Genesis 42:38

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Genesis 42:36–38 · Berean Standard Bible

36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my sons. Joseph is gone and Simeon is no more. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is going against me!”

37 Then Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I fail to bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him.”

38 But Jacob replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If any harm comes to him on your journey, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Genesis 42:13

But they answered, “Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.”

Genesis 30:22

Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,

Genesis 30:23

and she conceived and gave birth to a son. “God has taken away my shame,” she said.

Genesis 30:24

She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”

Genesis 35:16

Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.

Genesis 35:17

During her severe labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you are having another son.”

Genesis 35:18

And with her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni. But his father called him Benjamin.

Genesis 37:33

His father recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!”

Genesis 37:35

All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him.

Genesis 44:20

And we answered, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’

Genesis 44:27

And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.

Genesis 44:28

When one of them was gone, I said: “Surely he has been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since.

Genesis 44:29

Now if you also take this one from me and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’

Genesis 44:30

So if the boy is not with us when I return to your servant, and if my father, whose life is wrapped up in the boy’s life,

Genesis 44:31

sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

Genesis 44:32

Indeed, your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will bear the guilt before you, my father, all my life.’

Genesis 44:33

Now please let your servant stay here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy. Let him return with his brothers.

Genesis 44:34

For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm him.”

Genesis 42:4

But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, “I am afraid that harm might befall him.”

1 Kings 2:6

So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.

Psalms 71:18

Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.

Psalms 90:10

The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty if we are strong— yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:26

To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Isaiah 38:10

I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”

Isaiah 46:4

Even to your old age, I will be the same, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you.