Genesis 43:14

My Notes

What Does Genesis 43:14 Mean?

Genesis 43:14 captures Jacob at his most vulnerable — an old man releasing the last thing he has left, with a sentence that is either the highest faith or the deepest resignation. Possibly both.

"And God Almighty give you mercy before the man" — the Hebrew ve'El Shaddai yitten lakhem rachamim liphney ha'ish (and God Almighty give you compassion before the man) is a prayer. El Shaddai — the name God used when establishing the covenant with Abraham (17:1) and confirming it with Jacob (35:11). Jacob invokes the covenant name, appealing to God's character as the all-sufficient one. The "man" is Joseph — still unrecognized by his brothers, ruling Egypt as Pharaoh's right hand. Jacob prays that God will soften this powerful stranger's heart.

"That he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin" — the Hebrew 'achikhem 'acher ve'et-Binyamin (your other brother and Benjamin). The "other brother" is Simeon, held hostage in Egypt (42:24). Benjamin is the youngest, Rachel's only surviving son in Jacob's mind (he believes Joseph is dead). Jacob is sending Benjamin into the same danger that apparently swallowed Joseph. Every instinct is screaming no.

"If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved" — the Hebrew ka'asher shakholti shakhalti (as I have been bereaved, I am bereaved). The marginal note captures the alternate: "And I, as I have been, etc." The sentence has been read as either despair ("if I lose everything, I lose everything — there's nothing I can do") or as surrender ("I release this into God's hands — what will be, will be"). The ambiguity may be the point. Jacob has reached the place where despair and surrender sound the same — where you've held on to everything you can and the last thing has to leave your hands.

The sentence is the sound of a man letting go. Whether it's faith or exhaustion or both — Jacob opens his hands. And the son he releases into danger is walking toward the brother he mourned for twenty years.

Reflection Questions

• 1.'If I be bereaved, I am bereaved.' Is this despair or surrender — and does the distinction matter when you've exhausted every other option?
• 2.Jacob prays to El Shaddai — the covenant name — before releasing Benjamin. How does anchoring your surrender in God's covenant character make it possible to let go?
• 3.Jacob spent his whole life holding on. What are you gripping so tightly that God may be asking you to release — and what makes that release feel like death?
• 4.The son Jacob releases into danger is walking toward a reunion he can't imagine. When has letting go of something precious led to a restoration you never expected?

Devotional

"If I be bereaved, I am bereaved."

Seven words that sound like a man who's given up. Or a man who's finally given in. And the difference between those two things might be invisible from the outside.

Jacob has lost Joseph (or thinks he has). Simeon is being held hostage in Egypt. And now the Egyptian lord demands Benjamin — the last son of Rachel, the last piece of the life Jacob built with the woman he loved most. Sending Benjamin means risking everything. Not sending Benjamin means losing Simeon and watching the family starve.

There's no good option. There's no safe move. Every path forward involves letting go of something precious — and Jacob has been holding on his entire life. The grabber. The clutcher. The man who held Esau's heel at birth, who gripped the birthright and the blessing, who wrestled God until his hip broke. Holding on is the only thing Jacob knows how to do.

And now he can't hold on anymore. The famine is too severe. The situation is too dire. Benjamin has to go. And Jacob says the words of a man whose hands have finally opened: if I lose them, I lose them.

Is that faith? Is that despair? It might be the place where they're indistinguishable — the moment when you've exhausted every strategy, every contingency, every scheme your clever mind could produce, and you're left with nothing but the prayer ("God Almighty give you mercy") and the release ("if I am bereaved, I am bereaved").

Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is let go of the last thing you're gripping. Not because you're confident about the outcome. Because you have no other option. And sometimes that forced surrender — the letting go that comes from having nothing left to hold — is the posture God has been waiting for all along.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture