Genesis 42:15

42:15 You will be tested in this way: As surely as Pharaoh lives,¹ you will not depart from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.

Genesis 42:20

42:20 But you must bring² your youngest brother to me. Then³ your words will be verified⁴ and you will not die.” They did as he said.⁵

Genesis 43:33

43:33 They sat before him, arranged by order of birth, beginning with the firstborn and ending with the youngest.⁶ The men looked at each other in astonishment.⁷

Genesis 44:12

44:12 Then the man⁸ searched. He began with the oldest and finished with the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack!

Genesis 44:23

44:23 But you said to your servants, ‘If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.’

¹tn Heb “[By] the life of Pharaoh.”

sn As surely as Pharaoh lives. Joseph uses an oath formula to let the brothers know the certainty of what he said. There is some discussion in the commentaries on swearing by the life of Pharaoh, but since the formulation here reflects the Hebrew practice, it would be hard to connect the ideas exactly to Egyptian practices. Joseph did this to make the point in a way that his Hebrew brothers would understand. See M. R. Lehmann, “Biblical Oaths,” ZAW 81 (1969): 74-92.

²tn The imperfect here has an injunctive force.

³tn After the injunctive imperfect, this imperfect with vav indicates purpose or result.

⁴tn The Niphal form of the verb has the sense of “to be faithful; to be sure; to be reliable.” Joseph will test his brothers to see if their words are true.

⁵tn Heb “and they did so.”

⁶tn Heb “the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth.”

⁷sn The brothers’ astonishment indicates that Joseph arranged them in this way. They were astonished because there was no way, as far as they were concerned, that Joseph could have known the order of their birth.

⁸tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the man who was in charge of Joseph’s household) has been specified in the translation for clarity.