If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison-house; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
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The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
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If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison-house; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
If you honest, let one of your brothers be bound in your prison house, and you go take grain back the famine of your households.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison-house; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
If you are honest, leave one of your brothers in custody while the rest of you go and take back grain to relieve the hunger of your households.
If you are honest, leave one of your brothers in custody while the rest of you go and take back grain to relieve the hunger of your households.
If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
if ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in your prison-house; but go ye, carry grain for the famine of your houses:
if ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in your prison house; but go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bounde in your prison house, and goe ye, carie foode for the famine of your houses:
If you be peaceable men, let one of your brethren be bound in prison: and go ye your ways and carry the corn that you have bought, unto your houses.
if ye `are' right men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your ward, and ye, go, carry in corn `for' the famine of your houses,
If you [are] right men, let one of your brothers be bound in the house of your confinement, and you, go, carry in grain [for] the famine of your houses,
If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in this prison, but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
If you honest, let one of your brothers be bound in your prison house, and you go take grain back the famine of your households.
If ye are honest, let one of your brethren remain bound in the house of your prison, but go ye, carry grain for the hunger of your households;
If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
If ye are true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
If you're truly honest, choose one of your brothers to stay here in prison. The rest of you can go back home with grain for your hungry families.
If you are true men, let one of you be kept in prison, while you go and take grain for the needs of your families;
if ye be upright men, let one of your brethren be bound in your prison-house; but go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses;
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
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These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is רַעֲב֥וֹן hunger H7459 — appearing just 3 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
First appearance in Scripture
This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:
Shared distinctive vocabulary
רַעֲב֥וֹן hunger H7459 occurs in 3 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 27 words from the Hebrew and 24 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
In the original languages it is 14 Hebrew tokens and 20 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.
Topical passages linked to Genesis 42:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
אִם כֵּנִ֣ים אַתֶּ֔ם אֲחִיכֶ֣ם אֶחָ֔ד יֵאָסֵ֖ר בְּבֵ֣ית מִשְׁמַרְכֶ֑ם וְאַתֶּם֙ לְכ֣וּ הָבִ֔יאוּ שֶׁ֖בֶר רַעֲב֥וֹן בָּתֵּיכֶֽם
If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison-house; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
World English Bible · Public Domain
εἰ εἰρηνικός εἰμί ἀδελφός σύ εἷς καταἔχω ἐν ὁ φυλακή αὐτός δέ βαδίζω καί ἀποἄγω ὁ ἀγορασμός ὁ σιτοδοσία σύ
If you⌃ be peaceful, let one of your brethren be detained in prison; but go you⌃, and carry back the corn you⌃ have purchased.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
אִם כֵּיוָנֵי אַתּוּן אֲחוּכוֹן חַד יִתְאַסַּר בְּבֵית מַטַּרְתְּכוֹן וְאַתּוּן אִיזִילוּ אוֹבִילוּ עִיבוּרָא דְּחַסִּיר בְּבָתֵּיכוֹן
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
אִם מְהֵמְנִין אַתּוּן אֲחוּכוֹן חַד יִתְאַסַר בְּבֵית מַטְרַתְכוֹן וְאַתּוּן אִיזִילוּ אוֹבִילוּ עִיבּוּרָא דִזְבַּנְתּוּן לִכְפֵינֵי בָתֵּיכוֹן
If you are true, let one of your brothers be bound in the house of your confinement and go you, carry the corn, that you may buy for the hunger of your house,
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 14 words (12 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is rᵉʻâbôwn (“hunger”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on Genesis 42:19 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
Trapp's Complete Commentary
John Trapp
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator
Joseph S. Exell
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Rashi
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)
Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.
Radak
Rabbi David Kimhi (Radak)
Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.