Genesis 42:36 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 42:36
And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.
father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
said
וַיֹּ֤אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
bereaved
שִׁכַּלְתֶּ֑םshi.kal.Tem
H7921
properly · verb, piel perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
Joseph
יוֹסֵ֤ףyo.Sef
H3130
Joseph · proper noun, a man's name
Simeon
וְשִׁמְע֣וֹןve.shim.'on
H8095
Shimon · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
take
תִּקָּ֔חוּti.Ka.chu
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
Benjamin
בִּנְיָמִ֣ןbin.ya.Min
H1144
Binjamin · proper noun, a man's name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 43:14 And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I a…
Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
1 Samuel 27:1 And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily esca…
Job 7:7 O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
Isaiah 27:9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of th…
Isaiah 38:10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 42:29–end
Here is, 1. The report which Jacob's sons made to their father of the great distress they had been in in Egypt; how they had been suspected, and threatened, and obliged to leave Simeon a prisoner there, till they should bring Benjamin with them thither. Who would have thought of this when they left home? When we go abroad we should consider how many sad accidents, that we little think of, may befall us before we return home. We know not what a day may bring forth; we ought therefore to be always ready for the worst. 2. The deep impression this made upon the good man. The very bundles of money which Joseph returned, in kindness to his father, frightened him (Gen 42:35); for he concluded it wa…
Me have ye bereaved--This exclamation indicates a painfully excited state of feeling, and it shows how difficult it is for even a good man to yield implicit submission to the course of Providence. The language does not imply that his missing sons had got foul play from the hands of the rest, but he looks upon Simeon as lost, as well as Joseph, and he insinuates it was by some imprudent statements of theirs that he was exposed to the risk of losing Benjamin also.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 42:36
All these things are against me - עלי היו כלנה alai hayu cullanah; literally, All these things are upon me. Not badly translated by the Vulgate, In me haec omnia mala reciderunt, "All these evils fall back upon me." They lie upon me as heavy loads, hastening my death; they are more than I can bear.
John Gill on Genesis 42:36
And Jacob their father said unto them, me have ye bereaved of my children,.... Which looks as if Jacob suspected that they had either sold or slain Joseph, and had done one or the other by Simeon:
Joseph is not, and Simeon is not: neither of them were with him, and both were given up by him as dead, or, as the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it,"of Joseph ye have said an evil beast hath devoured him; and Simeon, ye say, the king of the country hath bound him;''as for Joseph he knew not but he was dead, he feared he was; and as for Simeon, he being in the hands of so rough a man as they had represented the lord of the land to be, and especially as his release depended upon sending Benjamin, w…
The Church Fathers
Now notice a still greater wonder and see how blessed Joseph, who knew that his father suffered intolerable sorrow on his account, as if what he had endured before were not enough, now causes Benjamin to be taken from him. Surely by this act he knew that his father would suffer increased grief. I do not believe that all these things happened without the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. God, whose judgments are often hidden but never unjust and who refused to notify blessed Jacob that his son was living, likewise did not allow holy Joseph to declare his glory to his father. Rather, as was said, by keeping Simeon in bonds and taking away Benjamin, he increased the distress of his father. If we heed these facts devoutly and carefully, dearly beloved, we realize that God acted with great mercy. Since the beginning of the world he has done to his saints what he fulfilled in blessed Jacob with great kindness. However, notice carefully why this happened.Although servants and friends of God have avoided capital sins and perform many good works, still we do not believe that they have been without slight offenses, because God does not lie when he says, "Not even an infant one day old upon the earth is without sin." Moreover, blessed John the Evangelist, who surely was not inferior to holy Jacob in merits, proclaims, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Furthermore, we read elsewhere: "The just man falls seven times and rises again." Therefore, since blessed Jacob could not be without those slight sins, as was already said, God wanted to consume those small offenses in this world by the fire of tribulation. Thus was fulfilled in him what God said through the Holy Spirit: "As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in his conversation is the test of a man." Moreover, "God scourges every son whom he received," and "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." Therefore, in order that our God might present holy Jacob as purified gold at the future judgment, he first removed all the stains of sin from him, so that the other fiery witness might be able to find in him nothing to burn.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Joseph — Remover or increaser. (1.) The elder of the two sons of Jacob by Rachel (Gen. 30:23, 24), who, on the occasion of his birth, said, “God hath taken away [Heb. ‘asaph] my reproach.” “The Lord shall add…
Simeon — Hearing. (1.) The second son of Jacob by Leah (Gen. 29:33). He was associated with Levi in the terrible act of vengeance against Hamor and the Shechemites (34:25, 26). He was detained by Joseph in…
Simeon · and is — and is
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Me have ye bereaved. Jacob does not, indeed, openly accuse his sons of the crime of their brother's murder; yet he is angry as if, two of his sons being already taken away, they were hastening to destroy the third. For he says that all these evils were falling on himself alone; because he does not think that they were affected as they ought to be, nor shared his grief with him, but were carelessly making light of the destruction of their brethren, as if they had no interest in their lives. It seems, however, exceedingly barbarous that Reuben should offer his two sons to his father to be slain, if he did not bring Benjamin back. Jacob might, indeed, slay his own grandchildren: what comfort, t…
But when they emptied their sacks, and, to their own and their father's terror, found their bundles of money in their separate sacks, Jacob burst out with the complaint, "Ye are making me childless! Joseph is gone, and Simeon is gone, and will ye take Benjamin! All this falls upon me" (כּלּנה for כּלּן as in Pro 31:29).
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 42:36
Filled with grief over two sons lost already, Jacob feared that he would also lose Benjamin if he went to Egypt. • You are robbing me of my children! He did not realize the full truth of his words, but they must have stung his sons’ guilty consciences.
Rashi on Genesis 42:36
אתי שכלתם ME YE HAVE BEREAVED OF CHILDREN — The inference is that he suspected them of having slain or sold him (Simeon) as they had done to Joseph (Genesis Rabbah 91:9).
שכלתם YE HAVE BEREAVED — any-one whose children are lost to him may be called (שכול) bereaved.
