Bible Strands
Genesis 42:4
But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, “I am afraid that harm might befall him.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jacob acts during his sons’ departure for Egypt, withholding his youngest son Benjamin from the grain-buying expedition.
The words — שָׁלַח (sha.Lach) = he sent and לֹא (lo') = not form the core syntactic structure, explicitly marking Jacob’s refusal to dispatch Benjamin.
The thread — The narrative pattern repeats in Genesis 42:38, where Jacob again bars Benjamin from traveling to Egypt due to fear of harm. The immediate context in Genesis 42:3 and Genesis 42:5 establishes the famine-driven migration that prompted this decision.
Why it lands — The text records a father’s protective calculation overriding familial duty, requiring the reader to observe how fear operates as a practical constraint in crisis narratives.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure mischief befall him.
Cross-references
- Genesis 42:38 But Jacob replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If any harm comes to him on your journey, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”
- Genesis 3:22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”
- Genesis 11:4 “Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”
- Genesis 33:1 Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants.
- Genesis 35:16 Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.
- Genesis 43:14 May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother along with Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”
- Genesis 43:29 When Joseph looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” Then he declared, “May God be gracious to you, my son.”
- Genesis 44:20 And we answered, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
- Genesis 44:27 And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.