Genesis 43:20

20 “We beg your pardon, our lord,” they said, “we came down here the first time to buy food.

Genesis 43:20 in Other Translations

20 And said, O sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food:

20 and said, "Oh, my lord, we came down the first time to buy food.

20 “Sir,” they said, “we came to Egypt once before to buy food.

20 They said, "Listen, master. We came down here one other time to buy food.

20 and said, Oh, my lord, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food:

20 "Please, sir," they said, "we came here to buy food once before.

20 They said, "Sir, we really did come down here the first time only to buy food.

20 "Please, sir," they said. "We came down here the first time to buy food.

Genesis 43:20 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 43:20

And said, O sir
Or, "on me, my lord" ^F1, one said in the name of the rest, perhaps Judah, on me let the blame lie, if guilty of rudeness in making our address to thee; or as the Vulgate Latin version, "we pray, sir, that thou wouldest hear us"; and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra say the phrase is expressive of beseeching, entreating, and supplicating: we came indeed down at the first time to buy food;
not to spy the land but to buy corn, and not to get it by fraud or tricking but by paying for it the price that was required.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (ynda yb) "in me Domine mi", Montanus.

Genesis 43:20 In-Context

18 Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, “We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.”

19 So they went up to Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house.

20 “We beg your pardon, our lord,” they said, “we came down here the first time to buy food.

21 But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us.

22 We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our sacks.”

Cross References

• 1. S Genesis 42:3