Genesis 27:45

27:45 Stay there¹ until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I’ll send someone to bring you back from there.² Why should I lose both of you in one day?”³

Genesis 36:6

36:6 Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, all the people in his household, his livestock, his animals, and all his possessions which he had acquired in the land of Canaan and went to a land some distance away from⁴ Jacob his brother

Genesis 42:16

42:16 One of you must go and get⁵ your brother, while⁶ the rest of you remain in prison.⁷ In this way your words may be tested to see if⁸ you are telling the truth.⁹ If not, then, as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!”

Genesis 42:21

42:21 They said to one other,¹⁰ “Surely we’re being punished¹¹ because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was¹² when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress¹³ has come on us!”

Genesis 42:38

42:38 But Jacob¹⁴ replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left.¹⁵ If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair¹⁶ in sorrow to the grave.”¹⁷

Genesis 44:20

44:20 We said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young boy who was born when our father was old.¹⁸ The boy’s¹⁹ brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left,²⁰ and his father loves him.’

Genesis 48:19

48:19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude²¹ of nations.”

¹tn The words “stay there” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

²tn Heb “and I will send and I will take you from there.” The verb “send” has no object in the Hebrew text; one must be supplied in the translation. Either “someone” or “a message” could be supplied, but since in those times a message would require a messenger, “someone” has been used.

³tn If Jacob stayed, he would be killed and Esau would be forced to run away.

⁴tn Heb “from before.”

⁵tn Heb “send from you one and let him take.” After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose.

⁶tn The disjunctive clause is here circumstantial-temporal.

⁷tn Heb “bound.”

⁸tn The words “to see” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁹tn Heb “the truth [is] with you.”

¹⁰tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.”

¹¹tn Or “we are guilty”; the Hebrew word can also refer to the effect of being guilty, i.e., “we are being punished for guilt.”

¹²tn Heb “the distress of his soul.”

¹³sn 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.

¹⁴tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵sn The expression he alone is left meant that (so far as Jacob knew) Benjamin was the only surviving child of his mother Rachel.

¹⁶sn The expression bring down my gray hair is figurative, using a part for the whole – they would put Jacob in the grave. But the gray head signifies a long life of worry and trouble.

¹⁷tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.

¹⁸tn Heb “and a small boy of old age,” meaning that he was born when his father was elderly.

¹⁹tn Heb “his”; the referent (the boy just mentioned) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁰tn Heb “he, only he, to his mother is left.”

²¹tn Heb “fullness.”