Discovery BoxGenesis 44:27-31 
Context44:27 “Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave me two sons. 1 44:28 The first disappeared 2 and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” I have not seen him since. 44:29 If you take 3 this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair 4 in tragedy 5 to the grave.’ 6
44:30 “So now, when I return to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us – his very life is bound up in his son’s life. 7 44:31 When he sees the boy is not with us, 8 he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father in sorrow to the grave.
1 tn Heb “that two sons my wife bore to me.”
2 tn Heb “went forth from me.”
3 tn The construction uses a perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive to introduce the conditional clause and then another perfect verbal form with a vav consecutive to complete the sentence: “if you take…then you will bring down.”
4 sn 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. See Gen 42:38.
5 tn Heb “evil/calamity.” The term is different than the one used in the otherwise identical statement recorded in v. 31 (see also 42:38).
6 tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.
7 tn Heb “his life is bound up in his life.”
8 tn Heb “when he sees that there is no boy.”
