Genesis 42:6

42:6 Now Joseph was the ruler of the country, the one who sold grain to all the people of the country. ¹  Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down ²  before him with ³  their faces to the ground.

Genesis 42:23

42:23 (Now ⁴  they did not know that Joseph could understand them, ⁵  for he was speaking through an interpreter.) ⁶ 

Genesis 42:27

42:27 When one of them ⁷  opened his sack to get feed for his donkey at their resting place, ⁸  he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. ⁹ 

[42:6]  ¹ tn The disjunctive clause either introduces a new episode in the unfolding drama or provides the reader with supplemental information necessary to understanding the story.

[42:6]  ² sn Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him. Here is the beginning of the fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams (see Gen 37). But it is not the complete fulfillment, since all his brothers and his parents must come. The point of the dream, of course, was not simply to get the family to bow to Joseph, but that Joseph would be placed in a position of rule and authority to save the family and the world (41:57).

[42:6]  ³ tn The word “faces” is an adverbial accusative, so the preposition has been supplied in the translation.

[42:23]  ⁴ tn The disjunctive clause provides supplemental information that is important to the story.

[42:23]  ⁵ tn “was listening.” The brothers were not aware that Joseph could understand them as they spoke the preceding words in their native language.

[42:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “for [there was] an interpreter between them.” On the meaning of the word here translated “interpreter” see HALOT 590 s.v. מֵלִיץ and M. A. Canney, “The Hebrew melis (Prov IX 12; Gen XLII 2-3),” AJSL 40 (1923/24): 135-37.

[42:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the one.” The article indicates that the individual is vivid in the mind of the narrator, yet it is not important to identify him by name.

[42:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “at the lodging place.”

[42:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “and look, it [was] in the mouth of his sack.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the reader to look through the eyes of the character and thereby draws attention to the money.