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 42:36

42:36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You are making me childless! Joseph is gone. ²  Simeon is gone. ³  And now you want to take ⁴  Benjamin! Everything is against me.”

Genesis 42:38

42:38 But Jacob ⁵  replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. ⁶  If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair ⁷  in sorrow to the grave.” ⁸ 

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 “is not.”

³ tn Heb “is not.”

⁴ tn The nuance of the imperfect verbal form is desiderative here.

⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ sn The expression he alone is left meant that (so far as Jacob knew) Benjamin was the only surviving child of his mother Rachel.

⁷ sn The expression bring down my gray hair is figurative, using a part for the whole – they would put Jacob in the grave. But the gray head signifies a long life of worry and trouble.

⁸ tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.