“And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.”
My Notes
What Does Genesis 42:7 Mean?
"And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food." Joseph RECOGNIZES his brothers — but they don't recognize HIM. The recognition is ONE-DIRECTIONAL: Joseph knows who they are. They have no idea who he is. And Joseph CHOOSES to conceal his identity: he makes himself STRANGE (unknown, foreign) and speaks ROUGHLY (harshly, severely). The disguise is deliberate. The harshness is strategic. The concealment serves a purpose that will unfold over the next several chapters.
The phrase "he knew them, but made himself strange" (vayyakkirem vayyitnakker alehem — he recognized them but made himself unrecognizable to them) contains a WORDPLAY: the root nakkar means both 'to recognize' AND 'to make unrecognizable.' Joseph does BOTH simultaneously — he recognizes (vayyakkirem) and makes himself unrecognizable (vayyitnakker). The same root. Opposite actions. The knowing and the hiding happen in the same person at the same moment.
The "spake roughly unto them" (vayedabber ittam qashot — he spoke with them hard things) describes STRATEGIC HARSHNESS: Joseph doesn't speak roughly because he's ANGRY. He speaks roughly because he's TESTING. The roughness is the TEST — will they tell the truth? Will they mention the missing brother? Will they reveal whether they've changed since they sold him? The harshness is the diagnostic tool. The severity is the examination method.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What 'Joseph' — what person who knows you — might be hidden in an unexpected context?
- 2.What does the WORDPLAY (recognizing AND making unrecognizable) teach about simultaneous knowing and hiding?
- 3.How does strategic roughness (testing, not punishing) describe God's method of revealing character?
- 4.What context-change has made someone unrecognizable to you — and are they watching you?
Devotional
Joseph saw them. Knew them. And hid himself. He made himself STRANGE — foreign, unrecognizable. He spoke ROUGHLY — harshly, severely. The brothers who SOLD him don't RECOGNIZE the man they stand before. The recognition is one-directional. The concealment is strategic. The roughness is the test.
The 'he knew them, but made himself strange' is the WORDPLAY that defines the encounter: the same Hebrew root (nakkar) means both 'recognize' and 'make unrecognizable.' Joseph does BOTH: he recognizes his brothers AND makes himself unrecognizable to them. The knowing is real. The hiding is chosen. The recognition and the concealment coexist in the same person.
The 'spake roughly' is STRATEGIC, not emotional: Joseph isn't vengefully harsh. He's TESTING — probing to see if the brothers have changed since they sold him twenty years ago. Will they mention Joseph? Will they protect Benjamin? Will they sacrifice one brother for the others (as they did before)? The roughness creates the PRESSURE that reveals the character. The harshness is the examination, not the punishment.
The brothers don't recognize Joseph because the CONTEXT has changed: the seventeen-year-old Hebrew boy they sold is now the thirty-seven-year-old EGYPTIAN RULER. The language is different. The clothing is different. The authority is different. The SETTING prevents the recognition. You don't expect to find your brother running Egypt. The context blinds the perception.
What 'Joseph' in your life is hidden in a context you don't expect — and might the stranger you're speaking to know MORE about you than you know about them?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. It being about twenty two years since they saw him, and then he was…
- Joseph and Ten of His Brethren 1. שׁבר sheber, “fragment, crumb, hence, grain.” בר bar “pure,” “winnowed,” hence,…
We may well wonder that Joseph, during the twenty years that he had now been in Egypt, especially during the last seven…
knew them Joseph at once recognized his brethren. They did not recognize him. From a boy he had become a man; they were…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture