KJV King James Version
If ye [be] true [men], let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
VERSE STUDY • KJV
Genesis 42:19
If ye [be] true [men], let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
Read it in 5 translations
BSB Berean Standard Bible
If you are honest, leave one of your brothers in custody while the rest of you go and take back grain to relieve the hunger of your households.
WEB World English Bible
If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
ASV American Standard Version
if ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in your prison-house; but go ye, carry grain for the famine of your houses:
YLT Young’s Literal Translation
if ye are right men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your ward, and ye, go, carry in corn for the famine of your houses,
Surrounding context — Genesis 42
16 Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether [there be any] truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye [are] spies.
17 And he put them all together into ward three days.
18 And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; [for] I fear God:
19 If ye [be] true [men], let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
20 But bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so.
21 And they said one to another, We [are] verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
Topics connected to this verse
Original-language word links
These Hebrew/Greek tokens are linked by Strong's number. Click one for its lexicon definition and other occurrences.
אִם־H518 · imifכֵּנִ֣יםH3651 · kenrightאַתֶּ֔םH859 · at.tahyou(m.s.)אֲחִיכֶ֣םH251 · achbrother: male-siblingאֶחָ֔דH259 · e.chadoneיֵאָסֵ֖רH631 · a.sarto bindבְּבֵ֣יתH1004 · betplaceמִשְׁמַרְכֶ֑םH4929 · mish.marcustodyוְאַתֶּם֙H859 · at.tahyou(m.s.)לְכ֣וּH1980 · ha.lakhto go: wentהָבִ֔יאוּH935 · boto come (in): comeשֶׁ֖בֶרH7668 · she.vergrainרַעֲב֥וֹןH7459 · re.a.vonfamineבָּתֵּיכֶֽם׃H1004 · betplace
Cross-references
Jeremiah 37:15Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.Genesis 45:23And to his father he sent after this [manner]; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.Genesis 41:56And the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.Isaiah 42:7To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, [and] them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.Genesis 40:3And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph [was] bound.Isaiah 42:22But this [is] a people robbed and spoiled; [they are] all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.Genesis 42:1-2Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?Genesis 42:26And they laded their asses with the corn, and departed thence.Genesis 43:1-2And the famine [was] sore in the land.
HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION
Compare classic commentaries on Genesis 42:19
Put Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, Calvin, Wesley, Barnes, Jamieson–Fausset–Brown, Aquinas’ Catena and other public-domain sources beside the passage.
Compare commentaries →