Bible Strands
Genesis 44:34
For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm him.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Judah speaks to the Egyptian ruler after the silver cup is found in Benjamin’s sack, offering to remain in the boy’s place.
The words — אֵיךְ ('eiKh) means "how?" and אֶֽעֱלֶ֣ה ('e.'e.Leh) means "will I go up," forming the rhetorical core of the question about returning to his father.
The thread — The phrase "For how could I bear to see" mirrors the structure in Esther 8:6 regarding national disaster, while Exodus 18:8 and 1 Samuel 2:33 are cross-referenced for their accounts of divine deliverance and priestly judgment.
Why it lands — The verse states a willingness to substitute oneself to prevent a father’s ruin, demanding the reader confront the tangible cost of protection and the reality of impending loss.
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
For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father.
Cross-references
- Esther 8:6 For how could I bear to see the disaster that would befall my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”
- Exodus 18:8 Then Moses recounted to his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships they had encountered along the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.
- 1 Samuel 2:33 And every one of you that I do not cut off from My altar, I will cause your eyes to fail and your heart to grieve. All your descendants will die by the sword of men.
- 2 Chronicles 34:28 ‘Now I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place and on its people.’” So they brought her answer back to the king.
- Job 31:29 If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—
- Psalms 116:3 The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.
- Psalms 119:143 Trouble and distress have found me, but Your commandments are my delight.
- Jeremiah 52:10 There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the officials of Judah.