Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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4 If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee
food:
5 but if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down: for the man said
unto us, ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you.
6 And Israel said, wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man
whether ye had yet a brother?
7 And they said, the man asked us straitly of our state, and of our
kindred, saying, is your father yet alive? Have ye another brother? And we told him according to the tenor of these words: Could we certainly know that he would say, bring your brother down?
8 And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we
will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones.
9 I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I
bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever:
10 for except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second
time.
11 And their father Israel said unto them, if it must be so now, do this;
take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds:
Jacob's persuasibleness. He would be ruled by reason, though they were his inferiors that urged it. He saw the necessity of the case; and, since there was no remedy, he consented to yield to the necessity (Ge 43:11): "If it must be so now, take your brother. If no corn can be had but upon those terms, we may as well expose him to the perils of the journey as suffer ourselves and families, and Benjamin amongst the rest, to perish for want of bread." Skin for skin, and all that a man has, even a Benjamin, the dearest of all, will he give for his life. No death so dreadful as that by famine, La 4:9. Jacob had said (Ge 42:38), My son shall not go down; but now he is over-persuaded to consent. Note, It is no fault, but our wisdom and duty, to alter our purposes and resolutions when there is a good reason for our so doing. Constancy is a virtue, but obstinacy is not. It is God's prerogative not to repent, and to make unchangeable resolves.