Discovery BoxGenesis 42:21-24 
Context42:21 They said to one other, 1 “Surely we’re being punished 2 because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was 3 when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress 4 has come on us!” 42:22 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!” 5 42:23 (Now 6 they did not know that Joseph could understand them, 7 for he was speaking through an interpreter.) 8 42:24 He turned away from them and wept. When he turned around and spoke to them again, 9 he had Simeon taken 10 from them and tied up 11 before their eyes.
1 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.”
2 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.”
3 tn Heb “the distress of his soul.”
4 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.
5 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.
6 tn The disjunctive clause provides supplemental information that is important to the story.
7 tn “was listening.” The brothers were not aware that Joseph could understand them as they spoke the preceding words in their native language.
8 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.
9 tn Heb “and he turned to them and spoke to them.”
10 tn Heb “took Simeon.” This was probably done at Joseph’s command, however; the grand vizier of Egypt would not have personally seized a prisoner.
11 tn Heb “and he bound him.” See the note on the preceding verb “taken.”
