Bible Strands
Genesis 43:28
“Your servant our father is well,” they answered. “He is still alive.” And they bowed down to honor him.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The brothers answer Joseph’s inquiry about their elderly father, reporting his condition and bowing to show him honor.
The words — The Hebrew שָׁלֹם (shalom) for health and חַי (chai) for alive directly frame the brothers’ report of Jacob’s continued vitality.
The thread — The brothers’ report of paternal survival and their bowing mirror their earlier submission to Joseph in Genesis 43:26 and the bowing motifs of sheaves and celestial bodies in Genesis 37:7 and Genesis 37:9.
Why it lands — The text records the physical preservation of the patriarch line during famine, requiring readers to track how familial survival establishes the ground for subsequent divine reconciliation.
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
And they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance.
Cross-references
- Genesis 37:7 We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.”
- Genesis 43:26 When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought, and they bowed to the ground before him.
- Genesis 37:9 Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
- Exodus 18:7 So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and went into the tent.
- 2 Samuel 1:2 On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head arrived from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him homage.
- 2 Samuel 14:4 When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell facedown in homage and said, “Help me, O king!”
- 1 Kings 1:16 And Bathsheba bowed down in homage to the king, who asked, “What is your desire?”
- 2 Chronicles 24:17 After the death of Jehoiada, however, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them.