperately.”

¹³ tn The verb שׁוע (“to cry out”) usually refers to calling out to God for help or deliverance from a lamentable plight (e.g., Job 30:20; 36:13; 38:41; Pss 5:3; 18:7, 42; 22:25; 28:2; 30:3; 31:23; 88:14; 119:147; Isa 58:9; Lam 3:8; Jon 2:3; Hab 1:2).

¹⁴ tn The verb שָׂתַם (satam) is a hapax legomenon (term that appears in the Hebrew scriptures only once) that means “to stop up” or “shut out.” It functions as an idiom here, meaning “he has shut his ears to my prayer” (BDB 979 s.v.).