Genesis 43:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 43:11
And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds:
father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֣לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a man's name
said
וַיֹּ֨אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
now
אֵפוֹא֮'e.fO'
H645
strictly a demonstrative particle · interjection
do
עֲשׂוּ֒'a.Su
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
take
קְח֞וּke.Chu
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
fruits
מִזִּמְרַ֤תmi.zim.Rat
H2173
pruned (i.e. choice) fruit · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
land
הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
vessels
בִּכְלֵיכֶ֔םbikh.lei.Khem
H3627
something prepared · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
down
וְהוֹרִ֥ידוּve.ho.Ri.du
H3381
to descend (literally · conjunction + verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
man
לָאִ֖ישׁla.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
present
מִנְחָ֑הmin.Chah
H4503
a donation · noun, common feminine singular absolute
little
מְעַ֤טme.'At
H4592
a little or few (often adverbial or compar.) · noun, common masculine singular construct
balm
צֳרִי֙tzo.Ri
H6875
distillation · noun, common masculine singular absolute
little
וּמְעַ֣טu.me.'At
H4592
a little or few (often adverbial or compar.) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
honey
דְּבַ֔שׁde.Vash
H1706
honey (from its stickiness) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
spices
נְכֹ֣אתne.Khot
H5219
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
myrrh
וָלֹ֔טva.Lot
H3910
a gum (from its sticky nature) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
nuts
בָּטְנִ֖יםba.te.Nim
H992
(only in plural) a pistachio-nut (from its form) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
almonds
וּשְׁקֵדִֽיםu.she.ke.Dim
H8247
the almond (tree or nut · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
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 37:25 And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their…
Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
1 Samuel 9:7 Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a…
Proverbs 18:16 A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.
Ezekiel 27:17 Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm…
Genesis 32:13-21 And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;
Genesis 33:10 And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy…
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…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 43:11-14
Observe here, I. Jacob's persuasibleness. He would be ruled by reason, though they were his inferiors that urged it. He saw the necessity of the case; and, since there was no remedy, he consented to yield to the necessity (Gen 43:11): "If it must be so now, take your brother. If no corn can be had but upon those terms, we may as well expose him to the perils of the journey as suffer ourselves and families, and Benjamin amongst the rest, to perish for want of bread." Skin for skin, and all that a man has, even a Benjamin, the dearest of all, will he give for his life. No death so dreadful as that by famine, Lam 4:9. Jacob had said (Gen 42:38), My son shall not go down; but now he is over-pers…
take of the best fruits . . . a present--It is an Oriental practice never to approach a man of power without a present, and Jacob might remember how he pacified his brother (Pro 21:14) --balm, spices, and myrrh (see on Gen 37:25),
honey--which some think was dibs, a syrup made from ripe dates [BOCHART]; but others, the honey of Hebron, which is still valued as far superior to that of Egypt;
nuts--pistachio nuts, of which Syria grows the best in the world;
almonds--which were most abundant in Palestine.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 43:11
Carry down the man a present - From the very earliest times presents were used as means of introduction to great men. This is particularly noticed by Solomon: A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men, Pro 18:16. But what was the present brought to Joseph on this occasion? After all the labor of commentators, we are obliged to be contented with probabilities and conjecture. According to our translation, the gifts were balm, honey, spices, myrrh, nuts, and almonds.
Balm - צרי tsori is supposed to signify resin in general, or some kind of gum issuing from trees.
Honey - דבש debash has been supposed to be the same as the rob of grapes, called in Egypt dibs. Others thin…
(Chapter 43, Verse 11) And bring gifts to the man, some resin, and honey, incense, and resin, and turpentine, and nuts. Or, as Aquila and Symmachus translated, almonds. Therefore, we have included this chapter to know where in our codices the term 'incense' is found, in Hebrew it is 'Necotha' (), which Aquila translated as storax. From which the house of 'nechota,' which is read in Isaiah (39:21), is understood to be the most obvious cell for incense, or storax, as different fragrances are stored in it.
Nevertheless Benjamin, the youngest, was kept back and still stayed close to his loving father. The bonds of the law held him back, and ancestral custom. The famine was increasing because he was coming late. Two brothers, Reuben and Judah—that is, humility and confession—make intercession on his behalf. He has them as guarantees with his father; to them Benjamin is entrusted. One of them is the firstborn, the other restored to life. The firstborn represents the law; the one restored to life, the gospel. The young Benjamin is led down by them and arrives, accompanied by good fragrances and carrying with him the cement with which stones of marble are fastened together; thus by his own preaching as by a spiritual cement he might fasten together living stones. He also carries honey, which destroys the harmful effects of an internal wound, without the bitter pain of any cutting. Such indeed was the preaching of Paul that it destroyed the festering infection and drained off the tainted fluid with the sting of its argument, for it sought rather to cauterize the sick vitals of the heart than to cut them. That the incense is a sign of prayer and the cassia and aloes are signs of burial, David the psalmist taught us when he said, "myrrh and aloes and cassia from your garments." For Paul came to preach the cross of the Lord, an oak that is always verdant. And almonds appear, which are rather hard in the shell but more tender in the meat—it was right that Aaron's priestly rod was of the almond tree, and Jeremiah's staff as well5—double money too. Who would doubt that these gifts were useful? For the life of the patriarch and the preaching of the apostle are always verdant in the heart of each person, and the speech of the saints shines brightly with the splendor of the precept of salvation, like silver tried by the fire. And it is with reason that they carry double money, for in them there is prefigured the coming of Paul, who presented presbyters who labor in the word and in the teaching with a double honor.
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
Almond — A native of Syria and Palestine. In form, blossoms, and fruit it resembles the peach tree. Its blossoms are of a very pale pink colour, and appear before its leaves. Its Hebrew name, shaked,…
Almond Tree; Almond — This word is found in (Genesis 43:11; Exodus 25:33,34; 37:19,20; Numbers 17:8; Ecclesiastes 12:5; Jeremiah 1:11) in the text of the Authorized Version. It is invariably represented by the same Hebrew…
Balm — Contracted from Bal’sam, a general name for many oily or resinous substances which flow or trickle from certain trees or plants when an incision is made through the bark. (1.) This word occurs in the…
Food — Originally the Creator granted the use of the vegetable world for food to man (Gen. 1:29), with the exception mentioned (2:17). The use of animal food was probably not unknown to the antediluvians.…
Honey — (1.) Heb. ya’ar, occurs only 1 Sam. 14:25, 27, 29; Cant. 5:1, where it denotes the honey of bees. Properly the word signifies a forest or copse, and refers to honey found in woods. (2.) Nopheth,…
Myrrh — Heb. mor. (1.) First mentioned as a principal ingredient in the holy anointing oil (Ex. 30:23). It formed part of the gifts brought by the wise men from the east, who came to worship the infant Jesus…
Nuts — Were among the presents Jacob sent into Egypt for the purpose of conciliating Joseph (Gen. 43:11). This was the fruit of the pistachio tree, which resembles the sumac. It is of the size of an olive.…
Pannag — (Ezek. 27:17; marg. R.V., “perhaps a kind of confection”) the Jews explain as the name of a kind of sweet pastry. Others take it as the name of some place, identifying it with Pingi, on the road…
Wine — The common Hebrew word for wine is yayin, from a root meaning “to boil up,” “to be in a ferment.” Others derive it from a root meaning “to tread out,” and hence the juice of the grape trodden out.…
Almond · Fruit of — Fruit of
John Gill on Genesis 43:11
And their father said unto them,.... Being in some measure convinced by their reasonings, and in part at least reconciled to let Benjamin go with them, there being nothing to be done, he perceived, unless he consented to it:
if it must be so now, do this; if nothing else will do but Benjamin must go, which after all he was reluctant to, then he advises them to do as follows:
take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels; such as were the peculiar produce of the land of Canaan, and the best of it; for which it was most famous, and praised, as the word used signifies; these Jacob advises to take and put into their sacks they carried to bring back their corn in:
and carry down the man…
Take of the best fruits [167] Though the fruits which Moses enumerates were, for the most part, not very precious, because the condition of holy Jacob was not such that he could send any royal present; yet, according to his slender ability, he wished to appease Joseph. Besides we know that fruits are not always estimated according to their cost. And now, having commanded his sons to do what he thought necessary, he has recourse to prayer, that God would give them favor with the governor of Egypt. We must attend to both these points whenever we are perplexed in any business; for we must not omit any of those things which are expedient, or which may seem to be of use; and yet we must place our…
And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds: After this, the old man gave way to what could not be avoided, and let Benjamin go. But that nothing might be wanting on his part, which could contribute to the success of the journey, he suggested that they should take a present for the man, and that they should also take the money which was brought back in their sacks, in addition to what was necessary for the corn they were to purchase; and he then commended them to the mercy of Almighty God. "If it must be so,…
Jacob provided everything he could to ensure a favorable reception from the Egyptian governor (the man; cp. 32:13-21).
Rashi on Genesis 43:11
אפוא NOW — This is really a redundant word used in Hebrew for stylistic purposes. If it be so that I am compelled to do this — that I must send him with you — I must endeavour to seek where (אי) there is here (פה) some measure and plan to propose to you and therefore, I say: “Do this”.
מזמרת הארץ OF THE CHOICE PRODUCTS OF THE LAND — This is rendered in the Targum by “Take of that which is praised in the land” — that about which people sing its praise (מזמרים) when it comes into existence (Genesis Rabbah 91:11).
נכאת is WAX (Genesis Rabbah 91:11; cf. 37:25).
בטנים PISTACHIO-NUTS — I do not know what these are. but in the definitions given in the Dictionary of R. Machir I have read that the…
Fruits · Often sent as presents — Often sent as presents
Honey · Sent as a present by Jacob to Egypt — Sent as a present by Jacob to Egypt
Myrrh · Traffic in — Traffic in
Nut · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Presents · Things given as: Food — Things given as: Food
Spices · Sent as a present by Jacob to Joseph — Sent as a present by Jacob to Joseph
Trees · Mentioned in scripture: Almond — Mentioned in scripture: Almond
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).
