Berean BlueOpen the app

Scripture · Old Testament

Genesis 42:4

Genesis 42:4 is verse 4 of Genesis chapter 42, shown here in the Berean Standard Bible.

Berean Standard Bible

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

BSB source and public domain terms

King James Version

But Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure mischief befall him.

World English Bible

But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.”

Read in context

Genesis 42:2–6 · Berean Standard Bible

2 “Look,” he added, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.”

3 So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

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

5 So the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, since the famine had also spread to the land of Canaan.

6 Now Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

Read all of Genesis 42

Hebrew words

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

Study Genesis 42:4

Read the commentary on Genesis 42

Cross-references

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

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 35:19

So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

Genesis 42:38

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.”

Genesis 3:22

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”

Genesis 11:4

“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

Genesis 33:1

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants.

Genesis 33:2

He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.

Genesis 43:14

May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother along with Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

Genesis 43:29

When Joseph looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” Then he declared, “May God be gracious to you, my son.”

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 44:21

Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so that I can see him for myself.’

Genesis 44:22

So we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he were to leave, his father would die.’

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.”

Open in Berean Blue