Genesis 44:34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father."

◄ Genesis 44:34 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father."

English Standard Version
For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

New American Standard Bible
"For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me-- for fear that I see the evil that would overtake my father?"

King James Bible
For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the grief that would overwhelm my father."

International Standard Version
After all, how can I go back to my father if the young man doesn't accompany me? I'm afraid of what might happen to my father."

American Standard Version
For how shall I go up to my father, if the lad be not with me? lest I see the evil that shall come on my father.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For I cannot return to my father without the boy, lest I be a witness of the calamity that will oppress my father.

Darby Bible Translation
for how should I go up to my father if the lad were not with me? lest I see the evil that would come on my father.

Young's Literal Translation
for how do I go up unto my father, and the youth not with me? lest I look on the evil which doth find my father.'

Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

44:18-34 Had Joseph been, as Judah supposed him, an utter stranger to the family, he could not but be wrought upon by his powerful reasonings. But neither Jacob nor Benjamin need an intercessor with Joseph; for he himself loved them. Judah's faithful cleaving to Benjamin, now, in his distress, was recompensed long afterwards by the tribe of Benjamin keeping with the tribe of Judah, when the other tribes deserted it. The apostle, when discoursing of the mediation of Christ, observes, that our Lord sprang out of Judah, Heb 7:14; and he not only made intercession for the transgressors, but he became a Surety for them, testifying therein tender concern, both for his Father and for his brethren. Jesus, the great antitype of Joseph, humbles and proves his people, even after they have had some tastes of his loving-kindness. He brings their sins to their remembrance, that they may exercise and show repentance, and feel how much they owe to his mercy.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

16-34. Judah said, What shall we say?—This address needs no comment—consisting at first of short, broken sentences, as if, under the overwhelming force of the speaker's emotions, his utterance were choked, it becomes more free and copious by the effort of speaking, as he proceeds. Every word finds its way to the heart; and it may well be imagined that Benjamin, who stood there speechless like a victim about to be laid on the altar, when he heard the magnanimous offer of Judah to submit to slavery for his ransom, would be bound by a lifelong gratitude to his generous brother, a tie that seems to have become hereditary in his tribe. Joseph's behavior must not be viewed from any single point, or in separate parts, but as a whole—a well-thought, deep-laid, closely connected plan; and though some features of it do certainly exhibit an appearance of harshness, yet the pervading principle of his conduct was real, genuine, brotherly kindness. Read in this light, the narrative of the proceedings describes the continuous, though secret, pursuit of one end; and Joseph exhibits, in his management of the scheme, a very high order of intellect, a warm and susceptible heart, united to a judgment that exerted a complete control over his feelings—a happy invention in devising means towards the attainment of his ends and an inflexible adherence to the course, however painful, which prudence required.