Genesis 44:27-34

44:27 “Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave me two sons. ¹  44:28 The first disappeared ²  and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” I have not seen him since. 44:29 If you take ³  this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair ⁴  in tragedy ⁵  to the grave.’ ⁶ 

44:30 “So now, when I return to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us – his very life is bound up in his son’s life. ⁷  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. 44:32 Indeed, ⁹  your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.’

44:33 “So now, please let your servant remain as my lord’s slave instead of the boy. As for the boy, let him go back with his brothers. 44:34 For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn’t bear to see ¹⁰  my father’s pain.” ¹¹ 

[44:27]  ¹ tn Heb “that two sons my wife bore to me.”

[44:28]  ² tn Heb “went forth from me.”

[44:29]  ³ 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.”

[44:29]  ⁴ 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.

[44:29]  ⁵ 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).

[44:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.

[44:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “his life is bound up in his life.”

[44:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “when he sees that there is no boy.”

[44:32]  ⁶ tn Or “for.”

[44:34]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text has “lest I see,” which expresses a negative purpose – “I cannot go up lest I see.”

[44:34]  ⁸ tn Heb “the calamity which would find my father.”