Bible Strands
Genesis 43:6
“Why did you bring this trouble upon me?” Israel asked. “Why did you tell the man you had another brother?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Israel addresses his sons at the threshold of a second journey to Egypt, immediately after they report the Egyptian official’s demand that Benjamin accompany them.
The words — The Hebrew הֲרֵעֹתֶ֖ם (ha.re.'o.Tem) translates literally as “did you do harm,” and לְ/הַגִּ֣יד (le./ha.Gid) means “by telling.”
The thread — The verse traces the causal link between spoken disclosure and subsequent hardship, a pattern that recurs when private family details become public leverage in Genesis 42:38 and Exodus 5:21.
Why it lands — It forces the reader to weigh the cost of unguarded speech against the practical necessity of family preservation.
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 Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother?