Genesis 42:31

42:31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies!

Genesis 42:11

42:11 We are all the sons of one man; we are honest men! Your servants are not spies.”

Genesis 44:9

44:9 If one of us has it, ¹  he will die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves!”

Genesis 47:19

47:19 Why should we die before your very eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we, with our land, will become ²  Pharaoh’s slaves. ³  Give us seed that we may live ⁴  and not die. Then the land will not become desolate.” ⁵ 

Genesis 13:8

13:8 Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no quarreling between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are close relatives. ⁶ 

Genesis 19:13

19:13 because we are about to destroy ⁷  it. The outcry against this place ⁸  is so great before the Lord that he ⁹  has sent us to destroy it.”

Genesis 37:7

37:7 There we were, ¹⁰  binding sheaves of grain in the middle of the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright and your sheaves surrounded my sheaf and bowed down ¹¹  to it!”

Genesis 42:13

42:13 They replied, “Your servants are from a family of twelve brothers. ¹²  We are the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father at this time, ¹³  and one is no longer alive.” ¹⁴ 

Genesis 42:32

42:32 We are from a family of twelve brothers; we are the sons of one father. ¹⁵  One is no longer alive, ¹⁶  and the youngest is with our father at this time ¹⁷  in the land of Canaan.’

Genesis 47:3

47:3 Pharaoh said to Joseph’s ¹⁸  brothers, “What is your occupation?” They said to Pharaoh, “Your servants take care of flocks, just as our ancestors did.” ¹⁹ 

Genesis 42:21

42:21 They said to one other, ²⁰  “Surely we’re being punished ²¹  because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was ²²  when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress ²³  has come on us!”

Genesis 43:8

43:8 Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me and we will go immediately. ²⁴  Then we will live ²⁵  and not die – we and you and our little ones.

Genesis 43:18

43:18 But the men were afraid when they were brought to Joseph’s house. They said, “We are being brought in because of ²⁶  the money that was returned in our sacks last time. ²⁷  He wants to capture us, ²⁸  make us slaves, and take ²⁹  our donkeys!”

Genesis 44:16

44:16 Judah replied, “What can we say ³⁰  to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? ³¹  God has exposed the sin of your servants! ³²  We are now my lord’s slaves, we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”

Genesis 46:34

46:34 Tell him, ‘Your servants have taken care of cattle ³³  from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen, ³⁴  for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting ³⁵  to the Egyptians.”

[44:9]  ¹ tn Heb “The one with whom it is found from your servants.” Here “your servants” (a deferential way of referring to the brothers themselves) has been translated by the pronoun “us” to avoid confusion with Joseph’s servants.

[47:19]  ¹ tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav here indicates consequence.

[47:19]  ² sn Pharaoh’s slaves. The idea of slavery is not attractive to the modern mind, but in the ancient world it was the primary way of dealing with the poor and destitute. If the people became slaves of Pharaoh, it was Pharaoh’s responsibility to feed them and care for them. It was the best way for them to survive the famine.

[47:19]  ³ tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav here indicates purpose or result.

[47:19]  ⁴ tn The disjunctive clause structure (vav [ו] + subject + negated verb) highlights the statement and brings their argument to a conclusion.

[13:8]  ¹ tn Heb “men, brothers [are] we.” Here “brothers” describes the closeness of the relationship, but could be misunderstood if taken literally, since Abram was Lot’s uncle.

[19:13]  ¹ tn The Hebrew participle expresses an imminent action here.

[19:13]  ² tn Heb “for their outcry.” The words “about this place” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[19:13]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord.” The repetition of the divine name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun “he” for stylistic reasons.

[37:7]  ¹ tn All three clauses in this dream report begin with וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and look”), which lends vividness to the report. This is represented in the translation by the expression “there we were.”

[37:7]  ² tn The verb means “to bow down to the ground.” It is used to describe worship and obeisance to masters.

[42:13]  ¹ tn Heb “twelve [were] your servants, brothers [are] we.”

[42:13]  ² tn Heb “today.”

[42:13]  ³ tn Heb “and the one is not.”

[42:32]  ¹ tn Heb “twelve [were] we, brothers, sons of our father [are] we.”

[42:32]  ² tn Heb “the one is not.”

[42:32]  ³ tn Heb “today.”

[47:3]  ¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[47:3]  ² tn Heb “both we and our fathers.”

[42:21]  ¹ tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.”

[42:21]  ² tn Or “we are guilty”; the Hebrew word can also refer to the effect of being guilty, i.e., “we are being punished for guilt.”

[42:21]  ³ tn Heb “the distress of his soul.”

[42:21]  ⁴ sn The repetition of the Hebrew noun translated distress draws attention to the fact that they regard their present distress as appropriate punishment for their refusal to ignore their brother when he was in distress.

[43:8]  ¹ tn Heb “and we will rise up and we will go.” The first verb is adverbial and gives the expression the sense of “we will go immediately.”

[43:8]  ² tn After the preceding cohortatives, the prefixed verbal form (either imperfect or cohortative) with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or result.

[43:18]  ¹ tn Heb “over the matter of.”

[43:18]  ² tn Heb “in the beginning,” that is, at the end of their first visit.

[43:18]  ³ tn Heb “to roll himself upon us and to cause himself to fall upon us.” The infinitives here indicate the purpose (as viewed by the brothers) for their being brought to Joseph’s house.

[43:18]  ⁴ tn The word “take” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[44:16]  ¹ tn The imperfect verbal form here indicates the subject’s potential.

[44:16]  ² tn The Hitpael form of the verb צָדֵק (tsadeq) here means “to prove ourselves just, to declare ourselves righteous, to prove our innocence.”

[44:16]  ³ sn God has exposed the sin of your servants. The first three questions are rhetorical; Judah is stating that there is nothing they can say to clear themselves. He therefore must conclude that they have been found guilty.

[46:34]  ¹ tn Heb “your servants are men of cattle.”

[46:34]  ² sn So that you may live in the land of Goshen. Joseph is apparently trying to stress to Pharaoh that his family is self-sufficient, that they will not be a drain on the economy of Egypt. But they will need land for their animals and so Goshen, located on the edge of Egypt, would be a suitable place for them to live. The settled Egyptians were uneasy with nomadic people, but if Jacob and his family settled in Goshen they would represent no threat.

[46:34]  ³ tn Heb “is an abomination.” The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “abomination”) describes something that is loathsome or off-limits. For other practices the Egyptians considered disgusting, see Gen 43:32 and Exod 8:22.