What Does Genesis 42:38 Mean in the King James?
And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
One Hebrew verb makes Benjamin’s journey downward and Jacob’s feared descent into grief the same movement.
THE MEANING
The verse shows a mind meeting danger before it arrives: Benjamin is already imagined as lost, and the father’s gray hair is already descending toward the grave in grief. The repeated verb “go down / bring down” binds the road and the feared sorrow into one downward movement.
THE ROOT
יֵרֵד
yēred
GROWS FROM
יָרַד
yārad
to descend, go down; in a causative form, to bring down
“go down” in this verse is yēred. English makes the first descent a journey and the second an image of grief. Hebrew repeats יָרַד (yārad, “descend”): first the son goes down with his brothers, then they would bring the father’s gray hair down to the grave. The shared root binds physical travel and feared grief into one sentence.
ALSO GROWS
yēred: A form of יָרַד (yārad), “to descend.”
יֵרֵד
This names the son’s proposed journey with his brothers.
vehoraḏtem: A causative form of יָרַד (yārad): “you will cause to descend.”
וְהוֹרַדְתֶּם
The same root makes the brothers the agents of the father’s feared descent into grief.
THE PATTERN
The fear of a possible loss can make tomorrow’s grief feel already present.
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.THE THREAD
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.The same Hebrew root יָרַד (yārad, “descend”) names the descent into the grave in grief for a son. Here that root links the son’s road downward with the father’s feared descent, so the language of loss echoes across both verses.
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