Genesis 42:21

Plain English Version

Then Joseph’s brothers talked to each other in their own language. They said, “You know, a long time ago, we made bad trouble for our brother Joseph. We chucked him into a big hole in the ground, and then we sold him to some men from the Midian tribe. At that time, we saw that he was really frightened, and he asked us strongly to be good to him, but we didn’t listen. That’s the reason why we’ve got this bad trouble now. God is punishing us for those things that we did to Joseph.”

Cross References

Genesis 41:9

Pharaoh’s wine-boss was there, and he remembered that time when he had a dream in the jail, and he remembered that Joseph told him what his dream meant. So that wine-boss said to Pharaoh, “Sir, now I remember a time that I did the wrong thing.

Genesis 44:16

Judah said to Joseph, “Sir, we don’t know what to say to you. We really don’t know what to say. We didn’t steal your cup. That’s the true story, but we don’t have any way to show you that it’s true.” Then Judah said to Joseph, “Sir, a long time ago, we did bad things, and God knows that. Now God is showing you that we are guilty men. So listen, we will all become your work-men. Yes, that man that had your cup in his bag, he will become your work-man, and the rest of us mob, we will become your work-men too. And we will work for you for no pay.”

Genesis 45:3

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am your brother Joseph. You said that my father is still alive. Is that true?” Joseph’s brothers got a big shock. You see, before this, they thought that he was one of the Egypt people, but now they knew that he was their brother Joseph. They were really shocked and frightened, so they didn’t say anything.

Genesis 50:15

After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers started to worry, and they said to each other, “When our father was alive, Joseph was good to us. But maybe Joseph is still angry about all those bad things that we did to him. Now our father is dead, maybe Joseph will do payback to us.”

2 Samuel 12:13

David said to Nathan, “I’m sorry. I did wrong things. I did not listen to God.” Nathan said, “Yes, that’s true. But he will not do payback to you. He will let it go, he will not kill you dead.

Matthew 7:2

God will judge you the same way as you judge other people. If you are easy on other people, God will be easy on you. But if you are hard on other people, God will be hard on you.

Mark 9:48

Hell is a really bad place and people that go there will have bad pain all the time. It will be like maggots are eating them all the time, and like a fire is burning them all the time. Their pain will never stop.”

Luke 16:28

I’ve got 5 brothers there. Get Lazarus to tell them about this bad place, so they will stop doing bad things. If they turn around and live God’s way, they will not end up in this bad place.’

Acts 19:18

At that time, some of the Christians in Ephesus were still doing bad things, and some of them used to sing people and curse people. They had a lot of books that showed them how to do that bad magic. Those Christians heard about those 7 men, and then they said that they were sorry for the bad things that they were doing, and they gathered up all of those books about magic, and they burned them. Everybody saw them burn those books. Those books about magic cost a lot of money. They reckoned all of those books together cost about 5 million dollars.

James 2:13

Later on, God will judge you. And if you don’t feel sorry for other people now, then God will not feel sorry for you. But if you feel sorry for them now, and if you are good to them, God will feel sorry for you later on, when he judges you, and he will be good to you. You see, people that are sorry for other people don’t have to worry about God judging them.