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In Genesis 42, Jacob blames his sons for his losses while Reuben rashly offers his own two sons as a pledge. Jubilees keeps the lament but removes Reuben’s offer, smoothing over a detail that made an ancestor of Israel look foolish.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 42:36
Hebrew Bible
35 When they were emptying their sacks, there was each man’s bag of money in his sack! When they and their father saw the bags of money, they were afraid. 36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You are making me childless! Joseph is gone. Simeon is gone. And now you want to take Benjamin! Everything is against me.” 37 Then Reuben said to his father, “You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care and I will bring him back to you.” 38 But Jacob replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair in sorrow to the grave.”
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Jubilees 42:10
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
9 And they went up from the land of Egypt and they came to the land of Canaan; and they told their father all that had happened to them, and how the ruler of the country had spoken roughly to them, and had seized Simeon until they should bring Benjamin. 10 And Jacob said: 'You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is gone and Simeon is gone too, and you will take Benjamin away. On me has your wickedness come. 11 'And he said: 'My son will not go down with you for fear that he might fall sick; for their mother gave birth to two sons, and one has perished, and this one also you will take from me. If perhaps he developed a fever on the road, you would bring down my old age with sorrow to death.'
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... 10-12 The author of Jubilees changes his procedure when dealing with Jacob's response to the disturbing account his nine sons gave. Here he adheres much more closely to the text of Genesis (42:35-38) than he did in describing the journey, although he makes some significant alterations in it. In Genesis 42:35 all the brothers, upon opening their sacks, find their money refunded. “When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were dismayed.” In the rewriting, Jubilees moves this item to the end of the section—verse 12—and merely notes here that Jacob saw their money had been returned. ...
James C. VanderKam, Jubilees 2: A Commentary on the Book of Jubilees Chapters 22-50 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2018), 1064.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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