Genesis 37:35

37:35 All his sons and daughters stood by ¹  him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go to the grave mourning my son.” ²  So Joseph’s ³  father wept for him.

Genesis 44:29

44:29 If you take ⁴  this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair ⁵  in tragedy ⁶  to the grave.’ ⁷ 

Genesis 44:31

44:31 When he sees the boy is not with us, ⁸  he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father in sorrow to the grave.

Genesis 42:38

42:38 But Jacob ⁹  replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. ¹⁰  If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair ¹¹  in sorrow to the grave.” ¹² 

¹ tn Heb “arose, stood”; which here suggests that they stood by him in his time of grief.

² 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.

³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn The construction uses a perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive to introduce the conditional clause and then another perfect verbal form with a vav consecutive to complete the sentence: “if you take…then you will bring down.”

⁵ 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. See Gen 42:38.

⁶ tn Heb “evil/calamity.” The term is different than the one used in the otherwise identical statement recorded in v. 31 (see also 42:38).

⁷ tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.

⁷ tn Heb “when he sees that there is no boy.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ sn The expression he alone is left meant that (so far as Jacob knew) Benjamin was the only surviving child of his mother Rachel.

¹² 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.

¹³ tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.