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Genesis 42:21-23
New English Translation
Genesis 42:21-23
New English Translation
21 They said to one another,[a] “Surely we’re being punished[b] because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was[c] when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress[d] has come on us!” 22 Reuben said to them, “Didn’t I say to you, ‘Don’t sin against the boy,’ but you wouldn’t listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!”[e] 23 (Now[f] they did not know that Joseph could understand them,[g] for he was speaking through an interpreter.)[h]
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- Genesis 42:21 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.”
- Genesis 42:21 tn Or “we are guilty”; the Hebrew word can also refer to the effect of being guilty, i.e., “we are being punished for guilt.”
- Genesis 42:21 tn Heb “the distress of his soul.”
- Genesis 42:21 sn The repetition of the Hebrew noun translated distress draws attention to the fact that they regard their present distress as appropriate punishment for their refusal to ignore their brother when he was in distress.
- Genesis 42:22 tn Heb “and also his blood, look, it is required.” God requires compensation, as it were, from those who shed innocent blood (see Gen 9:6). In other words, God exacts punishment for the crime of murder.
- Genesis 42:23 tn The disjunctive clause provides supplemental information that is important to the story.
- Genesis 42:23 tn “was listening.” The brothers were not aware that Joseph could understand them as they spoke the preceding words in their native language.
- Genesis 42:23 tn Heb “for [there was] an interpreter between them.” On the meaning of the word here translated “interpreter” see HALOT 590 s.v. מֵלִיץ and M. A. Canney, “The Hebrew melis (Prov IX 12; Gen XLII 2-3),” AJSL 40 (1923/24): 135-37.
New English Translation (NET)
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