What does Genesis 42:30 mean?
Jacob's sons begin to tell him about their troubling experience in Egypt. They had been sent there by Jacob together to buy grain in this season of famine (Genesis 42:1–5). Now they recount that the governor of the nation roughly accused them of being spies (Genesis 42:7–12). They don't know, yet, that the Egyptian leader was their long-lost brother Joseph (Genesis 42:7–8).Joseph was the one his ten older brothers jealously sold as a slave some twenty years earlier (Genesis 37:28). In that incident, the men lied to their father by saying Joseph was dead (Genesis 37:31–33). Jacob's reaction was catastrophic (Genesis 37:34–35). Now, they are forced to report the loss of another brother (Genesis 42:18–19, 24), and the potential loss of a third.