Genesis 37:33

37:33 He recognized it and exclaimed, “It is my son’s tunic! A wild animal has eaten him! ¹  Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!”

Genesis 37:35

37:35 All his sons and daughters stood by ²  him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go to the grave mourning my son.” ³  So Joseph’s ⁴  father wept for him.

Genesis 42:36

42:36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You are making me childless! Joseph is gone. ⁵  Simeon is gone. ⁶  And now you want to take ⁷  Benjamin! Everything is against me.”

Genesis 45:26

45:26 They told him, “Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, ⁸  for he did not believe them.

¹ sn A wild animal has eaten him. Jacob draws this conclusion on his own without his sons actually having to lie with their words (see v. 20). Dipping the tunic in the goat’s blood was the only deception needed.

² tn Heb “arose, stood”; which here suggests that they stood by him in his time of grief.

³ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Indeed I will go down to my son mourning to Sheol.’” Sheol was viewed as the place where departed spirits went after death.

⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “is not.”

⁶ tn Heb “is not.”

⁷ tn The nuance of the imperfect verbal form is desiderative here.

⁸ tn Heb “and his heart was numb.” Jacob was stunned by the unbelievable news and was unable to respond.