Discovery BoxGenesis 42:15-20 
Context42:15 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. 42:16 One of you must go and get 2 your brother, while 3 the rest of you remain in prison. 4 In this way your words may be tested to see if 5 you are telling the truth. 6 If not, then, as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!” 42:17 He imprisoned 7 them all for three days. 42:18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do as I say 8 and you will live, 9 for I fear God. 10 42:19 If you are honest men, leave one of your brothers confined here in prison 11 while the rest of you go 12 and take grain back for your hungry families. 13 42:20 But you must bring 14 your youngest brother to me. Then 15 your words will be verified 16 and you will not die.” They did as he said. 17
1 tn 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.
2 tn Heb “send from you one and let him take.” After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose.
3 tn The disjunctive clause is here circumstantial-temporal.
4 tn Heb “bound.”
5 tn The words “to see” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
6 tn Heb “the truth [is] with you.”
7 sn The same Hebrew word is used for Joseph’s imprisonment in 40:3, 4, 7. There is some mirroring going on in the narrative. The Hebrew word used here (אָסַף, ’asaf, “to gather”) is not normally used in a context like this (for placing someone in prison), but it forms a wordplay on the name Joseph (יוֹסֵף, yosoef) and keeps the comparison working.
8 tn Heb “Do this.”
9 tn After the preceding imperative, the imperative with vav (ו) can, as here, indicate logical sequence.
10 sn For I fear God. Joseph brings God into the picture to awaken his brothers’ consciences. The godly person cares about the welfare of people, whether they live or die. So he will send grain back, but keep one of them in Egypt. This action contrasts with their crime of selling their brother into slavery.
11 tn Heb “bound in the house of your prison.”
12 tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-temporal.
13 tn Heb “[for] the hunger of your households.”
14 tn The imperfect here has an injunctive force.
15 tn After the injunctive imperfect, this imperfect with vav indicates purpose or result.
16 tn 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.
17 tn Heb “and they did so.”
